physics courses

In the context of the scientific technological society, the transmission of information through visual media takes central importance. However, the use of images, far from being trivial or direct, requires that people reflect, review and analyze the information so that it is transformed into knowledge. The use of an external image as a way to help students to build mental representations is currently a main area of study in science education. The research we are doing is to use the image as a teaching strategy to assist the development of visual literacy in physics. Such research is outlined in three phases: exploration, implementation and evaluation, and will be carried out in real high school classroom. The results obtained in the course of the exploration stage indicate that, in activities focused on the reading of an external image, students produced alternative interpretations, not only omitting information present in the image, but reformulating and even adding information which is not deductible from the explicit context. We believe that these results work first as a diagnostic evaluation to learn some aspects of mental representations of the students and second to allow the teacher implement strategies for pupils so that they develop mental representations which are closer to those accepted by science. This paper presents the results of the exploration phase in the themes of waves and electromagnetism