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Tips from CET – Integrating Visual Analysis into Any Discipline

Visual literacy is an important skill in many disciplines, including STEM, performance, and clinical. The kind of “slow looking” exercise described here is a flexible way to build students’ capacity for careful observation, interpretation, and reflection. With small tweaks, the same structure can support slow reading, listening, viewing, or data analysis in your field.

1. Begin low-stakes. Try a brief guided slow-observation in class (10–15 minutes) before a longer observation.
2. Pick a “worth-it” object. Use something dense and interpretable in your field—an image, specimen, passage, case, video clip, or dataset.
3. Clarify the rules for the time. Define what “present for an hour” means (e.g., no devices, handwritten notes, movement allowed) and normalize discomfort or boredom.
4. Provide simple noticing prompts or structures. Give a short checklist or template that prompts for patterns, anomalies, questions, shifts over time, etc. to anchor attention.
5. Encourage reflection. Ask students to track how their ideas evolve and reflect on where assumptions show up.
6. Turn notes into arguments. Consider asking students to move from observations to possible claims, hypotheses, or additional questions.
7. Highlight multiple valid readings. Have students focus on individual observation and interpretation, not “a right answer.”
   

Additional Resources

Harris, B., & Zucker, S. (2017, September 18). How to Do Visual (Formal) Analysis. Smarthistory. Page Link. 

Lin, V. C.-W. (2019). Slow Looking: The Art and Practice of Learning Through Observation. Journal of Museum Education, 44(2), 218–222. USC Libraries Link. 

Reyburn, S. (2025, September 23). The three-hour challenge: 180 minutes with “Las Meninas.” The New York Times. Article Link. 

Roberts, J. L. (2013, October 15). Harvard Art Historian Jennifer Roberts Teaches the Value of Immersive Attention. Harvard Magazine. Article Link. 

Tishman, S. (2018). Slow looking: The art and practice of learning through observation. Routledge. USC Libraries Link.