Textbooks without pictures are almost inconceivable nowadays. That was completely different in the 19th century when even primers were edited without permanent illustration. Towards the end of the 19th century however – within the context of the New Education Movement and the „pedagogisation“ of textbooks –, illustrations gained an important didactic function. The more children could no longer become acquainted with things by direct experience, the more were things replaced by images. The pictures represent parts of reality, they represent knowledge.
From the didactic perspective of the different subjects, the question must be raised how knowledge can be acquired from visual representations, how the knowledge represented in the illustrations can be grasped by means of teaching, and how the difference between sign and object (Klaus Prange) is dealt with in textbooks.

The informative abstracts should make clear how the following aspects will be reconsidered in the papers:
– methodical reflections about the analysis of illustrations in textbooks;
– general didactic reflections about learning from pictures;
– considerations about the ratio of the text to the illustrations;
– the function of illustrations in textbooks through the ages;
– social and historical influences;
– questions of design;
– contextualisation of the exemplary case.

Please send your abstract on a scale of 300 to 400 words (including basic bibliographical references), as well as some personal information (current occupation, main fields of research, up to five important publications or rather the topic of the qualification project) until the 15th of April to: Prof. Dr. Eva Matthes and Dr. Carsten Heinze, Universität Augsburg, Lehrstuhl für Pädagogik, Universitätsstr. 10, D-86159 Augsburg, Phone +49/821/5985564 – 5573, Fax +49/821/5985630, e-mail: carsten.heinze@phil.uni-augsburg.de. The response about the acceptance or the rejection of the proposals will be given until the 15th of May.