The use of photographs to encourage pupils' critical thinking about distant places
Every day children are exposed to hundreds of images. From cereal packets to advertisements, to newspapers and shop window displays, children are constantly bombarded by images.
All of these kinds of image play an important role in influencing and shaping ideas and perceptions about ourselves, other people and places, from the local to the global.
However, pictures rarely tell the whole story. Media representations of less economically developed countries (LEDCs), for example, can often contribute to negative stereotypes. It is, therefore, important that pupils learn to question images and to think about them critically. Visual literacy is an important skill that can be taught through learning to examine pictures critically.
Good photographs have lots of potential for use in the classroom. Working with photographs of people and places from around the globe provides pupils with stimulating, challenging and creative learning opportunities, and helps them to gain knowledge and critical understanding of the wider world.
For further information look at 'Using photographs in the classroom' in the 'Cool Planet' section of the Oxfam website. Oxfam
The activity on the right explores the types of questions that can be asked relating to photographs. Look at this activity now.
Activity Resources:
- Images
- Interactive
- Sound
- Text
- Video
Activity
- Use the search facility to find the web page 'Our Wonderful World' on the Geographical Association's website. Click on the margin link 'Primary' to find posters and activities associated with each. (These posters were produced by the Geographical Association and the Royal Geographical Society, with the Institute of British Geographers). Make notes on the suggested focus for each poster and the different types of questions used. Our Wonderful World Notice how the main themes in the questions relate to:
- one key question from each compass point;
- groups sharing any key issues arising;
- points of contention or disagreement;
- questions people found difficult to categorise;
- reflection on how effective the compass rose as a framework was/is for generating questions and critical thinking;
- the impact the activity will have on future geography teaching in the school and whether such a tool will help develop/adapt geography schemes of work to take a more global and all-round approach.
- Now refer back to your notes from 'Distant places' at the beginning of this unit, and consider the teaching and learning experiences you noted as necessary for creating a more positive and accurate perception of the locality. Choose four to six posters from the Our Wonderful World website which you feel are particularly informative representations of the locality. Try to choose contrasting photos, for example rural and urban, physical and human. As with the Our Wonderful World activities and questions, choose an appropriate theme for each photo and write a series of questions for it. Try out the activity with your own class or with groups of pupils.
- If your pupils have access to the internet, you might like to try the above activity using photographs from the Oxfam Cool Planet gallery. Before pupils look at the gallery, you can develop questions for each photograph using the captions provided as a focus. As a classroom activity, pupils can then look at the gallery and answer your questions. Oxfam
