Visual Thinking Strategies:
Presentation and workshop
Friday November 23, 2018, 3.30-5pm
Public Pedagogies Conference
This session will begin with the presentation Making Thinking Visible in Public Spaces by Noeleen Curran, exploring Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) as a public pedagogy, with a focus primarily on informal institutions and public spaces that teach the public and engage the community.
VTS is a research-based construct that has proven to be effective in developing critical thinking and communication skills using art, on location at art gallery spaces. This presentation It will explore the value of utilising VTS to facilitate public pedagogical processes in its capacity to engage observation, provide evidence to support that observation, active listening, and being open to other viewpoints and interpretations. By exploring public venues and places to construct meaning, advances in a ‘public curriculum’ in which participants become their own ‘curriculum coordinators’, supports a powerful facilitated and self-constructed public pedagogy.
Noeleen Curran is a visual arts educator based in Adelaide, currently working at University of South Australia. She engages preservice teachers in The Arts curriculum as an integrative methodology and espouses the value of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to support learning in the classroom and as a public pedagogy. She is currently the Secretary of Visual Arts Educators of South Australia Inc. (VAESA) and recently led a breakout session at the recent VAESA Winter Conference, sharing her knowledge and experience of VTS as a public pedagogy.
The presentation will be followed by an Introduction to Visual Thinking Strategies workshop with Christine Healey in which participants will engage in a VTS ‘conversation’, placing themselves in the position as learner. VTS uses facilitated discussion to practice respectful, democratic, collaborative problem-solving. Through this shared experience and debrief, workshop participants will gain personal insight into this pedagogy and its application.
Christine Healey is Curator Education and Community Learning at the Incinerator Gallery, Moonee Ponds and an experienced Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) facilitator, coach and trainer. Christine initially trained in VTS in New York (2012), followed with two fellowships at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2013) and again as a guest of Independent Schools Victoria (2016). Christine introduced VTS and the VTS school partnerships into Australian contexts whilst Education Manager at Heide Museum of Modern Art. Christine’s formal qualifications include an MA Arts Management, RMIT University, Grad. Dip Ed. (Visual Arts), Uni Melb and Bachelor Fine Arts (Photography), Victorian College of the Arts and current Ph.D candidate at RMIT University. She is vice-president of Education Network Victoria (ENVI) and a 2013 Melbourne Boston Sister Cities fellow. Twitter: @ChristineHealey
This session is part of:
Public Pedagogies Institute Conference 2018
November 22-23
Footscray, Melbourne