Using Visual Thinking Strategies to Promote Critical Thinking

By: Robin Stahl & Lisa Weier

Camelot Intermediate School

Brookings, SD

VTS: Visual Thinking Strategies

• Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) uses art to teach critical thinking, communication skills, and visual literacy to young people.

• VTS produces growth of students’ skills of observing, speculating and reasoning on the basis of evidence.

• These skills can be transferred from art viewing to examining content in other subjects.

Basics of VTS

•Asking Questions•Acknowledging Responses•Linking Thoughts •Using VTS in Other Subjects

Asking Questions

• VTS is a discovery process. Discussions are initiated by questions, phrased to provoke many thoughtful responses to what is seen in the images.

• Specific questions are used to encourage the students to focus, become reflective and to question- the basis for thinking critically.

• After giving the students a minute to reflect on the image, the following three questions are used:

What’s going on in this picture?

What do you see that makes you say that?

What else can you find?

What’s going on in this picture?

• This question opens up the discussion.

• How the question is phrased is important because it suggests that the image is “about” something which can be figured out.

• Think about the wording of the question above. Compare it to “What do you see in this picture?” The latter question often results in students making a list instead of probing deeper for meaning.

What do you see that makes you say that?

• The students are asked to look more and gather evidence to support their opinions.

• Again the phrasing is important. A question such as “Why do you say that?” implies the student should provide motives, not evidence, for an opinion.

What else can you find?

• Asking this question has the effect of making the conversation more complete.

• Details that might be missed are often found when

students are urged to look for more.

• This question must be asked frequently to make the point that there is usually more to be seen and talked about than the students first think.

Acknowledging ResponsesVTS discussions give immediate feedback and encourage participation.

• Point, and be physically expressive.• As students speak, point

to all that they mention in the image.

• Gesture with precision so that the students see exactly what is being pointed out.

• Paraphrase each person’s response. In doing so…• You make sure that everyone will

hear each comment.• You model that listening to and

trying to understand others is important.

• You have a short but clear view of how a particular child sees and thinks.

• You can turn a student’s halting answer into something crisper, clearer or more exact.

Be sure to change only the words and not the content of the student’s thought.

Linking Thoughts

As individuals take in the discoveries of others, they often revise their first opinions or change their minds.

• To encourage this critical thinking, draw links between various thoughts shared by students.

• Acknowledge agreements and disagreements• Connect thoughts that build on others• Note shifts in thinking

Using VTS in Other Subjects

• Through the VTS process we strengthen our students’ ability to examine, articulate, listen and reflect.

• Applying this method to other subject areas, reinforces the transfer of these skills.

Some Examples:

• Rube Goldberg illustration-Simple & Compound Machines

• Reading- Designing Literary Award

• Poetry-Figurative Language

• Math-100’s Chart, Multiplication Table

kids.brittanica.com*This example is used with our Camelot Literary Award project.

The Wind is Calling Me AwayBy Kalli Dakos

How can I sit through one more day,For the wind is calling me away,And I want to change with the leaves that fall,But I’m here at school and I’m missing it all.

While leaves as bright as the sun fly by,We add, subtract, and multiply,And none of these numbers makes sense to me,When the sky is as blue as the summer sea.

Oh, teacher, please let’s race the leaves,Let’s jump in piles and climb the trees,Let’s add, subtract, and multiply,The wind, the leaves, and the deep blue sky.

*This example has figurative language (personification and simile).

Goals for students…

• To develop flexible and rigorous thinking skills, including observing, brainstorming, reasoning with evidence, speculating, cultivating a point of view, reflecting, 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.

Goals for students…

• To nurture problem-solving abilities, curiosity and openness about the unfamiliar

• To build self-respect, confidence and willingness to participate in group thinking and discussion processes

• To apply VTS-supported skills in many contexts, both in school and out

Goals for teachers…

• To learn to facilitate open-ended discussions about sequenced works of art using developmentally-based questions and a supportive method of responding to student participation

• To develop paraphrasing to the point where you are able to assist students with language development and flexibility

Goals for teachers…

• To develop a capacity to manage discussions in order to reflect to students how their thinking as individuals interacts with other, and how, as a group, they see and think about more than they could alone

• To improve one’s facilitation skills with help of peers• To learn to assess verbal expressions and thinking