Testing the new tagging system.

This article explores the ideas behind Visual Thinking Strategies and how they shape the way we look, think and learn together. It connects VTS to theories of experience, perception, social learning and aesthetic development, and considers its role in developing critical and culturally responsive ways of thinking.

Abigail Housen explores how people develop as viewers of art and identifies five stages of aesthetic development. She shows how looking, talking and reflecting can deepen perception, critical thinking and the ability to construct meaning from different perspectives.

Abigail Housen describes 25 years of research into how people respond to and understand works of art. She explains how research into viewers’ thinking led to a theory of aesthetic development and informed educational practice.