Effective Use of Visual Aids
What do you need to do? Use pictures, maps, charts, or other objects to make important points of instruction more vivid.
Why is it important? A visual aid often makes a clearer or a more lasting impression on the mind than does the spoken word.
WHY employ visual aids in your teaching? Because doing so can make your teaching more effective. Jehovah God and Jesus Christ used visual aids, and we can learn from them. When visual aids are coupled with the spoken word, information is received through two senses. This may help to hold the attention of your audience and to strengthen the impression made. How can you incorporate visual aids into your presentations of the good news? How can you make sure that you are using them effectively?
How the Greatest Teachers Used Visual Aids. Jehovah employed memorable visual aids to teach vital lessons. One night he brought Abraham outdoors and said: “Look up, please, to the heavens and count the stars, if you are possibly able to count them. . . . So your seed will become.” (Gen. 15:5) Even though what was promised seemed impossible from a human standpoint, Abraham was deeply moved and put faith in Jehovah. On another occasion, Jehovah sent Jeremiah to the house of a potter and had him enter the potter’s workshop to watch the man shape clay. What a memorable lesson in the Creator’s authority over humans! (Jer. 18:1-6) And how could Jonah ever forget the lesson in mercy that Jehovah taught him by means of the bottle-gourd plant? (Jonah 4:6-11) Jehovah even told his prophets to act out prophetic messages while making use of certain appropriate objects. (1 Ki. 11:29-32; Jer. 27:1-8; Ezek. 4:1-17) The tabernacle and temple features are, in themselves, representations that help us to understand heavenly realities. (Heb. 9:9, 23, 24) God also made abundant use of visions to convey important information.—Ezek. 1:4-28; 8:2-18; Acts 10:9-16; 16:9, 10; Rev. 1:1.
How did Jesus employ visual aids? When the Pharisees and the party followers of Herod tried to trap him in his speech, Jesus asked for a denarius and drew attention to the image of Caesar on the coin. Then he explained that Caesar’s things should be paid back to Caesar but that God’s things should be paid back to God. (Matt. 22:19-21) To teach a lesson in honoring God with all that we have, Jesus pointed out a poor widow at the temple whose contribution—two small coins—was her whole means of living. (Luke 21:1-4) On another occasion he used a young child as an example of being humble, free from ambition. (Matt. 18:2-6) He also personally demonstrated the meaning of humility by washing his disciples’ feet.—John 13:14.
Ways to Employ Visual Aids. Unlike Jehovah, we cannot communicate by means of visions. Yet, many thought-provoking pictures appear in the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Use them to help interested people visualize the earthly Paradise, promised in God’s Word. On a home Bible study, you might draw a student’s attention to a picture that is related to what you are studying and ask him to tell you what he sees. It is noteworthy that when certain visions were given to the prophet Amos, Jehovah asked: “What are you seeing, Amos?” (Amos 7:7, 8; 8:1, 2) You can ask similar questions as you direct the attention of people to pictures that are designed as visual teaching aids.