About the Book
Xenia Danos' book contributes to the creation of a platform for education in the area of graphicacy and refocusing on visual learning. The foundation for the book is Xenia's literature review concerning the development of graphicacy in humans. Despite exploring over 2000 references, the prior research was limited in scope, but raised many potentially interesting points of departure. Ken Baynes puts this literature review in context with an opening essay on the significance of the visual in Western culture. He explores the role of graphicacy in cultural change, its role in establishing continuities, and particularly its significance for shaping the future through modelling and design. After discussing graphicacy in education, its development and progression, and relationship to students' learning, Xenia presents a new taxonomy that she designed primarily to facilitate the analysis of graphicacy across educational curricula, although it has wider application. Graphicacy is vital to an extraordinary range of human activities ranging from design to archaeology. It is a key medium for communicating ideas, information and proposals in everyday life.
A feature of Xenia's book is a number of case studies demonstrating current graphic practice in professions as diverse as dentistry, psychotherapy and engineering. Taken together they serve to substantiate her argument for the use of graphic media as a means of learning and expression in education. The book's purpose is to get graphicacy on the educational agenda and it makes a powerful case. The book also provides a framework for more specialist forthcoming LDP titles that take the connection between graphicacy and design into related areas of practice and education.
Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION: GRAPHICACY AND VISUAL CULTURE (Ken Baynes) ... Graphicacy and cultural change, Continuities and change, Group graphics: them and us, The graphics of horror, Shaping the future: graphicacy and design, In conclusion. CHAPTER ONE: GRAPHICACY AND EDUCATION ... Introduction, What is graphicacy?, The international emergence of graphicacy, Typologies of graphicacy, Fry's taxonomy of graphs, Graphicacy within educational curricula, Graphicacy across the curriculum, Graphic representations of quantitative information, Computer aided images, Text based vs. text and image based information, Visual aids: advantages, Visual aids: disadvantages, Graphicacy in relation to literacy, Multiple intelligences and visual literacy, Chapter summary. CHAPTER TWO: PROGRESSION AND DEVELOPMENT OF GRAPHICACY, Introduction, Development of graphicacy in children, Key authors, Children's drawing abilities by age group, Skills and abilities related to developmental stages, Piaget's theory of cognitive development in young children, Other perspectives, Drawing and mark-making, Children's responses to images, Nature Vs nurture, Nature, Nurture, Enhancing graphicacy capability, Analysis of advertising texts, Map related exercises, Atlas map work, Maps and symbolic representations, Gender differences, Chapter summary. CHAPTER THREE: GRAPHICACY AND STUDENTS' LEARNING ... Introduction, Skills required when dealing with graphicacy elements, Children's art as a mental test, Graphicacy tests developed in educational contexts, UK Associated Examining Board graphicacy test, Wilmot's graphicacy tests, Map-work related tests, Perceptual reasoning, Chapter summary. CHAPTER FOUR: THE AFTERMATH ...Introduction, Literature review outcomes, Summary of results, A research tool defining graphicacy in the curriculum, Validating the taxonomy, Chapter summary. CHAPTER FIVE: CASE STUDIES ... Design: Draigo learning clock(Adrian Draigo), Education: The visual challenges of teaching introductory university-level muscle physiology 1. Structure of a vertebrate skeletal muscle & The organizational hierarchy of functional morphology (Nicole Danos) 2. Thermodynamics (Nancy Aguilar-Roca), Dentistry: The application of images and pictures in dentistry (Anna-Maria Yiannikou, Education: Externalization of visual mental images through the medium of sketching (Diarmaid Lane, Niall Seery and Seamus Gordon), Medicine: the subconscious and conscious mind (Nikos Danos), Education: Drawing to learn: focus on the built environment (Eileen Adams, Psychotherapy: 'Memory Island' & Shadow Tableaux 1. 'Memory Island' - a virtual world populated by drawings 2. Shadow tableaux in nature reserves (Jennie Pedley), FINAL WORD, REFERENCES, ABOUT THE AUTHOR
About the Author :
Xenia Danos' academic career started with a BA followed by a PGCE in Design & Technology for Secondary Education at Middlesex University. After teaching KS3, GCSE, and A-level Design & Technology for 3 years in a UK school, she completed a PhD on Graphicacy at Loughborough University. She then moved to Cyprus where she worked in the Department of Education at the University of Cyprus for 21/2 years. In collaboration with the head of the department, she ran the PGCE Design and Technology course for preschool and primary school teacher trainees. She supervised the students on teaching practice and acted as a mentor and mediator between the university and the schools. Xenia now works as a researcher in the Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Cyprus. Xenia's research so far, has concerned visual communication (graphicacy), which is the creative development and communication of ideas and information through images and symbols e.g. maps, diagrams and photographs. The power of images has wide possibilities and great potential for the enhancement of teaching and learning. Through her work she has identified and defined what graphicacy is, investigated how it is used across secondary school curricula, how children engage with it and ultimately what effects it has on students' learning. Her PhD research was based on determining students' skills and abilities through assessing work completed in a classroom context in order to design and deliver robust strategies to enhance educational performance, from individual to national level. Currently she is continuing her research on graphicacy through a European-funded project, looking to develop formative and summative assessment tools for graphicacy elements, as well as researching a new area of interest concerning creative behaviours in Design and Technology, Science and Mathematics within school curricula.
Review :
DR GILL HOPE, CANTERBURY CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY, PUBLISHED IN DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, ISSUE 19.3, PP. 73-74, OCTOBER 2014 I was delighted to be asked to review Xenia Denos' book, based as it is on the literature review of her Ph.D. thesis for which I was external examiner. In turn, I was honoured to be asked to perform this role, as I had followed with interest and growing admiration the development of Xenia's research from her first conference presentation onwards. First of all, therefore, I would like to congratulate her on the publication of this book which adds considerably to our knowledge of research into graphicacy and should become essential reading for anyone with a deep interest in the field. This book should be of considerable interest and importance to art educators and to anyone interested in overall child development, as well as to those within the design and technology world. THE FORMAT OF THE BOOK Well done Loughborough Design Press. The book is attractive and the layout is clear and user-friendly. The range of graphics used throughout the book, from photographs, examples of student work, to schematics and tabulation, all aid comprehension and readability. This range might be seen as expected for a book on graphicacy but many publishers fight shy of reproducing so many images on the basis of expense. The use of colour throughout also adds to the quality feel of the publication. There are, unfortunately, more than a few typographical errors and at least one conflict of attribution between diagram and text. A really close final editing was needed. Xenia has had access to major UK-wide drawing projects and exhibitions that have aimed at promoting drawing in innovative ways, from which illustrations have been drawn. The support of Ken Baynes for her research and its publication is evident. KEN BAYNES' INTRODUCTORY ESSAY What higher endorsement and accolade could an author, writing about graphicacy, receive than to have a substantial essay by Ken Baynes to preface their work? Usually prefaces by an authority in the field run to a 1,000 word (at most) endorsement of the work. What Ken has provided, however, is a historical overview of the development of human graphicacy from earliest times to the modern day, focussing on the way in which technical drawing and engineering practice have developed in tandem since the Renaissance. This essay forms a backdrop to Xenia's work, highlighting the importance of graphicacy education in a modern technological society. BOOK STRUCTURE AND CONTENT The book is divided into three major sections ("Graphicacy and Education", "Progression and Development of Graphicacy" and "Graphicacy and Student Learning") followed by a much shorter "Aftermath" in which Xenia introduces her own taxonomy. Each section is clearly structured and the use of tabulation and schematic diagrams help the reader to navigate through the in-depth summaries of the research conducted by previous researchers and designers of graphicacy tests. This tabulation is used effectively both to summarise the work of individual researchers and to compare their findings and conclusions. Her discussion of research conducted in each area has both depth and breadth, as one would expect of a book based on a Ph.D. literature review. Her critique of her sources is measured, usually indicating where there is agreement or disagreement between them, rather than expressing her own view as to their validity. This is exemplary practice in a Ph.D. but maybe a reader of her book would prefer a stronger sense of Xenia's own viewpoint. A weighing-up of the graphics tests, especially, would have been useful rather than presenting these without analytical comment. The international range of Xenia's review is impressive. It is a major achievement to have brought together research carried out across the world. As well as the best-known large stage studies carried out in Western societies, she quotes research conducted in both north and south Africa and in Japan. Problems of cross-cultural application are thereby mitigated by these references, which have been a short-coming with previous, well-known research that has been conducted only in a single Western culture. More research is needed, however, across the globe before claims of universality of graphic capabilities can be validated. Xenia avoids making such generalisations herself but does not always make the cultural specificacy of her sources clear in terms of historical context. Towards the end of her overview, Xenia provides a tabulated summary identifying the degree to which different aspects of graphicacy have been researched. This has potential to be the starting point for future researchers, giving a clear indication of where gaps in research exist. Unfortunately, she does not provide an in-depth treatment of her own taxonomy. Is this the subject of book 2? She says, modestly, that this is a "work in progress" and perhaps, therefore, feels that she is not yet ready to publish her findings. The taxonomy is included, at the very end of the "Aftermath" with so little comment that it could easily be overlooked. Work in progress or not, Xenia has missed an opportunity here. Her taxonomy addresses gaps in previous knowledge, especially in older childhood that could most usefully have been discussed in more detail. This taxonomy is her major contribution to new knowledge. I look forward to its publication in her next book. THE EFFECT OF IT ON GRAPHICACY Xenia does not really develop the impact of digital technology and how this may be changing children's cognitive development and hence graphic capabilities. The classic studies of Fry, Kellogg, Lowenfeld, along with the work of Piaget, were all conducted before the digital revolution. Not only do children in UK Primary schools have access to digital graphics packages, but increasingly to tablets with high graphics capabilities; their teachers use interactive whiteboards in many (if not most) lessons, often utilising resources with high graphic impact. Given its detail and scope, Xenia's work could be useful to any researcher wishing to make comparisons between the achievements of the children of the digital age and those of 2 previous generations. THE MOST IMPORTANT POINTS IN THE BOOK The ubiquity and high importance of the use of graphics. That they can represent both quantitative and qualitative information, and that children need to be taught how to both read and use graphics for a diverse range of functions. More research is needed; I await the publication of the book of Xenia's own empirical work with her own taxonomy central. Danos' Taxonomy ought to become one of those cornerstones of graphicacy research that everyone knows and quotes.
