History of Visual Thinking Strategies

Visual Thinking Strategies is the result of more than fifteen years of collaboration between cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen, veteran museum educator Philip Yenawine, and their colleagues. As Director of Education at The Museum of Modern Art from 1983-1993, Yenawine was primarily concerned with making museum education programs more effective. His research introduced him to the work of Abigail Housen in 1988.

Housen, a Harvard-trained educator and psychologist, conducted empirical research exploring how viewers, experienced and novice, think when looking at art objects. The culmination of her many years of study, Housen?s Theory of Aesthetic Development, identifies five distinct patterns of thinking that correlate to the amount of exposure subjects have had to art. This research became the core of VTS.

http://www.vtshome.org

DBAE: Discipline Based Arts Education

Discipline-based art education (DBAE) is an approach to art education that draws upon four art disciplines: art production, art history, art criticism, and aesthetics.
Discipline-Based Art Education
DBAE was formalized in the 1980s by the Getty Center for Arts Education , a division of the J. Paul Getty Trust, which is a private foundation dedicated to the visual arts and the humanities. DBAE is a conceptual framework which incorporates elements from many other educational theories (such as VTS).
DBAE seeks to impart a well-rounded view of art by studying any given work or type
of work using four different disciplines, tailored to specific ages and grade levels:
1. Art Production – Students learn skills and techniques in order to produce
personal, original artwork.
2. Art History – Students study the artistic accomplishments of the past and
present as motivation, examples of style or technique, and as discussion
topics, especially in relation to cultural, political, social, religious, and
economic events and movements.
3. Art Criticism – Students describe, interpret, evaluate, theorize and judge
the properties and qualities of the visual form, for the purpose of
understanding and appreciating works of art and understanding the roles
of art in society.
4. Aesthetics – Students consider the nature, meaning, impact and value of
art, are encouraged to formulate reflective, “educated” opinions and
judgments about specific works of art, and examine criteria for evaluating
works of art.

Similar to Visual Thinking Strategies, Discipline-Based
Art Education is a form of inquiry-based training; the focus is on the students and
their interests, judgment, reasoning and critical-thinking skills.