Visual Thinking Strategies as Humanistic Education: A Qualitative Study of Teachers Using VTS

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) practices positively impact student performance and if so, they may also, affect teacher performance. The purpose of this study was to explore Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) on teachers’ perceptions of their general teaching practice. A qualitative, multiple case study was conducted to investigate the experience of teachers using VTS. Eligible teacher participants were identified through the Visual Thinking Strategies Organization and the Watershed Collaborative. The two cases – teachers practicing VTS in Kindergarten-Grade 12 (K-12) setting and teachers practicing in VTS outside of the K-12 setting – were investigated separately and then compared in a cross-case analysis. An analysis of the data indicated that using VTS in teaching relates to a humanistic teaching style. These findings have implications for educators and educational institutions wishing to implement humanistic teaching practices and raise further questions pertaining to VTS and humanistic education practices that might be explored through future research.

Received: 2 April 2024 | Revised: 22 May 2024 | Accepted: 1 July 2024

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Because of participant privacy reasons, data are not publicly available.

Author Contribution Statement

Christina Connors: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration; Jody S. Piro: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Resources, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration.