Why Visual Learning Is Important in School

Humans can remember things taught visually in memory for a longer period. Most students in this generation of change and technology are visual learners. Assume that you are learning about a chemical process. Would you prefer a textual description, or is a pictorial or video representation of the process better?

Most people would choose the second option since visuals hold more appeal than textual information. This is especially so for curious young minds. According to several studies, students tend to react to visual information faster than they respond to plain text. Beyond that, visual materials can also help improve learning on many levels. 

What Is Visual Learning?

This is a learning style involving graphics, videos, and images to communicate thoughts and ideas. Visual learners rely on various graphic aids to learn and remember information. Essentially, learning is seeing. 

Importance of Visual Learning in School

This modern method of teaching and learning is transforming the way teachers impart information and the way students learn. The classroom is a great place to learn visually. This is why many teachers are adapting visual teaching methods by using images, whiteboards, presentations, videos, and more. 

Visual learning strategies can help students manage and achieve their goals. The strategies can also help students develop skills such as critical thinking, better decision-making, problem-solving, and better understanding. 

Benefits of Visual Learning

Visual information plays an important role in education. It is more appealing to students than hearing or reading plain text. According to an education consultant, people use their short-term memory to process words. 

This means they cannot retain too much information. Images, however, go straight to the long-term memory where they permanently stay. According to another study, students can retain between 10 and 20 percent of spoken or written information. In comparison, they can retain around 65 percent of visual information. Other benefits of visual learning include:

It Makes Communication Simpler and Quicker

It is simple to process information listed in bullets compared to information written in paragraphs. That same information in a video or an image is even simpler and quicker to process. 

According to the Visual Teaching Alliance, 90 percent of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. In addition, the brain can process visuals more than 60,000 times faster than text, which is quite surprising. 

It Drives Motivation

Students tend to struggle with certain subjects, finding them uninteresting. Thus, they lack the motivation to invest the effort they need to learn. In such cases, visuals are a good option to help students overcome boredom and find the motivation to perform better. 

Visuals Stimulate Emotions

Humans process visual information and emotions in the same part of the brain. Emotional response and visual stimuli have a simple link. They work together to generate memories. Visual metaphors and images, therefore, can create strong impressions in students. They can also create lasting memories. 

To learn more about the importance of visual learning in school, visit Grove Eye Care at our office in Richmond or Midlothian, Virginia. You can call (804) 353-3937 or (804) 888-8998 today to schedule an appointment.