Vasileios Zagkotas und Ioannis Fykaris: The grammar of visual design and its didactic use in history textbooks for the sixth grade of Greek primary education

Based on Gunter Kressand and Theo van Leeuwen’s ‘‘Grammar of Visual Design’’, this study investigates the application of their methodology in an examination of the newly approved history textbook for the sixth grade of primary school. The researchers attempt to analyse each image in the book, both in terms of individual structural elements and in terms of interaction with other images on the same page. The authors consequently make didactic proposals for each image based on the results of the analysis. The study also examines the creators of the images, the subject, the date of the images or where the objects were originally produced and where the artworks are currently stored. The final discussion relates to the overall didactic functionality of the textbook’s images, with regards to the incentive behind their use and how they are used by teachers in the classroom.

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