I’m a big fan of using photos (see The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons) in lessons, along with videos (see The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL (& How To Use Them)).

Today, I read the best summary of research that I’ve seen describing why this media works so well.

Robert Slavin writes a blog at Education Week, and is the Chairman of Success For All, a reading program. I’m not at all familiar with his reading program (though I do know that others whom I respect have critiqued it), but I do like his blog. I find him thoughtful and insightful, which also leads me to think I should take a closer look at his reading program when I can find the time.

Today, he posted about a study he helped write about the use of media in Success For All (see it here ). Again, I’m not interested in commenting on the study’s results, but I found the section near the beginning called “Theoretical Background” very interesting. It provides an excellent summary of research on how using photos and media works in learning.

I haven’t seen anything like it before, but if you know of similar research summaries, I’d love to hear about it….