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* Fresh approach to engineering design, innovation challenges, and stereotypical thinking; provides alternative methods that come closer to the heart of the visual creative process.
2014 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice "What’s going on in this picture?" With this one question and a carefully chosen work of art, teachers can start their students down a path toward deeper learning and other skills now encouraged by the Common Core State Standards. The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) teaching method has been successfully implemented in schools, districts, and cultural institutions nationwide, including bilingual schools in California, West Orange Public Schools in New Jersey, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It provides for open-ended yet highly structured discussions of visual art, and significantly increases students’ critical thinking, language, and literacy skills along the way. Philip Yenawine, former education director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art and cocreator of the VTS curriculum, writes engagingly about his years of experience with elementary school students in the classroom. He reveals how VTS was developed and demonstrates how teachers are using art—as well as poems, primary documents, and other visual artifacts—to increase a variety of skills, including writing, listening, and speaking, across a range of subjects. The book shows how VTS can be easily and effectively integrated into elementary classroom lessons in just ten hours of a school year to create learner-centered environments where students at all levels are involved in rich, absorbing discussions.
Visual Thinking brings the science of perception to the art of design. Designers increasingly need to present information in ways that aid their audience's thinking process. Fortunately, results from the relatively new science of human visual perception provide valuable guidance. In this book, Colin Ware takes what we now know about perception, cognition, and attention and transforms it into concrete advice that designers can directly apply. He demonstrates how designs can be considered as tools for cognition – extensions of the viewer's brain in much the same way that a hammer is an extension of the user's hand. The book includes hundreds of examples, many in the form of integrated text and full-color diagrams. Experienced professional designers and students alike will learn how to maximize the power of the information tools they design for the people who use them. - Presents visual thinking as a complex process that can be supported in every stage using specific design techniques - Provides practical, task-oriented information for designers and software developers charged with design responsibilities - Includes hundreds of examples, many in the form of integrated text and full-color diagrams - Steeped in the principles of "active vision, which views graphic designs as cognitive tools
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE NAUTILUS GOLD AWARD “A powerful and provocative testament to the diverse coalition of minds we’ll need to face the mounting challenges of the twenty-first century.” —Steve Silberman “An absolute eye-opener.” —Frans de Waal A landmark book that reveals, celebrates, and advocates for the special minds and contributions of visual thinkers A quarter of a century after her memoir, Thinking in Pictures, forever changed how the world understood autism, Temple Grandin— “an anthropologist on Mars,” as Oliver Sacks dubbed her—transforms our awareness of the different ways our brains are wired. Do you have a keen sense of direction, a love of puzzles, the ability to assemble furniture without crying? You are likely a visual thinker. With her genius for demystifying science, Grandin draws on cutting-edge research to take us inside visual thinking. Visual thinkers constitute a far greater proportion of the population than previously believed, she reveals, and a more varied one, from the photo-realistic “object visualizers” like Grandin herself, with their intuitive knack for design and problem solving, to the abstract, mathematically inclined “visual spatial” thinkers who excel in pattern recognition and systemic thinking. She also makes us understand how a world increasingly geared to the verbal tends to sideline visual thinkers, screening them out at school and passing over them in the workplace. Rather than continuing to waste their singular gifts, driving a collective loss in productivity and innovation, Grandin proposes new approaches to educating, parenting, employing, and collaborating with visual thinkers. In a highly competitive world, this important book helps us see, we need every mind on board.
From world-renowned autism spokesperson, scientist, and inventor Temple Grandin -- a book of personal stories, inventions, and facts that will blow young inventors' minds and make them soar. Have you ever wondered what makes a kite fly or a boat float? Have you ever thought about why snowflakes are symmetrical, or why golf balls have dimples? Have you ever tried to make a kaleidoscope or build a pair of stilts? In Calling All Minds, Temple Grandin explores the ideas behind all of those questions and more. She delves into the science behind inventions, the steps various people took to create and improve upon ideas as they evolved, and the ways in which young inventors can continue to think about and understand what it means to tinker, to fiddle, and to innovate. And laced throughout it all, Temple gives us glimpses into her own childhood tinkering, building, and inventing. More than a blueprint for how to build things, in Calling All Minds Temple Grandin creates a blueprint for different ways to look at the world. And more than a call to action, she gives a call to imagination, and shows readers that there is truly no single way to approach any given problem--but that an open and inquisitive mind is always key. Praise for Calling All Minds: "An impassioned call to look at the world in unique ways with plenty of practical advice on how to cultivate a curious, inquiring, imaginative mind." —Kirkus Reviews "Both practical and inspirational, this useful book describes an overall approach to viewing the world creatively, as exemplified by the numerous projects and supporting material provided here." —VOYA "Grandin offers a nuanced perspective on the qualities of a successful inventor—notably, a sense of wonder and curiosity, careful observation, and the willingness to learn from mistakes." —Publishers Weekly
Visual Thinking for Information Design, Second Edition brings the science of perception to the art of design. The book takes what we now know about perception, cognition and attention and transforms it into concrete advice that students and designers can directly apply. It demonstrates how designs can be considered as tools for cognition and extensions of the viewer's brain in much the same way that a hammer is an extension of the user's hand. The book includes hundreds of examples, many in the form of integrated text and full-color diagrams. Renamed from the first edition, Visual Thinking for Design, to more accurately reflect its focus on infographics, this timely revision has been updated throughout and includes more content on pattern perception, the addition of new material illustrating color assimilation, and a new chapter devoted to communicating ideas through images. - Presents visual thinking as a complex process that can be supported in every stage using specific design techniques - Provides practical, task-oriented information for designers and software developers charged with design responsibilities - Includes hundreds of examples, many in the form of integrated text and full-color diagrams - Steeped in the principles of "active vision, which views graphic designs as cognitive tools - Features a new chapter titled Communicating Ideas with Images that focuses on a new emerging theory of human cognition and how that theory, which deals with the construction and refinement of predictive mental models in the mind, provides a solid foundation for reasoning about what should go into a presentation
A proven program for enhancing students' thinking and comprehension abilities Visible Thinking is a research-based approach to teaching thinking, begun at Harvard's Project Zero, that develops students' thinking dispositions, while at the same time deepening their understanding of the topics they study. Rather than a set of fixed lessons, Visible Thinking is a varied collection of practices, including thinking routines?small sets of questions or a short sequence of steps?as well as the documentation of student thinking. Using this process thinking becomes visible as the students' different viewpoints are expressed, documented, discussed and reflected upon. Helps direct student thinking and structure classroom discussion Can be applied with students at all grade levels and in all content areas Includes easy-to-implement classroom strategies The book also comes with a DVD of video clips featuring Visible Thinking in practice in different classrooms.
VisuaLeadership [noun]: The art and science of applying visual thinking and visual communication tools, tips, and techniques, in order to turn your vision into reality. If a picture is worth a thousand words, and finding the right words takes time, and time is money, then wouldn’t it follow that business leaders could make more money—in less time—if they simply took a more “visual” approach to how they manage and lead? Okay, it’s not quite that simple…but VisuaLeadership will forever change the way you think and communicate by showing how you can quickly and easily leverage the power of visual imagery, mental models, metaphor, analogy, storytelling, and humor to help you take your game to a whole new level. The French novelist Marcel Proust famously wrote that, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” So, if your vision is to become a better communicator and presenter, a more innovative thinker, a more productive performer, a more efficient manager, a more effective coach, or a more visionary and inspirational leader, then this exciting new book will open your “mind’s eye” to a whole new world: The world of VisuaLeadership. “Have you added visual communication to your leadership toolbox? According to Todd Cherches, if you haven’t, you’re missing out on a powerful tool to capture attention, aid comprehension, and enable your team members to retain the information you need them to use. Packed with examples, VisuaLeadership will help you develop this skill so that you can become a better communicator, innovator, and leader.” —Daniel H. Pink, author of When and Drive “The most effective communicators and leaders use the power of story to influence and inspire action. In VisuaLeadership, Cherches demonstrates how every role can express their ideas through the use of visual imagery and visual language. This book will help anyone discover how to become a visual leader.” —Nancy Duarte, CEO and bestselling author “I always say that ‘what got you here…won’t get you there.’ To help you ‘get there,’ executive coach Todd Cherches, in his wonderful new book, VisuaLeadership, demonstrates how we can all leverage the power of visual thinking to envision—and to achieve—a more successful future.” —Marshall Goldsmith, the world’s #1 Leadership Thinker and Executive Coach
