Pedagogy First. Technology Second.

Narrate, Don’t Label

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Multimedia & Dual Coding in 05 Explanations & Modelling, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

An image explained by on-screen text asks the eyes to do two jobs at once. Mayer's modality principle found people learn better from images with narration than from images with text, because the voice takes one channel and the image the other.

Let the voice do what text would overload, as the card has it. The strand prose makes the same call: narrate a diagram rather than captioning it.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

Recording an explanation of longshore drift, a teacher screencasts the diagram and speaks the explanation over it, the cursor tracing the movement being described. No paragraphs on screen; the words arrive by ear while the eyes follow the coast.

Try it

A way to begin

Take one diagram you usually present with written explanation beside it, strip the text back to bare labels, and speak the explanation instead, live or recorded.

What to notice

Reading what happens

  • Where pupils look while you narrate, compared with when there was text to read.
  • On a recorded version, where pupils pause and replay; those points can map the difficult moments.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

  • Modality moves the explanatory prose to the voice; short labels that simply name parts still belong on the image, which is what the contiguity card covers.

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

Through the inclusive practice lens, this is one of the approaches that may reduce barriers around:

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Mayer's modality principle is the source, resting on the dual channel model that Paivio's work established. The card’s attribution stands as published: Mayer.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Explanations & Modelling.

Keep exploring

Where next?

Back to this strategy in 05 Explanations & Modelling, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.

Want to take this further?

Support is available

Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.

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