The use of audio-visual aids in teaching!

By Puja Mondal Teaching

It is generally accepted that the best learning takes place when the greatest number of senses are stimulated.The use of devices or audio-visual materials will stimulate the greatest number of senses. For this reason, good teachers have always used devices or audio-visual materials. A device is any means, other than the subject-matter to the learner.

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A device is an incentive introduced into the method of teaching for the purpose of stimulating the pupil and developing understanding through experiencing. The basis for all learning is experience, and usually the most effective type of learning is gained by concrete, direct, first-hand experience.
Teachers are often unable to give pupils first-hand experiences and resort to the written and oral use of words. The experienced teacher, however, realizes that the use of words alone cannot and will not, provide vivid learning experience.
Good teachers are constantly on the alert for methods and devices that will make learning meaningful. With the wise selection and use of a variety of instructional devices or audio-visual materials, experiences can b; provided that will develop understanding.
In directing the learning of the pupils through normal activities, the teacher will find that visual or audio-visual materials are used very extensively, Since the seventeenth century, when Comenius produced the Orbis Pictus, the extent to which teachers have been turning to visual materials as instructional aids has been increasing.


Likewise, Rousseau” stressed the value of visual education in his book, Emile.
Object-teaching and object-lesson were also emphasized by Pestalozzi. Dr. Sheldon44 of the Oswega Normal School in Canada introduced the idea into the United States. The experi­ence of the American Army during the last world war showed the educational importance of devices such as movies, film- strips, the radio, and other pictorial materials for educational purposes.
The Army contrived devices that served well to awaken interest. Our society today is blessed with modern trends of communication. Never before have teachers possessed materials which will allow their pupils or students so com­pletely to relieve the past, visit foreign lands, hear speeches of the world’s great men and women, or view planets of outer space.
These modern media are among the tools the modern teachers utilize in promoting growth and development of the pupils. The number of devices that maybe employed in teaching any subject will depend upon the nature of the subject-matter and the resourcefulness of the teacher.
Psychologists have long recognized the importance of concrete illustration in teaching. Devices whether visual or audio-visual materials, are valuable in the learning-teaching process because they stimulate in­terest and make possible the enrichment of the pupil’s experi­ence.
It is generally admitted by educators that some people are able to comprehend abstractly, while others are more dependent upon concrete materials as aids to thought. It has been generally recognized that the more brilliant the individual is, the greater is his power for abstract thought; the lower the mentality, the greater is the dependence upon visual imagery as a medium of thought.
Recent studies show that the average and dull pupils need the use of material devices more than the bright pupils. The modern pupil is literally surrounded with endless pro­fusion of aids to his learning, such as workbooks, drill cards, graphs, pictures, maps, slides, film strips, motion pictures, radio and exhibits of all kinds.
Television also offers great possibilities for use in the classroom. This situation grows out of the demands of an enriched and diversified curriculum and of the urge to vitalize instruction by providing a broader background of experience for the pupils and means of adjust­ing learning to the differences in interest and aptitudes of children.
In brief, the use of visual and audio-visual devices maybe given as follows:

1. To challenge the attention of the pupils:

The teacher who uses devices can usually maintain the full attention of the class. This is generally true in the lower grades. Devices should never be used by the teacher as mere attractions. Exposure to visual or audio-visual material and nothing more is not educa­tive.

2. To stimulate the imagination and develop the mental imagery of the pupils:

Devices stimulate the imagination, of the pupils. Mental imagery can be used as a vehicle of thought and as a means of clarifying ideas.

3. To facilitate the understanding of the pupils:

The most widely accepted use of devices, whether visual or audio-visual, is its use in aiding understanding. Learning can be sped up by using models, movies, filmstrips, and pictorial material to supplement textbooks. Material devices give significance and colour to the idea presented by the teacher. Abstract ideas can be made concrete in the minds of the pupils by the use of devices. Diagrams and graphs, for example, are very useful in developing understanding in social studies and in mathe­matics. The graph is a good device in representing mathemati­cal facts.

4. To provide incentive for action:

The use of devices, such as pictures and objects, arouses emotion and incites the individual to action. The teacher must select the right kind of &vice to excite the pupils to worthwhile intellectual activity. Asking the pupils to collect pictures representing water, air, land transportation wilt stimulates them to action.

5. To develop the ability to listen:

The ability to listen can be developed best through the use of audio-visual materials. It is also the responsibility of the school, to provide training for our pupils to be good listeners. Training in the art of listening is one of the aims of audio-visual education.