Visual Understanding in Education 1

Visual Thinking StrategiesAn Introduction for

Instructional Coaches for Special Education

The Brooklyn MuseumMay 22, 2012

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Agenda

Welcome and Introductions

VTS 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 byAbigail 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 audiencePeer groupSilent looking

3 Key QuestionsWhat’s going on in this picture?What do you see that makes you say that?What more can you/we find?

PointingParaphrasingNeutrality Linking IdeasConditional 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

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?

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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

CommunicatingIdeas

CommunicatingIdeas

Looking AgainLooking Again

MakingObservations

MakingObservations

Making Inferences Based on Evidence

Making Inferences Based on Evidence

RespectfulDebate

RespectfulDebate

ListeningListening

Re-framingAssumptions &

Hypotheses

Re-framingAssumptions &

Hypotheses

Using NewInformation Provided By

Others

Using NewInformation Provided By

Others

Cognitive Cycle Social Cycle

Making an‘Argument’;Stating an hypothesis

Making an‘Argument’;Stating an hypothesis

CriticalEvaluation

CriticalEvaluation

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VTS: Reasoning in a Social Context

CommunicatingIdeas

CommunicatingIdeas

Looking AgainLooking Again

MakingObservations

MakingObservations

Making Inferences Based on Evidence

Making Inferences Based on Evidence

RespectfulDebate

RespectfulDebate

ListeningListening

Re-framingAssumptions &

Hypotheses

Re-framingAssumptions &

Hypotheses

Using NewInformation Provided By

Others

Using NewInformation Provided By

Others

Cognitive Cycle Social Cycle

Making an‘Argument’;Stating an hypothesis

Making an‘Argument’;Stating an hypothesis

CriticalEvaluation

CriticalEvaluation

1. Observations: noticing details (clues)In a mass of information; seeing connections.

1. Observations: noticing details (clues)In a mass of information; seeing connections.

2. Inferences based on evidence (supported observations).

2. Inferences based on evidence (supported observations).

3. Speculation (predictions) based on evidence.

3. Speculation (predictions) based on evidence.

4. Revisions or expansion of evidence-based arguments.

4. Revisions or expansion of evidence-based arguments.

Critical Thinking Skills

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Multiple Studies Find VTS Significantly Increases Critical Thinking

Year Source Finding

2002 Housen 5 year longitudinal, controlled study showsArts and Learning Journal 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 FundedStudy 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)

“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

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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.

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

PreI 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.

PostI 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.

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Second Grade Pre-Test

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Second Grade Post-Test

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Second Grade Post-Test

(corrected for spelling)

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.

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Fifth Grade Pre-Test

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Fifth Grade Post-Test

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Fifth Grade Post-Test(corrected for spelling)

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.

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.

Visual Understanding in Education 30

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.

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