Visual Metaphor

Visual metaphor can serve as a powerful tool for learning large quantities of complex subject matter. Students can distill the most important insights from their independent study discoveries, or from a set of readings, and then translate these key insights into the form of a sketched, painted, or computer-designed visual metaphor. The image typically takes the form of a cartoon-like representation with many intricate elements or symbols, each of which illustrates one or more important ideas from the topic studied. The student usually creates a story or a bullet-point summary to explain the meaning of the symbolism in the image, showing what the various aspects of the image represent in terms of the subject matter studied.

The process of creating the visual metaphor engages the student ...