Visual Thinking Strategies
An Introduction for
Instructional Coaches for Special Education
The Brooklyn Museum
May 22, 2012
Visual Understanding in Education
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Agenda
Welcome
VTS
and Introductions
Discussion
-- Deconstruct the VTS Method
Video
of VTS in Action - Grade 4 Inclusion/ESL classroom
-- What does VTS Teach?
Practicing
VTS in Small Groups in the Galleries
-- Demonstrate coaching to support teachers
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What is Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)?
VTS was co-created by
Abigail Housen, a cognitive psychologist and
Philip Yenawine, a museum educator
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What is Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)?
•
VTS is a discussion-based teaching strategy and a K-8 curriculum
•
Classroom discussions center on art to enable all students,
regardless of language skill, to participate in a process of critical
thinking about complex objects.
•
VTS was designed to build visual literacy. Teachers have found it
to assist with language development, writing and reasoning in
evidence.
•
Research has shown that VTS develops critical thinking skills
(observation, inferring supported with evidence, speculation and
revision) and language fluency.
•
Grounded in 30+ years of research and field-tested for 12 years.
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VTS Curriculum: Images carefully selected
for developmental appropriateness
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Reflect on your experience:

What just happened in this discussion?

What did this process ask of you?

What did I do as the teacher, and why?
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VTS asks 3 Questions
After a moment of silent looking, ask:

What’s going on in this picture?
When an interpretive comment is made, follow up with:

What do you see that makes you say that?
Between comments, ask this frequently to the whole group,
even when hands are raised:

What more can we find?
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VTS Elements
Art Images selected for the audience
Peer group
Silent looking
3 Key Questions
What’s going on in this picture?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can you/we find?
Pointing
Paraphrasing
Neutrality
Linking Ideas
Conditional language
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VTS asks Teachers to:

Listen carefully to each comment

Point to features described in the artwork
throughout the discussion

Paraphrase and accept neutrally all comments. New
vocabulary and proper sentence structure may be
modeled

Link related comments together to form connections
and model building on the ideas of others
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Listen to a VTS discussion
in a Grade 4 Inclusion/ESL class

What kinds of learning does VTS support?

What do you notice about the teaching?
VTS - Goals for Students

To develop flexible and rigorous thinking skills, including observing,
brainstorming, reasoning with evidence, speculating, cultivating a
point of view, and revising.

To strengthen language and listening skills, including willingness
and ability to express oneself, respect for the views of others and
ability to consider and debate possibilities.

To develop visual literacy skills and personal connections to art,
advancing one’s ability to to find meaning in diverse and complex
art.

To nurture problem solving abilities, curiosity and openness to the
unfamiliar.

To build self-respect, confidence and willingness to participate in
group thinking and discussion processes.
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VTS: Reasoning in a Social Context
Cognitive Cycle
Social Cycle
Communicating
Ideas
Making an
‘Argument’;
Stating an
hypothesis
Listening
Making Inferences
Based on Evidence
Using New
Information
Provided By
Others
Critical
Evaluation
Making
Observations
Respectful
Debate
Looking Again
Re-framing
Assumptions &
Hypotheses
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VTS: Reasoning in a Social Context
Critical Thinking Skills
Cognitive Cycle
Social Cycle
Communicating
Ideas
Making an
‘Argument’;
Stating an
4. Revisions or
expansion of
evidence-based
arguments.
Listening
3. Speculation
(predictions) based
on evidence.
Using New
Information
Provided By
Others
Critical
Evaluation
2. Inferences based
on evidence
(supported
observations).
Making
Observations
Respectful
Debate
hypothesis
Making Inferences
Based on Evidence
Looking Again
Re-framing
Assumptions &
Hypotheses
1. Observations:
noticing details
(clues)
In a mass of
information; seeing
connections.
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Multiple Studies Find VTS
Significantly Increases Critical Thinking
Year Source
Finding
2002
Housen
Arts and Learning Journal
5 year longitudinal, controlled study shows
VTS significantly increases critical thinking.
Critical thinking transfers to other topics.
2002
Harvard Project Zero
VTS significantly increases critical thinking.
(New York study for MoMA)
2005
Curva & Assoc, Artful
VTS significantly increases critical thinking.
Citizenship Evaluation
(Miami study for The Wolfsonian)
Funded by the Federal Department of Education
2006
ILI Thinking through Art
VTS significantly increases critical thinking.
Evaluation
(Boston study for the Gardner Museum)
Funded by the Federal Department of Education
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US Dept. of Education Funded
Study of VTS
“This study shows that VTS integrating art into the
curriculum is not just ‘art for art’s sake’, but
clearly contributes to students’ critical thinking and
measurable academic achievement thinking as well.
In fact, it would not be surprising to find that such
curricular ‘enhancements’ may be the best test
preparation the schools can provide”[1]
[1]
US Dept. of Education funded Program Evaluation Report, Artful Citizenship
Project, The Wolfsonian, Inc., conducted by Curva & Assoc. (2005)
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Language
Development
Critical
Thinking
Skills
Sense of Self
as Learner
Aesthetic
Development
Sense of Self
as part of a
Community
Social and
Emotional
Development
“Art affords an ideal environment for [fostering critical
and creative thinking]. It provides an object of
collective attention—something concrete for a
classroom to observe and experience, provoking
thoughts and feelings while at the same time
generating simultaneous and distinctive meanings.”
Art Viewing and Aesthetic Development:
Designing for the Viewer
VTS Professional Development
Overall Objectives

To introduce Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) discussion
method and the data behind it

To practice and reflect on VTS through discussion

To use coaching as a way of understanding VTS and
examining teaching among peers

To reflect on the learning behaviors encouraged by VTS
and assess change in students

To address the logistics of implementing VTS in the
classroom

To expand one’s own experience and comfort with
viewing art
VTS Professional Development
What training is necessary to learn to do VTS?

VTS is typically implemented as a school-wide
program with the support of an image curriculum
for each grade level (K-8) and 3 years (30+
hours) of professional development for teachers.

Individual teachers may also learn VTS through
2 and 4 day workshops.
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For More Information

vtsweb.org – we’ve provided you with a
subscription to our on-line curriculum and
support site for teachers.
Username: nycspeced
Password: nycspeced

VTS Resources Page for Participants:
http://vtsweb.org/vts-introduction
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Writing Samples as Assessment



The following writing samples were collected
from students before their first VTS lesson of the
year, and then again after their last VTS lesson
of the year.
The students write about an image that they
have never discussed as a group.
We ask teachers using VTS in grades 2 and up
(and to take dictation from 3 students in K-1) to
collect these samples as way to examine
student growth in critical thinking.
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Grade 4 Pre & Post VTS Writing Sample
Pre
I see clouds in the sky. I see a lady sitting
and staring. I see a little girl carrying some
flowers. I see a little boy. I think I see Santa.
I see another boy carrying a bucket.
Post
I think the girl in the hat is probably posing to
take a picture. I see a little girl holding a
basket full of pink, white flowers. I also see a
little boy dressed as he was in [karate?].
Since people are dressed up in different things
it might be Halloween. I think it is Christmas
‘cause I see a man dressed like Santa Claus
and the people are dressed very nice. Maybe
somebody is getting married because I see a
little girl holding a basket full of flowers.
Source: San Antonio three-year VTS study in an “at risk”
population of low income, largely Hispanic students.
Second Grade Pre-Test
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Second Grade Post-Test
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I think the girl is sick because there is
medicine by her bed. I think she loves
God because she has a cross and a
picture of God on her dresser. She likes
to sew because sewing supplies are on
the dresser. She loves flowers because
she has flowers in her bedroom. She
likes to listen to music because she has a
radio. She has slippers because the floor
is cold. Her mother is putting leaves to
help her get well. It is night time because
the sky is dark. She has glasses so she
can see better. She loves to dance
because she has dancing clothes. She
loves her pictures because they are on
the wall with a cross in the middle of the
picture.
Second Grade Post-Test
(corrected for spelling)
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Fifth Grade Pre-Test
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Fifth Grade Post-Test
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What I think is going on in this picture is one day
a young girl was getting ready for something big,
but she got sick so her mother and brother take
care of her. She has to take lots of medicine to get
better. Her mother gets things for the young girl.
Fifth Grade Post-Test
(corrected for spelling)
Her mother gets a humidifier and puts it at the
foot of the girls bed. The mother also gets
medication for the girl. The mother also waves her
with a branch of leaves to cool her, while the young
girl lays in her bed.
I think the young brother keeps her company
when no one is in the room. What the mother must
of done is move the young girl into the mother’s
room. I think this because of the room the family’s
in is set up like a parent’s room.
I also think the people in the pictures have died.
They also must of died of the same sickness the
daughter has at the time. Family must of dropped
off flowers because theirs flowers on the dresser.
The sickness must be major.
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Contact Us
Visit VTS on the web at
www.VisualThinkingStrategies.org
Contact us at 718/302-0232
Amy Chase Gulden, Regional Director NY
acgulden@vue.org
VTS has offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, New York
and Boston. The VTS program is used in 20 states reaching over
50,000 young people through schools and museums.
Visual Understanding in Education
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