Care and Conversation
Can conversation be a form of care? I think a lot about the ways in which VTS teaches, but perhaps less than I ought to about how it can also be used to nurture and sustain, to connect and to heal. When we discuss an image with a group, is there an opportunity to...
Using VTS to Build Conversations with People Living with Dementia
The non-judgmental nature of VTS synched seamlessly with what many memory care experts stress are best practices when communicating with adults living with different forms of dementia
When Uncertainty Becomes Possibility: VTS and Creative Problem-Solving
I am standing in front of a painting in our campus museum with a group of college students. Smiling broadly, I ask, "What is going on in this painting?" Twenty-five students stare at me blankly, the looks on their faces indicating that they are struggling to intuit...
Practice and Compassion
How can we achieve a feeling of connectedness when many of us cannot be physically close to our students?
Online Image Discussions
How do we hold Visual Thinking Strategies image discussions online?
The Words We Use
Language is not something we acquire; rather it is something we participate in. As such, we do not ever really learn a language, we practice one. In moments when we achieve creativity, or poetry, we play in one. Language is also a discipline. There is politics in how...
About Language
How do we as teachers both support language development and deconstruct the structures of language that erase histories?
Creating a Shared Language: English Learners and Bilingual VTS
VTS is about making meaning through group discussion, but what happens when the participants do not share a common language?
The Practice of Adapting VTS
We know the skills that VTS fosters—critical thinking, careful observation, generating inferences, and revising ideas—are also useful in fields outside of art, but do we need to modify VTS if we choose to use it with content other than art objects? Over the past four...
When the “Picture” Is Not a Picture: Opening a Discussion
There is an art to crafting new VTS experiences. For instance, how can VTS work with a live animal?
VTS at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
A T. rex skeleton may not have narrative, but the parallels between scientific observation and VTS are strong
What More Can We Do?
How do our choices as “neutral” facilitators uphold dominant narratives and perpetuate oppression?