The Visual Thinking Strategy

    Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) is an evidence-based instructional strategy that develops visual literacy, critical thinking, and communication skills by interpreting images. Co-created by the cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine, a longtime director of education at the Museum of Modern Art, the technique uses three basic questions to nurture observation, inquiry, and evidence-based reasoning.

Strategy Details of the VTS Approach

The process to align the VTS strategy is structured yet agile:

Observation: First, students silently observe an image, painting, or photograph for one minute, writing down every detail.

• First Question – “What is happening in this picture? : What do students notice? Teachers accept all responses and model correct language use and sentence structure by rephrasing.
• Second Question — “What do you see that makes you say that?” : Students supply evidence to support their inferences. Teachers lead discussions, promoting respectful agreement or disagreement, backed by arguments.
• Third Question: “What else can we discover?” That pushes students beyond the surface of the image, deeper layers, inquiry, and the growth mindset.
• Reflection: Students discuss what they have learned, what did and didn’t work for them, and how the observation skill can be transferred to the real world.

VTS Strategy Benefits and Advantages

• Critical Thinking: It encourages students to be more analytical, and interpretative viewing visual stimuli systematically.
• Communication Skills: Builds argumentation, dialogue, and respectful disagreement.
• Engagement: Visuals cater to different learning styles and help keep students motivated.
• Collaboration: Helps facilitate group discussion, allowing students to build meaning together.
• Moral Values: Respect for different perspectives and Active listening.
• Read Across America Week — Describe your favorite book from your childhood.

Part of Integrated VTS in Grammar and the Four Skills

• Grammar:

VTS places grammar in context with images that represent a specific action or situation. For example:

For example, a poster displaying people doing things in a house can teach present continuous tense.

Students observe the image and describe actions, which the teacher paraphrases and then uses to elicit and discuss grammar rules.

• Listening:

Use pictures to generate students’ interest in listening.

Show a picture related to the listening material and ask the three VTS questions (what do you see, what evidence do you have, what more can you find?

As students describe and make inferences, they activate prior knowledge which establishes a meaningful context for listening comprehension.

• Speaking:

Structured speaking practice through discussions VTS is all about providing viewers with a framework to discuss the work in front of them, providing them a framework to explore through unfolding discussion.

Show an image and walk students through the three questions in pairs or groups.

Challenge them to use new words and structures, paraphrasing their responses to show that they are used correctly.

• Reading:

Here are some examples of how you can incorporate VTS as a pre-reading activity:

Show a painting such as Guernica before reading about war and conflict.

Students examine the image and offer inferences, preparing them to read the text.

• Writing:

Use images as prompts for descriptive or narrative writing tasks:

After going through the VTS questions, have the students write a brief story or descriptive paragraph based on the image.

Allow them to integrate their spoken observations into the writing process to develop sentence structure and coherence.

    Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) is a way to foster critical thinking, student-centered communication, and collaborative learning. When we adapt this to various contexts (grammar, listening, speaking, reading, writing) teachers can foster a deeper connection to learning and encourage creativity and curiosity in their students. The flexibility in implementing VTS will require the creativity and consideration of the teacher and their students’ needs, making it relevant to classrooms across the globe.