This document summarizes a presentation about using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) in information literacy sessions. It discusses how VTS was developed based on theories of cognitive and aesthetic development. VTS involves having students look at an image and answer open-ended questions to develop observation skills, make inferences, and consider multiple perspectives. The presentation explains how VTS furthers the goals of information literacy by developing critical thinking. Examples of using VTS with artworks are provided, as well as research showing its effectiveness beyond art. The presentation concludes with a call for questions.

1. Visual Thinking Strategies From
the Museum to the Library
What’s Going On In This Picture?
Presented by Amelia Nelson, Public Services Librarian
Nelson Atkins Museum of Art

3. Agenda
• In today’s presentation I’m going to share with
you what I’ve learned about Visual Thinking
Strategies (VTS) and why it’s effective
• How I use VTS in information literacy sessions
• How VTS furthers the goals of information
literacy
• Share some on-going research about VTS and its
connections beyond art
• I’d like to close with time for questions

4. Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)
History and Theory

5. Jean Piaget’s theory of Cognitive
Development
• Sensori-motor
• Pre-operational
• Concrete operational
• Formal operational
Stages
Cohen, Lisa J. The Handy Psychology Answer Book. Detroit, MI: Visible
Ink Press, 2011.

6. Theory of Aesthetic Development
 Stage 1 – Accountive
o Inventory objects, storytelling, connection to life
experiences
 Stage II – Constructive
o Build frameworks using logic, perception and judgements
 State III – Classifying
o Identify place, school style, time and provenance
 Stage IV – Interpretive
o Seek personal encounter, appreciating the subtleties of line
and shape, and interpreting symbolic meaning
 Stage V – Re-creative
o long history and experience of looking at and studying art,
combine personal experience as well as universal
experience
Housen, Abigail, “Eye of the Beholder” (paper presented at the conference of “Aesthetic
and Art Education: a Transdisciplinary Approach,” sponsored by the Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation, Service of Education, Lisbon, Portugal, September 27-29, 1999)

7. John Singer Sargent , American , American, 1856 -
1925
Fisherwomen Returning, ca. 1877
What’s going on in this picture?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?

8. “Our initial challenge was, of
course, to determine how one
might support aesthetic growth.
Clearly this is not a matter of
studying what experts do, and then
instructing children to do the same.
… If the top-down educational
approach of instructing beginners
to act like experts really worked,
everyone would be an expert, and
at a very early age too.”
Housen, Abigail, “Eye of the Beholder” (paper presented at the conference of “Aesthetic and Art Education: a
Transdisciplinary Approach,” sponsored by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Service of Education, Lisbon,
Portugal, September 27-29, 1999) accessed August 22, 2015, http://www.vtshome.org/research/articles-other-
readings

9. “Ultimately, information
literate people are those who
have learned how to learn.
They know how to learn
because they know how
knowledge is organized, how
to find information, and how
to use information in such a
way that others can learn
from them.”*
Critical thinking skills
developed from
• Evidence supported
observations
• Inferences based on
observations
• Considering multiple
inferences
• Revising
• Elaborating
Information Literacy VTS
(Visual Thinking
Strategies)
*American Library Association Presidential Committee
on Information Literacy (January 10, 1989, Washington,
D.C.)

10. African
installation
colonialism
African textile
What is it made of?
construction
Studio/group
construction
Made from metal?
How is it made?
Was it made for the
museum?
Specific African tribe?
Looks like it’s made
from recycled materials
Symbolic meaning?

11. Ghanaian
Culture
El Anatsui
Tapestry
series
Provenance
of Dusasa I

12. VTS Connections
Beyond Art
Michigan State University
Planetarium, 1964

13. “The best teachers
are those who
show you where to
look, but don't tell
you what to see.”
-Alexandra K. Trenfor
Inspiring Thoughts of Great Educational Thinkers
By Dr. Vimal Kishor

14. Questions?
Thank you!
Copies of my bibliography are in
back, these include the full image
credits
Amelia Nelson, Public Services
Librarian at the Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art
anelson@nelson-atkins.org
816.751.1215