A design education perspective on the process of interpreting words into pictures

This article discusses two learning strategies that were incrementally developed during three cycles of an action research project to facilitate student learning of the process of interpreting written text into an illustration. The two strategies relate to the cognitive processes of analysis and synthesis – from comprehension of textual meaning to visual concept generation. The first learning strategy, which relates to analysis, involved assisting students to develop macropropositions – personal understandings of the gist or essence of a text (Louwerse and Graesser 2006; Armbruster et al. 1987; Van Dijk and Kintsch 1983). The second learning strategy, which was concerned with idea generation, used a form of induction categorized as analogical reasoning (Holyoak 2005; Sloman and Lagnado 2005). Both strategies were combined to illustrate an expository text extract titled 'Through The Magic Door'. The data suggest that design students benefit from a structured approach to learning, where thinking processes and approaches can be identified and made accessible for other learning situations. The action research methodology is based on semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, developmental design (including student notes) and final design output.