READING IMAGES, CONCEPTUAL MAPS AND SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS: LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

The present work intends to investigate to what extent the integrated use of conceptual maps in association with the Grammar of Visual Design is addressed in academic works, for reading images in Science textbooks. This study consists of a literature review developed from the BUSCAd digital tool, whose time frame is centered on the last ten years, that is, from 2014 to June 2023. Through Discursive Textual Analysis, initial categories were drawn, with greater emphasis on those that deal with aspects related to reading and interpretation of images, the integrated use of multimodal texts in textbooks and the adoption of the Grammar of Visual Design for the analysis of images. It was also possible to group the initial categories into three large groups of multiliteracies: visual, digital and critical. The results reveal that the theme is explored in a very timid way in Science teaching at national and international level, therefore, it constitutes a fruitful field for future research focused on visual literacy, with emphasis on investigations about the multimodal reading of images in Science textbooks.