The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) teaching method and school curriculum centers on open-ended yet highly-structured discussions of visual art, significantly increasing students' critical thinking, language and literacy skills along the way.
Through VTS' rigorous and engaging individual and group 'problem-solving' process, students cultivate a willingness and ability to present their own ideas, while respecting and learning from the perspectives of their peers.
Through VTS training programs for schools and museums, educators learn to facilitate student-centered discussions, engaging learners in a rigorous process of examination and meaning-making through visual art that has been carefully selected for age and developmental appropriateness.
Experience with VTS produces growth in all students, from challenged and non-English language learners to high achievers. In addition, teachers enjoy the process and benefit from a new approach that reaches all students and is useful across their practice.
"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.
