This week is teacher week. The origin of teacher week comes from a coincidence. Once, the EAM held short, one-evening program for teachers. After that program, a teacher told Kelly that she thought the museum should have a weeklong summer training, and thus teacher week was born. This program builds a cooperation between the EAM and teachers. Teachers can help the EAM to hold some exhibitions by writing the text and by make the EAM rethink their position to understand how ordinary people think about some artwork. Therefore, teachers can be a bridge between ordinary people’s thoughts and the EAM and can help visitors understand the exhibition more easily.
This year teacher week focused on planning for an exhibit from the museum’s permanent collection. Using a technique called VTS, museum staff led teachers in a discussion about pieces from the collection. VTS (Visual Thinking Strategy) is a good tool to let people to understand meanings in the artworks. Philip Yenawine, the VTS founder, acclaims that Visual literacy is the ability to find meaning in imagery. Therefore, VTS encourage people to discover something in the artworks, and train their own visual thinking. In VTS, people not only can start appreciate the artworks by themselves, but also can sharpen their own visual and critical thinking.
Most teachers think VTS is a good tool and that it will help them teach students.
In watching the VTS sessions at the EAM, I sometimes wondered if teachers really knew the spirit of VTS or how to proceed with VTS. I was also confused about what the purpose of doing VTS in teacher week was. My first questions were, “Is VTS for training teachers how to do it or just to let them join and enjoy the programs?” I will make an evaluation assuming that the purpose of VTS was for training teachers.
The EAM planned to do a series of VTS programs in this teacher week and also to let teachers assist with preparing an African textile exhibition of kangas. Most interns helped the whole process to run smoothly, including me. (Even though I still can not do anything except for observing them) Kelly was the main facilitator in the VTS, and Britt and Amy also. Kelly was really good at operating the VTS, creating some questions, and using different questions to direct teachers without passing judgment. Meanwhile, I found lots of interesting things happened in the process. At first, most teachers did not respond to questions very frequently, however, after these days they became more involved. I was so curious about why they change their attitude that I asked some teachers privately. Most teachers said that as they began to feel more comfortable they could say what they really thought. I found if you want effective learning to happen, first you should make people feel comfortable in their surroundings. Therefore, facilitators play an important role in the process of VTS. However if comfort is the main reason that teachers respond very frequently, how can we be sure that VTS sharpens visual thinking? The participants, the facilitator, the space, the situation and the time are all factors. So many variables exist in the process of VTS that we can not just jump to the conclusion that VTS did definitely enhance visual thinking for teachers. I think that VTS is a really good tool, but that we must consider how to use the tool more efficiently.
VTS enables participants to understand the abstract meaning of artworks. In VTS, participants observe details in the paintings and try to connect their experiences in order to create meaning in artwork. That’s why most teachers said “it reminds me of….” when they started their comments. From this perspective, first we should know who our participants are. We should collect the entire information about their previous experiences, cognitive stage and so on. If we want to do VTS, we should build the bridge to connect participants and artworks in advance. In VTS we display the artwork and ask three standardized questions: “What is going on here?” “What do you see that makes you say that?” and “What else can you say?”. These questions are not enough for participants. This form may empower our participants to interpret the artworks through their own eyes, however, there is a potential to overinterpret and misunderstand the meaning of artworks. Therefore, understanding our participant is the first step to build the communicative bridge. Understanding will help facilitators select suitable artworks and create questions. We should choose artwork that the participant may already have background knowledge about. For example, in this teacher week the VTS session in which decoys were used was really effective. Teachers seemed to be familiar with decoys and so they did not just guess at the decoy’s purpose and meaning. More over if we do not understand the participants, the artwork we choose may not arouse their attention and we cannot expect them to have the desire to explore the further meanings.
Furthermore, if we do the research on artworks in advance it may much better for our participants. Participants want more than to observe artworks. They have lots of questions. The facilitator should be able to give them the information that they want to know. If the facilitator does not have any idea about the artworks, how could VTS encourage participants to gain deeper meaning? If we would like to set the fire, we need some ingredients, like wood. Therefore, facilitators need to provide some baby steps for participants especially when participants need more information. I think VTS is a learner-centered tool, but it does not mean the learner can observe and interpret artworks without help. And also I think that in the EAM’s VTS sessions learning ended in the classroom. Putting the artworks and the relative information on the EAM website may be a good idea to allow participants to continue learning. VTS is the key to open the door of the art world, but it’s just a beginning, not the end.
This year teacher week focused on planning for an exhibit from the museum’s permanent collection. Using a technique called VTS, museum staff led teachers in a discussion about pieces from the collection. VTS (Visual Thinking Strategy) is a good tool to let people to understand meanings in the artworks. Philip Yenawine, the VTS founder, acclaims that Visual literacy is the ability to find meaning in imagery. Therefore, VTS encourage people to discover something in the artworks, and train their own visual thinking. In VTS, people not only can start appreciate the artworks by themselves, but also can sharpen their own visual and critical thinking.
Most teachers think VTS is a good tool and that it will help them teach students.
In watching the VTS sessions at the EAM, I sometimes wondered if teachers really knew the spirit of VTS or how to proceed with VTS. I was also confused about what the purpose of doing VTS in teacher week was. My first questions were, “Is VTS for training teachers how to do it or just to let them join and enjoy the programs?” I will make an evaluation assuming that the purpose of VTS was for training teachers.
The EAM planned to do a series of VTS programs in this teacher week and also to let teachers assist with preparing an African textile exhibition of kangas. Most interns helped the whole process to run smoothly, including me. (Even though I still can not do anything except for observing them) Kelly was the main facilitator in the VTS, and Britt and Amy also. Kelly was really good at operating the VTS, creating some questions, and using different questions to direct teachers without passing judgment. Meanwhile, I found lots of interesting things happened in the process. At first, most teachers did not respond to questions very frequently, however, after these days they became more involved. I was so curious about why they change their attitude that I asked some teachers privately. Most teachers said that as they began to feel more comfortable they could say what they really thought. I found if you want effective learning to happen, first you should make people feel comfortable in their surroundings. Therefore, facilitators play an important role in the process of VTS. However if comfort is the main reason that teachers respond very frequently, how can we be sure that VTS sharpens visual thinking? The participants, the facilitator, the space, the situation and the time are all factors. So many variables exist in the process of VTS that we can not just jump to the conclusion that VTS did definitely enhance visual thinking for teachers. I think that VTS is a really good tool, but that we must consider how to use the tool more efficiently.
VTS enables participants to understand the abstract meaning of artworks. In VTS, participants observe details in the paintings and try to connect their experiences in order to create meaning in artwork. That’s why most teachers said “it reminds me of….” when they started their comments. From this perspective, first we should know who our participants are. We should collect the entire information about their previous experiences, cognitive stage and so on. If we want to do VTS, we should build the bridge to connect participants and artworks in advance. In VTS we display the artwork and ask three standardized questions: “What is going on here?” “What do you see that makes you say that?” and “What else can you say?”. These questions are not enough for participants. This form may empower our participants to interpret the artworks through their own eyes, however, there is a potential to overinterpret and misunderstand the meaning of artworks. Therefore, understanding our participant is the first step to build the communicative bridge. Understanding will help facilitators select suitable artworks and create questions. We should choose artwork that the participant may already have background knowledge about. For example, in this teacher week the VTS session in which decoys were used was really effective. Teachers seemed to be familiar with decoys and so they did not just guess at the decoy’s purpose and meaning. More over if we do not understand the participants, the artwork we choose may not arouse their attention and we cannot expect them to have the desire to explore the further meanings.
Furthermore, if we do the research on artworks in advance it may much better for our participants. Participants want more than to observe artworks. They have lots of questions. The facilitator should be able to give them the information that they want to know. If the facilitator does not have any idea about the artworks, how could VTS encourage participants to gain deeper meaning? If we would like to set the fire, we need some ingredients, like wood. Therefore, facilitators need to provide some baby steps for participants especially when participants need more information. I think VTS is a learner-centered tool, but it does not mean the learner can observe and interpret artworks without help. And also I think that in the EAM’s VTS sessions learning ended in the classroom. Putting the artworks and the relative information on the EAM website may be a good idea to allow participants to continue learning. VTS is the key to open the door of the art world, but it’s just a beginning, not the end.
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