What is VTS
Introduction to VTS from Visual Thinking Strategies on Vimeo.
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), is a school curriculum and teaching method that
- Uses art to develop critical thinking, communication and visual literacy skills
- Asks educators to facilitate learner-centered discussions of visual art
- Engages learners in a rigorous process of examination and meaning-making through visual art
- Measurably increases observation skills, evidential reasoning, and speculative abilities
- Engenders the willingness and ability to find multiple solutions to complex problems
- Uses facilitated discussion to enable students to practice respectful, democratic, collaborative problem solving skills that over time transfer 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
- Produces growth in all students, from challenged and non-English language learners to high achievers
- Underscore connections to art and strengthens the role of museums as a valuable resource in students' lives
Two elementary students with "eyes on canvas" at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
"One of our most exciting partnerships is built around the Visual Thinking Strategies, an innovative arts based curriculum that offers great promise for education. I want to bring VTS to your attention because I believe it is one of the most powerful models for genuinely engaging young people and changing our perceptions about who can learn and who cannot. At the same time, the VTS method notably enhances teacher practice."
--Carol Johnson, Boston Public Schools Superintendent, in an open letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.