Deepening visual literacy through the use of metacognitive reading instruction strategies

Abstract

Art education develops literacy through the ‘reading’ of visual texts. This entails the exploration of images, how they were produced and the experience of those who view and interpret them. Multi-literacies such as the skills, knowledge and the ability to interpret varying texts and artefacts and the negotiating of meaning generated by texts develops in the process. Social semiotics explores the potential of art to develop literacy practices in which thinking through sign systems is necessary to read and produce a semiotic system or text. Learning through sign systems enables students to perceive their world in new ways, solve problems, read and write, and create interesting texts. Visual literacy studies prove to be a problem for many students. Undergraduates often find it difficult to read and interpret visual information and produce an art appreciation and analysis assignment on that information. Many education students find it difficult to analyse the art elements and visual symbols. The use of metacognitive reading strategies deepens the experience and improves the visual literacy of B.Ed. students, enabling them to present assignments of a higher quality. This achievement can positively affect their entire academic performance due to the intensification of the learning process and acuity of perception.