Dual Coding: What it Means. Why it Matters. And How Comic Books Make it Happen.
Jan 25, 2021 | 5 min read
How Comic Books Can Enhance Student Learning
Written by Stephane Manuel
What is Dual Coding Theory? As noted in an interesting article on the Education Corner, Allan Pavio discovered that our memory has two codes (or channels) that deal with visual and verbal stimuli. Whilst it stores them independently, they are linked (linking words to images). These linked memories make retrieval much easier.
The word or image stimulates retrieval of the other.
When teachers employ a dual coding mindset to their learning materials, the student’s cognitive load is reduced and their working memory capacity is increased, thus, learning is improved.
Enter…Comic Books
Dual coding argues that if the same information is given to a student in two different ways, it allows them to access more working memory capacity. This means that students can benefit from using visual and verbal memory capacity. If the connection between comic books and dual coding wasn’t already clear, it’s time to start digging in.
Students use two verbal and nonvisual channels when processing information in their working memory. They connect, but verbal and visual information are processed differently. Verbal information must be processed sequentially, and there are constraints on whether a student can decode correctly and has the background knowledge to process it. Visual information is processed at the same time, and connections to the information can be made at the same time.
When the content of our working memory moves to our long-term memory, we call that coding. When we provide students with information that is verbally and visually connected, we can use both channels to move information into long-term memory.
This leads to a powerful process called dual coding, which not only aids in the coding process but also in the confident retrieval of information from long-term memory.
In a social studies classroom, dual coding is a great theory to help students because students naturally engage in verbal lectures from their teachers and read sources both textual and visual. Comics are an efficient way to leverage dual coding by presenting historical information in textual and image form.
Leveraging Comics to Drive Engagement and Inquiry
Comic panels fracture time and space, offering a jagged staccato remnant of connected moments, but closure allows us to connect these moments and mentally construct. This is one of the core phenomena that differentiates comic books from most other communication mediums in that they solely rely on engagement to make them work.
“When we provide students with information that is verbally and visually connected, we can use both channels to move information into long-term memory.”
And, it’s one of the underlying elements that support dual coding growth in students. Reading a text is primarily a decoding activity, and we've all had the experience where you read a page of a book, and you remember none of it, or you need help understanding what you read. Because of the arrangement of panels and text, a comic book is forcing a reader to make a series of information inferences based on what information is provided visually by text, most notably what information is not provided and what is not said. This process forces the reader to engage and mentally construct information upon engagement.
The minute you start seeing the art and the text, you immediately draw yourself into trying to make meaning out of the information and constructive situation on the model of what's happening on the page. This process can help your student stay engaged in a task, but it also will lead them to naturally start generating their own questions about what is happening in the comic book. Getting students to ask questions and think about what resources they would need to make a reasoned argument.
Leveraging Comics to Drive Discussion Around time and Place
The comic medium deals with time and space differently than other communication mediums. The panel and frame itself are the general unit of time or indicator of time. The design of the panels and frames can stretch short and elongate time for the reader. Also, using multiple panels and sequences can extend or change the perception of time while readers consume the comics. The panels, also based on the shot or the point of view provided, can be used to represent space that can be used just to describe an apple or to define the entire world, and the shift between time and space can be creative and very efficient.
The contents of the panels can also dictate time in themselves, and even the relationship between the ideas or information represented in each panel can manipulate a story's percent or perception of time differently. This is powerful in the social studies classroom as you want students to grapple with cause and effect, change of time, and diverse perspectives. Comics about a particular moment in time can create strong connections between historical themes across time in an efficient manner that is accessible to students.
“This is one of the core phenomena that differentiates comic books from most other communication mediums in that they solely rely on engagement to make them work.”
The connection between comic books and dual coding is abundantly clear. Between the compelling visual structures that deepen the connection to events and the concise text that drives deeper meaning to the reader, comic books stand out as a uniquely compelling driver of dual coding.