Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)

TIME TO INVEST: 45 MINUTES

COURSE OVERVIEW 

What if teachers taught with questions rather than lectures? What if students were asked to reflect instead of regurgitate? Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) challenges the standard model of teaching by encouraging a reflection-and-response style of learning. Designed by art educator Philip Yenawine and developmental psychologist Abigail Housen, VTS relies on children's natural ability to observe, using imagery as the starting point for learning. The teacher asks open-ended questions; students reflect and respond. The process has been proven to strengthen critical thinking skills, language development, confidence, and collaboration. Watch VTS at work in three Louisiana schools and find out what alternative teaching methods like these might have in store for America's classrooms.

WATCH

An excerpt from "Thinking Through Art: The Isabella Stewart Gardner School Partnership Program," in which students discuss work from the museum's collection using VTS.


Introduction to VTS from Visual Thinking Strategies on Vimeo.







FURTHER READING: TRANSCRIPTS

- So take a minute to look, and think about what's going on. - Visual thinking strategies have a very, very positive impact on classrooms. It teaches thinking skills that kids need, teaches language development, teaches strategies for kids working together collaboratively learning through and with each other. What happens in these classes with an image as the starting point for the discussion is that everybody participates. - It's really about fostering confidence and the imagination in these kids.

- Our teachers reached an ahh ha moment when they saw that getting children to have deep high (mumbling) questions was what they really needed. - The students carry the skills that they use in VTS to other areas. - Initially I thought this is just something for fun something for art, but then I began to see how oh no this can be good for reading, this could be good for math, for developing social skills. - The VTS strategies empowers kids to answer, and that way whether it's an art picture or word problem, they're all approaching learning.

- The natural ability of every young child to observe what they see and to think about it, and to become interested in it is there. Every three year old will look at things for a long time and try to figure out what they are. They learn language by way of identifying things that catch their attention. So when you're trying to teach viewing skills, which you're really trying to do, is re-awaking ones that are there all the time. - I spent most of my life as a museum educator, whose function was to help visitors sort of connect with the art.

VTS QUESTIONS

The main aspects of VTS teaching practice include three key inquiries:

1. What's going on in this picture?

2. What do you see what makes you say that?

3. What more can we find?

APPLICATION AND CERTIFICATE

Hands on! How would you apply VTS in your classroom? Leave us a comment of 120 words and your email so we can get back to you and give you a certificate of participation.

RESOURCES 

Written and Compiled by Samantha DiMauro, Education World Contributor

1. Visual Thinking Strategies: Using Art to Deepen Learning Across School Disciplines, by Philip Yenawine.

The book by the cocreator of the VTS curriculum details his experiences teaching elementary school age students. The stories show how VTS can be easily integrated into the classroom with structured discussions of visual art. Here's an excerpt from Chapter 1, "Permission To Wonder."

2. Cases on Teaching Critical Thinking through Visual Representation Strategies, by Leonard Shedletsky

This book compiles research from scholars and education professionals to provide more insight into student development through visual thinking.

3. Rutgers University Study: "On Using Museum Methods in the Classroom: A Case Study with VTS"

Teacher and museum educator Emily Monty examines VTS, a teaching method traditionally used in museums, and the challenges and rewards of translating it to the classroom.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/visual-thinking-strategies/visual-thinking-strategies-film

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