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Plant anatomy is a branch of plant biology that focuses on the internal structures and development of a plant. This topic relies heavily on visual media such as photographs and drawings as teaching and learning tools. Therefore, visual literacy is a core skill for biology students to study plant anatomy effectively. As defined by Avgerinou (2009), visual literacy is the abilities to interpret and generate visual information. Specifically, Kędra (2018) identified 11 skills of visual literacy which were classified into three categories including visual reading, visual writing, and other visual literacy skills. However, do biology students have a sufficient level of visual literacy particularly in the case of plant anatomy? As stated by Roth and Pozzer-Ardenghi (2013), students may unable to read visual media in the intended way because of the lack of attention to visual literacy in teaching and learning.  This current study was conducted to provide answers to this question. The focus of this investigation was on students’ interpretation, understanding and visualization of presented plant anatomy photographs.

 

To collect relevant information, this study involved 79 university sophomores studying plant anatomy in Indonesia. Using a case study design, two data collection methods included a test and semi-structured interviews to investigate to what extend biology students are visually literate in visual media of plant anatomy. The author-designed test, called Plant Anatomy Diagnostic Test (PADI), consisted of two different sections. Section 1 comprised five four-tier multiple choice items linked to photographs of a plant, whereas section 2 was a drawing task. The test was distributed to all student participants, while the interview sections involved only 15 students. All collected data were analysed separately, then the results were compared and compiled to triangulate the findings.

 

To understand the ways in which students interpreted the photographs of the plant anatomy, the results of the test was firstly analysed. The percentages of students’ answer combinations on the first section of the test are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Percentage of students who correctly answered section 1 of the test.

Test Item

Percentage of students who provided correct responses (%)

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4

All Tiers

1

72.2

31.6

24.1

20.3

13.9

2

50.6

44.3

44.3

43.0

27.8

3

73.4

35.4

35.4

58.2

25.3

4

25.3

74.7

64.6

29.1

11.4

5

50.6

49.4

21.5

26.6

11.4

Average

54.4

47.1

38.0

35.4

18.0

 

The data revealed that most participants struggled to answer the test correctly. Table 1 shows that the proportion of students’ who correctly answered all tiers of the first section ranged from 11% to 27%. In addition, Tier 4 - students’ reasoning - has the lowest average value indicating that students had difficulty in interpreting and understanding the presented photographs of plants’ body. These findings are also supported by students’ responses to the interview questions. The following recorded responses confirm students’ difficulties when completing the test.

Student 1: …actually, this picture was easy to be understood, but I found this section was difficult to be completed. I did not know why…

Student 2:  I found that the picture was familiar for me. However, I was difficult to integrate (knowledge to solve the problem), it was difficult.

Student 3:   Yeah, it was a familiar image, but I could not reason these (questions)

 

The results of this current study supported and triangulate the fact that the biology students had difficulties to interpret and understand the presented plants’ photographs indicating that their visual literacy in plant anatomy was insufficient. The primary reason for students’ insufficient visual literacy was their inability to transfer and integrate the knowledge they had learned to new problems or situations. Based on the findings, it is suggested that biology students who are studying plant anatomy need to be involved in extensive observation and interpretation practices to develop their visual literacy, particularly in plant anatomy.

Visual Literacy, Visual Media, Plant Anatomy