Understanding Visual Literacy: The Visual Thinking Strategies Approach

Abstract

This chapter makes the case for two aspects of visual literacy that the authors believe to be generally overlooked: (1) that visual literacy occurs by way of a developmental trajectory and requires instruction as well as practice, and (2) that it involves as much thought as it does visual awareness and is an integral component of the skills and beliefs related to inquiry. This chapter roots these ideas in the theory and research of cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen, coauthor of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) with museum educator Philip Yenawine. Housen identified aesthetic stages that mark the development of skills helping to define visual literacy. Her research is also the basis of VTS, a method of engaging learners in deep experiences looking at art and discussing meanings with peers, a process that, this chapter posits, furthers visual literacy. This chapter presents that body of research and details the resulting VTS protocol. It reviews academic studies to date, subsequent to Housen, that document the impact of VTS interventions in various settings, and suggests beneficial areas for future research. In order to probe what development in visual literacy looks and sounds like on a granular level, two case studies of student writing from existing studies are presented and analyzed. Visual literacy skills enabled by VTS are briefly connected to broader educational concerns.

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“…According to Dallow (2008), the visual is "like an interface or cultural zone of social exchange … a social sphere or arena where contemporary views of reality are displayed;" he goes on to add that "a notion of visual literacy could be the capacity to negotiate or 'navigate' this visual cultural zone" (p. 98). Hailey et al (2015) also agree suggesting that experiences that engage visual literacy are 'essentially social exchanges'. The requirement to hand draw the mind map poster on one piece of paper with a certain set of pens and without any computer technology generates a need for all the members of a stakeholder team to inhabit the same space at the same time.…”

“…In other words, we aim to place an emphasis learners' ability to actively develop original visual interpretations of known information and team understandings as opposed to simply copying and pasting existing visuals. In this way, learners are stimulated to analyse, evaluate and manipulate images to develop their own specific language in a sense that the visual messages presented need to be decoded to have meaning (Branton, as cited in Stokes, 2002). Ainsworth et al (2011) suggests that expressing abstract concepts as hand drawings can be "transformative by generating new inferences" (p. 1).…”

“…They gain confidence dealing with ambiguity and gradually learn to appreciate the impact of providing visual evidence. They overcome challenges through perseverance and realize that there can be more than just one possible answer (Hailey et al, 2015). Such face-to-face conversational interactions provide a means for the teams to converge, influence each other's thinking and construct meaning together through their own interpretations and refinements of ambiguous, abstract and possibly fragmentary information (Roschelle, 1992).…”

Enriching Mathematics Education with Visual Arts: Effects on Elementary School Students’ Ability in Geometry and Visual Arts

“…"; Housen, 2002). Students thus learn to observe and analyze the visual aspects of a piece of art, to consider the view of others, and to reflect on and discuss about possible interpretations (Hailey, Miller, & Yenawine, 2015). Educating visual arts perception also enables students to extract shapes and objects from a visual scene which, in turn, can influence their recognition and representation of visual information (Kozbelt, 2001;Tishman, MacGillivray, & Palmer, 1999).…”

Exploring the Effects of a Visual Thinking Strategies Workshop on the Reflective Thinking of Undergraduate Engineering Students

“…For an effective VTS session, an image of sufficient detail and character, usually a painting or a photograph, is selected and discussion is initiated by asking the question: "What's going on in this picture?" While the question is simple, choosing a developmentally appropriate image and facilitating a collaborative, engaging, and pedagogically effective discussion session both require careful sensitivity (Hancock 2016;Housen & Yenawine 2011), so training and practice are needed for VTS educators/facilitators (Hailey, Miller, & Yenawine 2015).…”