Audio-Visual Aids in Teaching

Teacher and student are the two main constituents of the teaching-learning process. Teaching aid refers to
the teaching tools used in the process of teaching. Audio-Visual teaching aids can be categorised into three
kinds viz. Audio-aids, Visual aids, and Audio-Visual aids.
(A) AUDIO-AIDS:The first category of aids is Audio-Aids. Audio-aids help in developing the listening
skill of an educand. Audio-aids are those aids which can be only listened. Examples, of such types of aids
include, radio, gramophone, tape recorder, audio-tapes, walkman, and headphones etc.
(I) TAPE RECORDER:
A tape recorder consists mainly of three parts-the microphone, the amplifier and the receiver. The talks of
eminent personalities, educationists, academicians and scientists can be recorded and reproduced in the
classroom through this teaching aid. The important merit of this audio-teaching aid is that the speech of a
person can be recorded at any time and it can be used for a number of times at will, again and again.
(II) RADIO:
Radio programmes can be categorised into two types. One type of radio programme is called education
radio-broadcasts, which provides opportunity to the teachers and students to listen to the programme and
take notes on them. The teachers should discuss the programme, the main points of the radio lesson, the
lecture, the dialogue and the characters, etc., with the students to supplement, evaluate and consolidate
their learning.
The other type of radio programmes are those where a general discussion or information on social issues,
health and diseases, culture and life, about the events happening around the world etc. are broadcasted. As
a follow-up activity, these programmes also supplement the presentation of a teacher in the classroom,
whenever they are deemed fit for the discourse.
(III)AUDIO-CASSETTES: Audio-cassettes can be used for recitations of nursery rhymes, poems and
stories, etc.
(B) VISUAL-AIDS: The second category of aids is Visual-Aids. Aids which require the involvement of
learners visual senses are called visual aids. Examples, of such types of aids include viz. graphic aids, 3daids, display boards, and print material etc.
(C) AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS: The third category of aids is Audio-Visual aids. In these aids both the
listening (ears) and viewing faculties (eyes) are involved. Such aids include television programmes, video
films, motion pictures, synchronised audio-slide projectors, computers and computer-assisted instructions
etc.Cartoon films are also a useful medium for developing, and chiselling the skills of the students.
(I) FILMS: Films represent an effective instructional device to cater to the students attention and create
interest and motivation among them towards effective learning. Educational films may be prepared on any
content material or any aspect of knowledge, and behavior.
(II) TELEVISION: Television is a versatile medium of transmitting education through different
programmes. It is an exciting means of communication. Useful instructional programmes are being
telecasted regularly for the student community on television. A teacher should utilize the T.V. programmes
and make them the basis for discussions on relevant occasions.

(III) VIDEO: Video is a viableaid towards effective learning and teaching. Teaching with the help of
video is called video-aided instruction. In video-aided instruction, learners comprehension is generally
tested through a questionnaire and video is clearly an instructional medium that generates a much greater
amount of interest and enjoyment than the more traditional printed material.
(IV) CDs: Nowadays, educational video-cassettes are easily available in the market. Educational CDs can
be prepared on any aspect of the subject-matter and curriculum.
Thus, these aids help the students in multifarious ways, satisfying their needs and avoiding monotony.The
more interested and engaged the students are, the more interactive each learning session will be.

USE OF AUDIO VISUAL AIDS IN TEACHING

INTRODUCTION
Audio-visual aids, audio-visual material, audio-visual media, communication technology,
educational or instructional media; and learning resources all these terms, broadly speaking,
mean the same thing. Earlier the term used was audio-visual aids in education. With the
advancement in the means of communication and that of technology, educators coined new terms.
More specifically media refers to films, filmstrips, recordings, etc... The use of newer terms
educational technology or instructional technology is primarily due to the dynamic expansion of
programmed learning, computer assisted instruction and educational TV. This revolution in the field
of audio-visual education is the outcome of the development in electronics, notably those involving
the radio, tape recorder and computer.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE USE OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS:
A Dutch humanist, theologian and writer Desiderious Erasmus (1466-1536) discouraged
memorization as techniques of learning and advocated that children should learn through the aid of
pictures or other visuals. John Amos comenius (1592-1670) prepared a book known as orbit
sensulium pictus (the world of sense objects) which contained about 150 pictures on aspects of
everyday life. The book is considered to be the first illustrated textbook for children education. This
book gained wide publicity and was used in childhood education centers all over the world. Jean
jacks Rousseau (1712-1778) and other educators stressed the need of pictures and other play
materials. Rousseau condemned the use of words by teacher and he stressed things. He pleaded
that the teaching process must be directed to the learners natural curiosity. Pestalozzi (1756-1827)
put Rousseaus theory into action in his object method. He based instruction on sense perception.
The term visual education was used as early as 1926 by nelson I green. Eric asliby (1967) identified
four revolutions in education: education from home to school, written words as tool of education,
invention of printing and use of books and lastly the fourth revolution in the use of electronic media,
i.e. Radio, television, tape recorder and computer in education.
DEFINITION OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS :
1. Audio-visual aids are those aids, which help in completing the triangular process of learning, i.e.
Motivation, classification and stimulation.
- Carter V. Good
2. Audio-visual aids are any device, which can be used to make the learning experience more
concentrate, more realistic and more dynamic.
- Kinder, S. James.

3.Audio-visual aids are anything by means of which learning process may be encouraged or carried
on through the sense of hearing or sense of sight.
- Goods dictionary of education.
IMPORTANT VALUES OF THE PROPER USE OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS :
1.ANTIDOTE TO THE DISEASE OF VERBAL INSTRUCTION:
They help to reduce verbalism. They help in giving clear concepts and thus help to bring accuracy in
learning. As observed by Raymond wyman (1957) we (teacher) tell students, and we provide them
with written material so they are easily produced, reproduced, stored and transported. But the
overuse or excessive use of words can result in serious problem, chiefly, the problem of verbalism
(using or adopting words or phrases without considering what they mean) and forgetting.
2.BEST MOTIVATORS
They are the best motivators. The students work with more interest and zeal. They are more
attentive.
3.CLEAR IMAGES:
These images are formed when we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell as our experiences are direct,
concrete, and more or less permanent. Learning through the senses becomes the most natural and
consequently the easiest.
4.VICARIOUS EXPERIENCES:
It is beyond doubts that the first-hand experiences are the best type of educative experience. But it is
neither practicable nor desirable to provide such experience to pupils. Substituted experiences may
be provided under such conditions. There are many inaccessible objects and phenomena. For
example it is not possible for the pupils living in India to see the Eskimo to climb the Mount Everest.
There are innumerable such things to which it is not all such cases, these aids help us.
5. VARIETY:
Mere chalk and talk do not do not help. Audio-visual aids give variety and provide different tools
in the hands of the teacher like models, transparencies.
6.FREEDOM :
When audio-visual aids are employed, there is great scope for children to more about, talk, laugh
and comment upon. Under such an atmosphere the students work and not because the teacher wants
them to work.
7.OPPRTUNITIES TO HANDLE AND MANIPULATE :
Many visuals aids offer opportunities to students to handle and manipulate things.
8. RETENTIVITY:
Audio-visual aids contribute to increased retentively as they stimulate response of the whole
organism to the situation in which learning takes place.
9.BASED ON MAXIMS OF TEACHING :

The use of audio-visual aids enables the teacher to follow the maxims of teaching like concrete to
abstract, known to unknown, and learning by doing".
10.HELPFUL IN ATTRACTING ATTENTION:
Attention is the true factor in any process of teaching and learning. Audio-visual aids help the
teacher is providing proper environment for capturing as well as sustaining the attention and
interest f the students in the classroom work.
11.HELPFUL IN FIXING UP NEW LEARNING:
What is gained in terms of learning needs to be fixed up in the minds of students? Audio-visual aids
help in achieving this objective by providing several activities, experiences and stimuli to the learner.
12.REALISM:
The use of audio-visual aids o\provides a touch of reality to the learning situation. By seeing a film
show exhibiting the life of the people of the tundra region, students learn it more effectively in about
2 hours than by spending weeks by reading.
The other points are as follows;

Meeting individual differences.

Encouragement to healthy classroom interactions.

Spread of education on a mass scale.

Promotion of scientific temper.

Development of higher faculties

Reinforcement of learners.

Positive transfer of learning and training.

Positive environment for creative discipline.

PSYCHOLOGY OF USING TEACHING AIDS:

Interest in the role of the senses in learning was already therein educational circles when
instructional media began their as cadency. It has long been recognized that the various senses
condition the reception of messages the communications arc. Research done by co bun (1968)
indicated that:
1. One % of what is learned is form the sense of taste.
2. 1.5% of what is learned is form the sense of touch.
3. 3.5% of what is learned from the sense of smell.
4. 11 % of what is learned is from the sense of learning.
5. 83 % of what is learned is from the sense of sight.

Retention of what is learned is likewise related to sense experience. Observation and research by co
bun tended to show holding time as nearly constant as possible that people generally remember.
Ten percent of what they read.
Twenty percent of they hear.
Thirty percent o what they see.
Fifty percent of what they hear and see.
Seventy percent of what they say.
Ninety percent what they say as they do a thing.
POPULAR SAYING ON AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS:
I hear, I forget
I see, I remember
I do, I understand
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD TEACHING AIDS:
1. They should be meaningful and purposeful.
2. They should be accurate in every respect.
3. They should be simple.
4. They should be cheap.
5. As for as possible, they should be improvised.
6. They should be large enough to be properly seen by the students for whom they are meant.
CLASSIFICATION OF TEACHING AIDS :
Teaching aids are classifieds in four, which are as follows:
1. Classification number I; projected and non-projected aids.
2. Classification number II: audio materials visual materials and audio-visual materials.
3. Classification number III: big media and little media. Big media include computer, VCR and TV.
Little media include radio, films, strips, graphic, audiocassettes and various visuals.
4. Classification number IV: three-dimensional aids models, mock-up, and specimens.
AUDIO-VISUAL COMMUNICATION:
The term audio-visual communication is applied to the instructional materials used in teaching
situations to facilitate the understanding of spoken and written words. The fact, the term is used to
cover the entire range of illustrative instructional materials like visual material: auditory materials
and the combination of the two.
Audio-visual communication learning programme; and the content of course, information, ideas,
thought, etc. prepared for use in such programme are called software, while the audio-visual aids
and equipment are called hard-wares. Audio-visual communication appeals to the senses of hearing
and seeing. Audio-visual aids are generally used as learning aids complementary to the books and
formal classroom instruction.
Comenius was the first educator who prepared and used a book illustrated by pictures to give it a
sensory appeal. He found that corrected learning to their experiences. There is more effective in
focusing students attention and make learning enjoyable.
SIGNIFICANT OF AUDIO-VISUAL CALSSROOM COMMUNICATION:

1.Audio-visual aids and equipments appeal to our senses and open better avenues to learning. It has
been rightly observed that the senses gateways to all knowledge.
2.Audio-visual materials because of their sensory appeal enable us to perceive information in better
way and increase the retention span of learning.
3.Audio-visual aids the realities of our world to classroom and make learning purposeful.
4.Audio-visual aids make abstract ideas contract and their understanding is facilitated.
5.AV aids make learning quicker in this age of knowledge-explosion.
6.AV materials are economical in the long turn because of their repeat values and coverage of large
number of students.
7.AV aids supplement the teacher and are used as complementary aids to normal classroom teaching
for reinforcing the spoken and written words.
8.AV aids helps in overcoming the language barrier between the students and the teacher and make
learning efficient.
9.AV aids provide a variety of instructional methods and motivate children to learn independents of
the teacher at times.
10.AV aids reduces verbalism in the classroom & thus bourdon of students.
PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS:
Psychological studies on learning and retention reveal that 80% of information and its retention are
through auditory and visual senses. Because of the sensory appeal of audio-visual aids, the retention
span of learning increases are attached to audio-visual aids.
1. Motivation: the sensory appeal of audio-visual aids motivates and stimulates students to learn
easily in a related atmosphere.
2. Curiosity: the curiosity of students is aroused due to the novelty and variety in teaching aids when
used for classroom teaching.
3. Interest: many AV aids give students the opportunity of manipulative their learning environment
and their interest in learning sustained.
4. Real and contrived experiences: with the use of AV aids, students have the direct experiences of
real life situations or contrived situations a kin to real one. Such direct experiences make learning
meaningful to students.
5. Concretization: AV aids decreases abstractness of spoken and written words to make learning
concrete.
6. Attention: through the use of AV aids the attention of students can be secured, as learning becomes
a pleasant experience.
Psychology also emphasizes multisensory experiences in learning. Psychologists advocates the
maximum of more learning, faster learning and longer, which can only be achieved by arousing all
possible senses or gateways of acquiring knowledge.

SUCCESS OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS:

Mere procurement and display of AV aids is not sufficient, they should be used efficiently along with
their proper maintenance and enrichment. The main bases for the success of and audio-visual
programmes are as follows:
Administrative support: for its effective functions the program requires the support of the
institutional head, financial support and cooperation of the faculty.
Suitability:
the AV aids in an institution should be selected on their suitability to the age grade levels of students.
Evaluation:
the effective use of AV aids on students learning should be assessed and strengthened through the
scheme for improvement.
DIFFERENT AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS:
Graphic teaching aids: graphic aids are helpful in
Arresting students attention
Conveying information in a condensed form.
Presenting information efficiently.
Concretizing abstract ideas.
Stimulating interest.
Important to the teaching-learning process are the following graphic aids:
Charts (diagram, maps, posters, graphs)
Cartoons.
Comic strips.
Charts:
Charts are the graphic teaching materials including diagrams, posters, pictures, maps and graphs. It
is defined as illustrative visual media for depicting a logical relationship between main ideas and
supporting facts.
Types of charts.
1. Tree chars.
2. Stream charts.
3. Table charts.
4. Flow charts.
Pictures
Pictures are the most commonly available graphical aids, pictures includes photographs, painting,
illustrations clipped from periodicals.
Diagrams
A diagram is the simplified drawing of an object, product, appliance or process to explain finer
points of the same. A diagram is made to show relationships with the help of lines and symbols

without the pictorial Elements.

Graphs
Graphs are the visual teaching aids for presenting stastical information and contrasting the trends
or changes of certain attributes. Graphs make presentations of quantitative data easily interpretable
and readily understood. A huge data and long list of figure is always boring but the same
represented by graphs captures attention and makes students think. A good graph can give a lot of
information just by shooting a glace at it.
There are four main types of graph namely:
1. Bar graphs.
2. Line graphs.
3. Picture graphs.
4. Pie graphs.
Maps
A map is a graphic aid representing the proportionately as a diagram the surface of the earth, world
or parts there of. A map is always drawn to scale, which is mentioned, on one corner of it. Every map
should have the following descriptions on it: a title, a grid, a scale, a key, dates on which it has been
prepared.
Posters
Posters are the graphic aids with short, quick and typical messages with attention capturing
paintings. Posters may be used for one of the following instructional
purposes:
posters may be used for
1. Advertising an event or product.
2. Campaigning for a cause.
3. Giving a directive.
4. Popularizing a slogan.
5. Drawing attention towards desirable actions and values.
6. Giving a warning.
7. Popularizing a symbolic or a sign.
8. Propaganda.
Cartoons
A cartoon is humorous caricature, which gives a subtle message. In a cartoon, the features of objects
and people are exaggerated along with generally recognized symbol. In short, a cartoon is a
figurative and subtle graphic aid.
Comic strips

A comic strip is the graphic depiction in a series of pictures or sketches of some characters and
events fall of action. Children find this medium of communication very interesting and exciting. For
telling stories, historical events, life histories, scientific processes etc.
Flashcards
Flash cards are small cards of generally 25*30cm size which are shown for a few moments before the
class to send across a message or impart an idea. The idea on the flash card should be brief. Flash
cads are especially useful for the drill in various subjects. They may also be used for reviewing a
lesson with students. Flash cads would be used along with the other graphic aids to makes the lesson
effective.
OTHER AIDS
Black board or chalk board.
Bulletin board.
Flannel board.
Magnetic chalkboards.
NON-PROJECTED TEACHING AIDS:
Models.
Specimens.
Exhibitions.
Museums.
Diorama.
SUMMARRY:
Audio-visual aids are those sensory objects or images, which initiate or stimulate and reinforce
learning. Audio-visual aids have values if it used properly. The classification of teaching aids are
projected and non-projected aids, audio-visual materials & visuals material, big media and little
media, and also three-dimensional aids. The different audio-visual aids are graphs, diagrams, maps,
posters, cartoons, comic strips, and flash cards. Audio-visual aids or dives are added devices that
help the teacher to clarify, establish, correlate and coordinate accurate concepts.