PART ONE: • What is VTS? • How VTS Works • What VTS looks like
• Sample VTS lessons • Why VTS works • What makes VTS different?
PART TWO: • What schools do • What art museums do • What VUE does
• How to become a VTS site • VTS Programs: USA • VTS Programs: International

“I feel that I have learned…a teaching strategy that will have long range academic and personal benefits for students. I have barely begun using it and need much more practice, but its worth is immeasurable.”

—Dee Lundell, PhD. Ramsey
International Fine Arts Center

Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), is an elementary school curriculum that

• Uses a learner-centered method to examine and find meaning in visual art



• Uses art to teach thinking, communication skills and visual literacy



• Measurably increases observation skills, evidential reasoning, and speculative abilities, and the ability to find multiple solutions to complex problems



• Uses facilitated discussion to practice respectful, democratic collaborative problem solving among students that transfers to other classroom interactions, and beyond



• Uses eager, thoughtful participation to nurture verbal language skills, and writing assignments to assist transfer from oral to written ability



• Uses the Web to develop independence and computer skills as well as to assist teacher preparation



• Produces growth, including visual literacy and greatly enhanced verbal and thinking skills, in all students, from challenged and non-English language learners to high achievers



• Encourages art museum visits to underscore connections to art and to integrate a community resource into students’ lives



• Meets state standards in art, language and social studies; improves test scores in reading and writing

 

Click here for an overview of VTS

 

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“ …because the curriculum allowed students to disagree in a respectful way, this carried over to real life situations. While I mediated problem solving situations for recess, I heard time and time again the process of respectful disagreeing without either side being offended. [VTS] helped students listen to each other and to acknowledge the others point of view. This was as tremendous step in finding solutions to problems.”

Karen A. Roos
Elementary Principal
Lakeville Area Public Schools

• Students and teachers examine carefully selected art images

• Teachers ask open-ended questions beginning with
  
  

  What's going on in this picture?

  What do you see that makes you say that?

  What more can we find?

• Teachers paraphrase student responses, actively listening, validating individual views, demonstrating language use, reinforcing a range of ideas



• Teachers facilitate student discussions, encouraging scaffolding of observations and interpretations



• Students support opinions with evidence, listen and share information and ideas, to construct meanings together



• Artworks become more complex as student facility grows



• Web materials and writing assignments enhance learning



• Museum visits expand the students' experience

Click here for an overview of VTS teaching methods

Click here for an overview of student assessment

Click here for an overview of expected outcomes

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“ …practitioners of [VTS] are able to help students become remarkably competent visual and critical thinkers…I have watched children develop remarkably sophisticated vocabulary skills, and I have seen them apply these skills…in their writing and in their ability to understand and analyze the world around them.”

Deborah Schwartz
former Vice Director for Education
Brooklyn Museum of Art

• It uses art to engage, puzzle, intrigue and build a sense of competence about decoding complex and diverse material



• It is student-centered, inclusive, and fully respectful of all



• It is easily mastered because the strategy taught uses and hones existing strengths, interests and experience, providing challenges when appropriate to stimulate growth



• Students work together in group discussion, and then individually, to complete writing assignments — in each case applying what they know to learn more about what they do not



• It is easy for both teachers and students to transfer strategy and verbal reasoning abilities to other areas



• It sparks motivation and curiosity

Click here for information on aesthetic growth

Click here for information on transfer of VTS skills

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“ …[VTS] students…increase their competence in constructing meaning from a wide range of material…as a result…students have increased skills in observation, evidential reasoning, and speculation. These have been shown to transfer to other areas of learning, including standardized tests.”

F. Camille Bach
Fine Arts Coordinator
San Antonio Independent School District

• VTS was developed, field tested and refined for over 10 years by museum educator Philip Yenawine and developmental psychologist Abigail Housen; research studies provide evidence of growth

• VTS produces measurable growth in all learners across cultures, language/background experience, and learning abilities; success helps students and teachers see all as capable and creative

• VTS has proven to show transfer of skills from art experience to thinking and communicating about other images, objects and topics

• VTS is both rigorous AND fun: both teachers and students value what they learn

• VTS includes an effective, efficient professional development program for teachers, providing instruction in student-centered teaching and peer coaching, as well as methods of assessing student growth

• VTS integrates an internet component for expanded learning for both students and teachers

 Also see What is VTS, PART 2