Permission to Wonder: Supporting schools to implement the Visual Thinking Strategies method to enhance Learning with Visual Arts Erasmus Project

Project Title

Permission to Wonder: Supporting schools to implement the Visual Thinking Strategies method to enhance Learning with Visual Arts

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Research and innovation; Social dialogue; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project was designed to offer educators an innovative opportunity to learn to use the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) method to facilitate learning with visual art in schools and in cultural institutions with a remit for arts education. The project guided educators from local arts and education communities in 6 European countries to come together, train and test the VTS method, which supports learners to respond to an image from their own point of view, using a structured and open ended discussion as the gateway for understanding the image rather than offering information. Learners are encouraged to think speculatively, to acknowledge and build on what members of their peer group are saying, and to build confidence and competence in their own ideas and evidence building.

The Project Objectives were:
1) To test the training pathway of the VTS method with educators in Europe. In the project, educators are understood to encompass primary school classroom teachers, secondary school art teachers, as well as art museum facilitators/educators.
2) To capture and share the impact of the training in VTS on educators and highlight the opportunities and challenges using the VTS method in schools by developing a shared research framework across all partner countries.
3) To offer schools and cultural institutions opportunity to introduce the VTS method into their classroom and museum/gallery setting.
4) To increase the use of art museums as settings for VTS teaching of visual arts.
5) To produce an image bank relevant to VTS compiled from European collections and artists’ practice.

The project was made of partners from 6 different countries and ranging from large public institutions to small social enterprises and artists’ associations. The project was co-ordinated by the Dublin City Arts Office in Dublin City Council. The other partners are the Finnish Museum of Photography, Finland; VTS Nederland, Netherlands; Muserum, Denmark; the Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies, and a Spanish consultancy working with schools, called CREA360. 26 associate schools supported educators to practice VTS at local level and 9 associate partners collaborated in this project ranging from museums, curriculum development agencies and municipalities. Each partner was responsible for leading and managing the implementation of the project and the VTS method in their native language, in their schools and cultural institutions.

The main target group of the project was educators in schools and cultural institutions. The indirect target group was children and young people. A wider group of interested people began to connect with the project as it was taking place, such as curriculum designers, academic organisations, libraries, and community agencies.

Results

The results of the project significantly contributed to the horizontal priority of the Erasmus+ Programme, namely achievement for educators of relevant and high quality skills and competences

Over the course of the project, 664 VTS lessons were given to children and young people, and approximately 2205 students were reached by educators participating in the project. 155 classes were involved in VTS sessions.

4 learning, teaching and training activities, led by Senior Trainer of VTS/USA Yoon Kang O’Higgins, took place for educators and partners to build skills and competence in the VTS method. In order to track the quality of the training experience, the educators participated in a short evaluation which was evaluated and reported on by Muserum, Denmark.

6 transnational partner meetings took place to plan, deliver and evaluate the progress of the project as it went along.

01 Research framework – evaluated 8 museum educators, 8 art teachers, 3 subject teachers and 4 primary school teachers participating, led by each partner at local level.
The impact for educators was that after training and implementing VTS in the classroom or cultural institution, they felt more confident in facilitating open ended conversations with their students. Therefore, they found themselves using open ended discussion as an approach more frequently in their teaching. While VTS is a visual art methodology, educators highlighted that they had become better at listening to their students voices through facilitating open ended discussions.

02 Image Bank – a set of images compiled by all project partners – was tested by educators during classroom and training activities.

E12 Multiplier Event – The Permission to Wonder Symposium was planned for 21 April 2020 for Dublin Castle; following its cancellation due to Covid19, we experimented with new ways of disseminating the results, experience and knowledge of the project. A series of webinars via Zoom were attended and viewed by an international audience.

Online webinars, infographics, training materials and vimeos of educators are available on the project website www.permissiontowonder.com

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 218869,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL & Country: IE

Project Partners

• SUOMEN VALOKUVATAITEEN MUSEON SAATIO STIFTELSEN-STIFTELSEN FOR FINLANDS FOTOGRAFISKA MUSEUM FOUNDATION FINNISH MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY SVM FMP
• Stichting VTS Nederland
• Zveza drustev slovenskih likovnih umetnikov
• Muserum
• CREA 360 SL