AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
associating with: importance to write down tasks, useful for
recording recipes and various entries, used as a diary, for her
the blue color is calming. The picture of a closed book she sees
as a symbol of: useful helper. Open book she associated with:
the source of
knowledge, novel for pleasure, printed text is nicer
than digital text, book as a Bible (she was the only one out of 43
respondents of U3A) source of entertainment. Open book she
sees as a symbol of concentrated thoughts. In the last entry of
our questionnaire she assessed the plastic dose, its size and usage
from the practical point of view. Our second hypotheses
expected that Master´s degree students - future teachers of Fine
arts in connection with the book (either closed or open) will
associate iconographical and iconological connections of this
object as an attribute to religious and sacred images (i.e. The
Bible, The Book of Books, Holy Scripture, The Annunciation,
Saint Anne Teaching Virgin Mary etc.) or rather Holy Saints
(Evangelists, Saint Paul etc.) and will outnumber Bachelor´s
degree students.
Our second hypotheses was not confirmed by the research.
And not only was it not confirmed, but has also brought a few
unexpected findings. Sacral context of the book seen as the
Bible, out of 143 respondents mentioned only 4, 1 of them at
Master´s degree. Other terms focusing on symbols and
significance of the book only replicate the notions mentioned in
relation to associations: scholarship/education/schooling,
wisdom, knowledge, cognition rest/relaxation,
study/learning,
education, secrecy (closed book), curiosity, findings, The Bible
(closed book), fun, blue/cold color/cold war, smell of the
book/paper, open mind (open book), national book month (open
book). Stated symbols in connection
with the book and its
religious context were appropriate however the
numeric data
were very
surprising. The most common symbol of the book
mentioned in different variations as
scholarship/education/schooling reached only number of 34
(24%) out of 143. Wisdom as a symbol of the book stated 33
respondents (23% out of 143). National book month was
remembered only in 1 case in University of the third age
students. 6 out of 143 respondents did not mention the symbol
related to the book´s picture at all (see the table no. 2).
Table 2: Frequented terms – symbol/meaning in connection with
the book
Frequented
terms
– symbol
/meaning in
connection
with the book
1.
ye-
ar
Bc.
38
2.
ye-
ar
Bc.
16
3.
ye-
ar
Bc.
16
1.
ye-
ar
MA
8
2.
ye-
ar
MA
20
U
3
A
45
Alto-
ge-
ther
143
scholarship/
education/
schooling
9
2
1
1
4
17
34/
24%
wisdom
2
8
3
3
8
9
33/
23%
knowledge
2
2
6
0
3
5
18/
13%
cognition
2
0
3
0
3
3
11/8%
rest/relaxation
1
3
3
1
2
1
11/8%
study/learning
/education
2
2
1
0
2
4
11/8%
secrecy
1
2
1
0
2
2
8/
5,6%
curiosity
0
3
0
0
0
2
5/
3,5%
findings
1
0
1
0
0
2
4/3%
the Bible
0
2
0
0
1
1
4/3%
fun
0
2
0
0
0
1
3/2%
blue/cold
color/cold war
0
2
0
0
0
1
3/2%
smell of the
book/paper
0
1
0
0
0
1
2/
1,4%
open mind
1
1
0
0
0
0
2/
1,4%
national book
month
0
0
0
0
0
1
1/
0,7%
did not state
anything
0
1
1
0
0
4
6/4%
Source: Own arrangements
Our third hypotheses expected that among all of the respondents
there will be more of those, who in connection with the book
will associate their childhood and a book as a source of
storytelling than those not associating the context as such.We
assumed that the age category of our respondents (98 out of 143)
ranges between 19 to 24 and psychological contents such as
perceptions, images, memories, knowledge, thoughts and
emotions connected with the childhood and fairy tales will be
still alive. University of the third age students were expected to
have more or less regular contact with the book in relation to
their grandchildren - reading fairy tales.
Our third hypotheses did not support our research. Our research
file recorded a very low number of preferences associated
with
the period of childhood and fairy tales. Only 5 respondents
associated
the book with the fairy tale and only 4 with the
childhood. We do not classify this result in any way - in the
sense of good or bad. We realize that the results of our research
have influenced many circumstances - both objective and
subjective determinants. The open questions in the individual
items of our questionnaire naturally generated a situation where
our respondents could decide what to mention and what they
would not mention. Is it possible that in the case of a direct
formulation: do you link the picture of the book to the memory of
your childhood and fairy tales? there would be many consistent
answers. We emphasize again that our goal was to indirectly
detect the use of competences to associate analogies with visual
inputs and link them with symbols. Since we will have part of
our research sample available in the next academic year, we will
create a questionnaire with targeted and direct questions in this
regard. We strongly believe that the results will bring further
interesting findings.
4 Conclusion
Our paper dealt with analyses and interpretation of partial results
of our research exploring students competencies - future
teachers of Fine arts in area of visual literacy in relation to
presumed skills gathered during their pregradual preparation in
bachelor's and master's level of study, orientated on their
knowledge and skills gathered within theoretical disciplines
focused on theory and history of fine arts. Chosen items of
anonymous questionnaire as a method and our research tool,
took into consideration the fact, that students come from
different types of secondary schools, master different skills and
knowledge, as well as life experience. Except for full-time
students - future teachers of Fine arts, University of the third age
students studying: History of Fine arts and Creative art, were
also part of our research group. Their statements in relation to
the researched issue proved for us to be a relevant comparative
material. The results of our research show, that regarding
competencies monitored in relation to reaction on a visual
stimulus in the picture form of a closed and open book,
affiliation to a particular year of study did not play an important
role. Age of our respondents, in context of competence reflecting
formal, contentual and semantic level of visual impulse based on
our assignment accordingly, also proved as a determinant
without any greater significance. We found out that our
respondents as a whole group operate with a wide spectrum of
terms in area of interpretation of aforesaid three aspects of visual
phenomenon, but range or rather number of associations and
assigned terms regarding respondents as individuals was
extremely low. Results of our research are a great impulse for us
to create future educational activities even in junior years and
implement forms of education focusing on development of
interpretational skills in relation to formal contentual and
semiotic aspect of visual culture.
Literature:
1. Bergman, M., Paavola, S. (edit.).: The Commens Dictionary.
Peirce´s Terms in His Own Works. New Edition. New Edition
2014. First edition 2003. ISSN 2342-1320. [online].[cited on
01/12/2018]. Available at: http://www.commens.org/dictionary
2. Bristor, V. J. and Drake, S.V.: Linking the Language Arts and
Content Areas Though Visual Technology, T H E journal 22.2,
- 243 -