The effect of pictures on adult instruction

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out if pictures can be used to help adults learn in a better way by helping them to understand and recall what they study. The major findings of past researchers are reviewed. To discover if pictures help Maltese learners nine students where observed while they attended an evening course. They were shown a PowerPoint presentation consisting of text and also some pictures related to parts of the text. At the end of the lessons the students were given questions to find out what they most remembered. After three weeks the students where called to find out what they still remembered from the lessons. The findings defied what other researchers had concluded because the students did not remember what they saw mostly but what they heard from the lecturer's explanation. However when the lecturer referred to a picture as part of the explanation, the students remembered the picture. The results of this study might have been influenced by the students' tiredness and also by the fact that they did not have time to read and study what each slide said. The study also shows that the students learned the content of the unit by applying it to their own work experience.