The study of tissue, histology, is challenging for many learners. Not only are there new terms and countless examples of stained slides to view, there is an inherent skill in “visual literacy” that needs to be developed. As an educator to many students in many many health care fields, I have noticed that students mostly find challenges with recognizing cells and that a clump of those cells form patterns which can be interpreted with other nearby patterns forming a ‘message’ of sorts written into the tissue. This is similar to how one learns to read: recognizing the individual letters, then small clumps of letters to form short words, and then interpreting a string of short words in a sentence. Thus, this chapter is to help learners develop visual literacy by introducing various hints, tricks, and examples that have helped students Athena Li (UBC-Vancouver Bachelors of Medical Laboratory Sciences) and Sarah Pinault (UBC Okanagan – Bachelor of Science) learn and succeed in histology.

This chapter is structured based on how one approaches literacy – by gradual steps which build upon each other. Feel free to approach this chapter based on where your particular challenge is.