The method
From seeing to thinking
Learning begins with seeing. Understanding begins with perception.
“We teach children what to learn. But do we understand how they learn to see, perceive and think?”
That question is the educational philosophy behind the work. It invites parents, teachers and professionals to look at the relationship between visual development and learning.
Underneath the question is a progression. It is the theme the programme is built on.
The progression
SIGHT → PERCEPTION → COGNITION → INTELLIGENCE
The programme’s underlying theme, in its own words.
- 1
Sight
Learning begins with seeing. Before a child can work with a shape, a letter or a picture, the eyes have to take it in. Sight is the first step of this progression.
- 2
Perception
Seeing is not yet perceiving. Perception is how what was seen is organised: one form told from another, a pattern held, a likeness noticed. Understanding begins with perception.
- 3
Cognition
Cognition is the thinking that perception makes possible — comparing, remembering, following a sequence, and using visual information when learning.
- 4
Intelligence
Intelligence is the far end of the same path: where sight, perception and cognition serve learning. The programme names this as its aim. It is not presented here as a score.
These short descriptions are a draft for this website, written from the progression above. Elsa du Plessis’s own wording should replace them. [TBC]
How the idea is put to work
The practical activities are the Perceptual Play Cards. On a computer, the same work is Elsa Protocol: Elsa Perceptual Sorting, with 72 perceptual card decks and 27 language card decks, for Mac and Windows.
The scientific content sits in Art of Seeing.