Calls from international organizations such as Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD) and mandates from ministries of education in the Nordic-Baltic region highlight the importance of supporting research literacy and research skills in teacher educationand encouraging pre- and in-service teachers to concretize these skills via active research tosupport continued professional development. Research-based teacher education requires parallel processes and careful consideration of different perspectives of stakeholders in different sectors of education to enmesh research engagement into teachers’ professional identity. This paper reports on the initial work conducted within a collaborative NordPlus project "Teacher ResearchLiteracy: Comparative Trajectories in the Nordic-Baltic Region" (TREL) that engages several universities and schools in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. The project seeks to strengthen teacher education programs in the Nordic and Baltic region by collecting and sharing experiences from pedagogical activities related to research literacy development in pre and in-service teachers. With its focus on documenting and discussing best practice and analysing national needs, policies, and research literacy training activities at the partner universities and schools, TREL aims to contribute to the establishment of a coherent Nordic strategy in teacher research literacy training. We will share preliminary results of the project based on the data created in collaborative workshops and observations of the English classrooms at the partner organisations and share our experiences of drafting a handbook of good practice for building research literacy in TREL’s professional learning network.

Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is a teaching method that offers an easy way to get students to interact in their second language. By using visual stimuli, students practice visual literacy, critical thinking skills, evidence-based argumentation, communication, and language skills. VTS initiates an active process of discovery and provides students with opportunities to build on prior knowledge and progress in their learning. This workshop will give you the chance to try the VTS process and reflect on how you can use it to support your own teaching.

Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is an inquiry-based pedagogical technique grounded in teacher-pupil discussions which principally uses images as a resource. Based on Abigail Housen’s original work in cognitive psychology (Housen, 1980, 1983), it was initially created for Art studies to improve a participant’s ability to interpret, describe, and analyse imagery and do this through active observation and collective discussion (Yenawine, 2018, 2013; XX, 2022). Whilst VTS can be used with participants of all ages, it has shown itself to be particularly impactful with young children both in developing their analysis skills, but also their language and communication skills (Hailey et al. 2015; Yenawine, 2018, 2013; XX, under review). As a result, VTS can be described as a "meta-visual-lingual" activity because it is the act of talking out loud about the thinking inspired by a visual object such as an image. In addition to providing educators with the opportunity to use any visual stimuli related to their teaching, VTS also provides an in-practice opportunity for teachers to assess their pupils’ learning. In this presentation, I will explore how VTS goes beyond the Art studies experience and is a highly adaptable technique for teachers of English in their work with pupils developing their language skills, critical literacy, and in-depth learning for a fuller engagement in language classrooms.

References

Hailey, D., Miller, A., Yenawine, P. (2015). Understanding Visual Literacy: The Visual ThinkingStrategies Approach. In: Baylen, D., D’Alba, A. (eds) Essentials of Teaching and IntegratingVisual and Media Literacy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_3

Housen, A. (1983). The eye of the beholder: Measuring aesthetic development. Dissertation,Harvard University.Housen, A. (1980). What Is beyond, or before, the Lecture Tour? A Study of Aesthetic Modesof Understanding. Art Education, 33(1), 16–18. https://doi.org/10.2307/3192394

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Yenawine, P. (2018) Visual Thinking Strategies for preschool: Using art to enhance literacyand social Skills. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.Yenawine, P. (2013) Visual Thinking Strategies: Using art to deepen learning across school disciplines. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is an inquiry-based pedagogical tool grounded in teacher-pupil discussions. It was created originally to improve a participant’s ability to interpret, describe, and analyze imagery and do this through active observation and collective discussion (Yenawine, 2013, 2018; Nolan, 2022). In this presentation, I will explore how VTS goes beyond the art museum experience and is a highly adaptable technique for developing critical literacy and in-depth learning for a fuller engagement with a text. VTS could be described as a “meta-visual-lingual” activity as it is the act of talking out load about the thinking inspired by a visual object such as a text, immersing student participants in the text and supporting them in their critical exploration of the focus text and thus explicitly developing a "multi-modal critical literacy". The impact of adopting VTS with students and pupils of all ages but particularly those in primary school could be significant. It has proven very effective in nurturing participants’ abilities and skills in critical and creative thinking, critical awareness and intercultural sensitivity, and in developing an openness to new cultural contexts, new perspectives, and unfamiliar ideologies (Hailey et al., 2015; Yenawine, 2013, 2018).

This workshop is a practical exploration of how Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), used as an inclusivestrategy, can be used as an effective tool to support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in providingmultiple means of engagement, representation and action and expression for every student in multiplelearning environments including the virtual. The workshop will give participants a brief overview of VTSbefore signposting how, as an inclusion strategy, it aligns with the vision of UDL. Participants will have theopportunity to engage with the VTS process and reflect on how this strategy can support inclusion.

This presentation and workshop are a practical exploration of how Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), used as an inclusive strategy, can be used as an effective tool to support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in providing multiple means of engagement, representation, action and expression for every student in our learning environment. Originally developed for Art education, VTS uses art to teach visual literacy, thinking skills and communication skills to young people. VTS is an invitational space where unique perspectives are valued and explored. It uses safe and accessible questions to initiate an active process of discovery and provides opportunities to build on prior knowledge, develop critical thinking, and progress learning. More recently, researchers and educators have explored VTS in the inclusion space and the interconnection between VTS and UDL across curriculum areas. This presentation and workshop will give participants a brief overview of VTS before signposting how, as an inclusion strategy, it aligns with the vision of UDL and can be used as a practical tool in our learning environments. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with the VTS process and reflect on how this strategy can support inclusion in their subject area. This will be of interest to early childhood, primary and post-primary (secondary) teachers of all subjects. It will also be of interest to those with an interest in Arts Education.

This paper examines the introduction of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) in Denmark and its potential as a pedagogical tool used throughout Danish education culture and particularly in Danish primary schools. The first active Danish users of and trainers in VTS in the country provide purposive qualitative interview data through structured e-mail interviews focused on their experiences with VTS and their impressions of this pedagogical tool in the Danish education culture context. The analysis of this qualitative data indicates that VTS is highly and widely adaptable to Danish education culture which, like other Scandinavian education systems, is based on bildung didactic principles. In their contemporary manifestation, these principles value the emancipation of the individual and the promotion of democratic learning processes. The introduction of VTS is still a work in progress in the Danish context and is not yet formally used in the school system. However, it is precisely there that a rich vein of opportunities exists for VTS in Denmark.

Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is an inquiry-based pedagogical tool grounded in teacherstudent discussions. It was created originally to improve a participant's ability to interpret, describe, and analyze imagery and do this through active observation and collective discussion. In this presentation, I explore how VTS goes beyond visual literacy and is a highly adaptable elicitation and communication technique for language learning and in developing reciprocally respectful communication skills, which are very relevant for English language teaching in Sweden. VTS could be described as a “meta-visual-lingual” activity as it is the act of talking out load about the thinking inspired by a visual object. And this, especially when part of the activity’s focus is language development. The impact of VTS could be significant in the Swedish education system. It has proven very effective in nurturing the abilities and skills which are valued in Sweden such as those explicated in the compulsory school curriculum. VTS has also proven to be a very efficient technique in language teaching and can directly help to fulfil several of the ambitions of the curriculum and the English language syllabus.