A Method Grounded in How People Actually Learn
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is built on decades of research into how people learn to make sense of what they see. In the 1970s and ’80s, educational researcher Dr. Abigail Housen recorded thousands of interviews with people looking at art—not to test what they knew, but to understand how they thought. Her research revealed that visual understanding isn’t innate—it develops through repeated, guided practice. She called this process “aesthetic development.”
From Research to Practice
In the 1990s, Housen partnered with Philip Yenawine, then Director of Education at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to translate her findings into practical teaching tools. Her research showed that traditional content delivery rarely results in meaningful learning—especially for beginners. VTS is designed around what actually drives growth: inclusive, student-centered discussions led by educators trained in specific, research-based facilitation techniques.
Originally created for museums, VTS quickly expanded to classrooms, teacher training programs, universities, and medical schools as its impact became clear. Today, it’s used in thousands of educational settings—from K–12 schools to medical schools—to foster skilled observation, critical thinking, and collaboration.
Studies about VTS
Key Studies
Thinking Through Art; The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum School Partnership Program
In 2003, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) partnered with the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) in a three-year grant from the Department of Education to research students' learning from an art museum multiple-visit program. The study concluded that...
Artful Citizenship Project: Three-Year Project Report
A pilot program funded by the U.S. DOE in partnership with Wolfsonian-FIU and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Understanding the relationship between visual literacy and other academic skills, VTS was a major piece of the Artful Citizenship project. The study...
Aesthetic Development and Creative and Critical Thinking Skills Study
San Antonio Independent School District students who completed VTS lessons significantly outperformed students who did not receive VTS, in aesthetic and critical-thinking growth. Students with VTS transferred critical-thinking skills to individual art-viewing...
Aesthetic Thought, Critical Thinking and Transfer
Principal Researcher: Abigail Housen Senior Research Associate: Karin DeSantis Results show VTS causes critical-thinking growth and transfer of critical thinking to other contexts and content. A five-year study with Byron School District, Minneapolis Institute of the...
Reports
Selected Directory of Studies, 1988 – 2003
Contains descriptions of selected studies relevant to VTS, from 1988 to 2003. Descriptions include treatment, assessment tools, descriptions of subjects, findings, and project director/site coordinator. View Publication
School Partnership Program 2010-14 Elementary Longitudinal Case Study Executive Summary
(Boston, MA; November, 2015) View Publication
School Partnership Program 2010-14 Elementary Longitudinal Case Study Final Report
The Gardner Museum has used VTS as its main pedagogy since 2005. Significant changes in programming include intensive professional development for teachers and more art discussions for students. The relationships between the Gardner Museum and schools changed...
School Partnership Program 2013 Follow Up to 2008-09 IMLS Study
What was the lasting impact of the IMLS study subject who did VTS for one year? In the spring of 2013 Gardner Museum staff followed up with the students who were now high school seniors and had not had any VTS programing since they were in eighth grade. (Boston, MA;...
Report on the Visual Thinking Strategies Implementation and Assessment Project at Bingham Memorial School
The MiddArts: Learning through the Arts Program is an arts education partnership between Middlebury College and the Addison Central Supervisory Union (ACSU). After a successful three-year Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) implementation and assessment project at Ripton...
Executive Summary: What Do You See That Makes You Say That?: The Role of Asking Young Children to Provide Evidence for their Observations in Visual Thinking Strategies Discussions
(Boston, MA; 2010) View Publication
Publications by VTS Founders
In this section you will find published books, chapters of books, and articles related to VTS. Books and chapters precede published writings by both VTS Co-Founders Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine, followed by articles written by others in our community. All writings are organized from most recent to earliest. We seek to keep this list comprehensive and up to date.
If we are missing any publications, we’d love to know! Please contact us with “Publication” in the subject line. Thank you.
Philip Yenawine
VTS Co-Founder
As co-founder of Watershed Collaborative, Philip Yenawine continues to develop new ways of supporting VTS adoption in schools and museums in the U.S. and abroad. Philip is the co-founder of Visual Understanding in Education (VUE) and the co-author of the VTS curriculum.
Abigail Housen
VTS Co-Founder
Abigail Housen is the co-founder of Visual Understanding in Education and the co-author of the VTS curriculum. Housen received her Ed.D from Harvard in 1983 and has pioneered aesthetic development research for over 30 years. She was Professor of Art Education and Director of the Graduate Program at Massachusetts College of Art, and has served as consultant and evaluator to numerous museums and schools.
Visual Thinking Strategies: Learning How to Teach With Art
Reprint of first chapter of Visual Thinking Strategies: Using Art to Deepen Learning Across School Disciplines View Publication
Voices of Viewers: Iterative Research, Theory, and Practice
Housen discusses how she measures aesthetic response and gives examples of viewer responses from Stages I and II. Student growth, in particular, how to foster it, leads to a discussion of the VTS method. This is followed by a brief description of Byron, Minnesota...
Very Nice to My Visual Imagination Memory: An Inquiry into the Aesthetic Thinking of People Who Are Visually Impaired
Pages 430-444. In Art Beyond Sight: A Resource Guide to Art, Creativity and Visual Impairment. 2003. Edited by Elizabeth Salzhauer Axel and Nina Sobol Levent. Copublished by Art Education for the Blind, Inc. (AEB) and AFB Press of the American Foundation for the...
Visual Thinking, Images, and Learning in College
View Publication
Three Methods for Understanding Museum Audiences
Cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen presents her study of museum visitors at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, using three different methods of collecting data: demographic; attitudinal; and developmental. This article discusses her research methodology,...
Eye of the Beholder: Research, Theory and Practice
VUE co-founder Abigail Housen gives an account of how she began her study of Aesthetic Development, how she came up with her research methodology, and the overall findings of her 20 years of research. Housen also briefly discusses how she applied what she learned to...