Evaluation of Visual literacy Component Case Study: The analysis of the book of the fundamentals of visual art in the 10th grade

New communications have necessitated the acquisition of visual literacy and the practical application of its teachings at various cultural and social levels. The current vast facilities in the field of visual communication represent the various promoters of visual literacy in society, each of whom influences visual culture in some way. On the other hand, sharing and reproducing visual media raises certain ethical and legal considerations and its pervasiveness does not necessarily mean that people are able to use or create visual content that is appropriate for their purposes. One of the first steps to improve the level of visual literacy is to identify its components and measure the performance of each basis from this perspective. But despite about half a century has passed from the formation of foundations that contribute in this area, the lack of a clear framework for this concept has challenged its training and qualifications. Therefore, the question is how to measure visual literacy or modify its components. In this regard, the present study seeks to answer this question, while providing an overview of the broad scope of this concept, it has expanded its components to smaller categories to be able to follow them in the subject of research and used as a criterion for measurement, in terms of the application of visual literacy teachings in various fields (in the textbook).
In most of the research in the field of VL, researchers have tried to arrive at a cohesive theory in this regard. Their findings are published in the annual journal IVLA. In internal references, the theory of visual literacy has been neglected especially in the field of paying attention to the scope of this knowledge or looking for ways to measure its components the present research has been done in this direction. It should be noted, in Persian language references, the term is often used in the context of the basics of the visual arts while this topic is only a part of visual literacy.
A review of the visual literacy literature shows that, in almost every definition of the term coined in 1969 by John Debs, visual literacy is the ability to produce and interpret texts that use images to express meaning. But describing the scope and classification of the components of this concept is still a matter of debate for researchers, Because the more complex the communication, the wider the scope of this knowledge, and it covers more social and cultural areas.
In studying the theoretical foundations of this research, information collection has been done by library method. In this section, among the different theories and different classifications presented, the five components of visual literacy proposed by Avgerinou is chosen as the criterion for action. This theory was published in 2011 by the International Visual Literacy Association, in an article entitled - Towards a cohesive theory of visual literacy - while reviewing the VL literature over three decades (1969-1999), In that article, Avgerinou has introduced five cases as components of visual literacy (visual perception, visual language, visual learning, visual thinking, visual communication), Their connection to the skeptic is shown below (Avgerinou,2011:7)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 1:  Visual literacy Component (Avgerinou,2011:5)
 
In this research, while describing the scope of each component, wider dimensions of these concepts will be exposed to the readers.
In the second part, the evaluation of the book “Basics of Visual Arts” has been done by content analysis method Which consists of three steps:  preparation, review and data processing. The research tool is a checklist created by the researcher Where each component -according to the description of the first part- is broken down into smaller, countable units and based on that basis, categories have been created to evaluate the book. In compiling the categories of each component, an attempt was made to use more general cases that cover a wider range of components in order to obtain more acceptable information from counting the frequencies of each category in the content of the relevant book. This checklist has been evaluated by a number of experts and was used after some modifications and confirmation.
In analyzing the content of the book in terms of attention to the components of visual literacy, at first, the contents of the book have been carefully studied and then according to the categories related to each component in the checklist, the frequency of each category was searched and counted in the content of the book and after recording the sum of the obtained frequencies in terms of each component in the frequency distribution table, the data were normalized according to Shannon entropy method. In the next step, the data weights were calculated, Finally, in the third stage, the importance factor of information was determined.   This is how it is determined; how much importance is given to each component in the textbook. As can be seen in the proposed diagram of Avgerinou- Figure 1- the components of visual literacy are in relation to each other, Among the categories related to each component, we can name the items that belong to more than one or two categories. Therefore, they cannot be attributed to a specific component. Cases like this have been measured in this study under the heading of "common categories"
The results showed that the book of the fundamentals of visual art in the 10th grade, has given more importance to categories related to visual learning (27%) And after that, the categories of visual language have been considered by the book (25%), in this case, the purpose of the book is to teach the basics of visual language. Therefore, paying attention to the components of visual learning and visual language in this book can be justified in line with its educational goals. Visual perception is also a factor of acceptable importance compared to other components (17%). Common categories are next (13%). the components of "visual communication" and "visual thinking" have the least importance in the book under study (9% each). Counting the frequency of categories showed that the textbook evaluation in terms of visual literacy reveals hidden items in the text that may be overlooked in other analyzes. If the review process, the categories "attention to aesthetic values" and "function of style in messaging" were neglected, which were counted among the categories of visual communication. This issue can be considered considering the importance of this component in the field of visual literacy, because visual communication is one of the commonalities that is mentioned in all definitions and theories of visual literacy. And fast, correct and immediate communication through seeing is one of the goals of this knowledge. from the general research process, it can be concluded that the theory of visual literacy can be tested and measured and its teaching functions can be adjusted in line with the goals of each field and used effectively. Visual perception, visual language, visual communication, visual thinking and visual learning are the content of visual literacy and each has its own content. Careful study of each component of visual literacy requires a separate opportunity. With more detailed research, we can identify more dimensions of the scope of visual literacy and identify more categories and use it to test the level of visual literacy in various situations or activities. The components of visual literacy are topics that depend on and respond to social change and anything that leads to a change in social and cultural approaches, such as the advancement of science and technology or political developments and the topics react to the mentioned factors. Therefore, the flexible nature of this knowledge dictates that studies in this area to be continued.