MASTERCLASS VTS & SCIENCE EDUCATION

By Harald Raaijmakers

During the masterclass, ‘VTS and Science’, I will elaborate on and discuss the role that VTS plays in my research projects and my practice as a science educator. I start from the notion that an original “experience speaks”, and perceptual inquiry attempts to understand its voice from various perspectives. One such voice is science. I will argue, therefore, that science education must deal with the student’s individual access to the world and the outcome of this meeting. Emphasis on personal experiences with natural phenomena in science education can help to simultaneously explore perceptions from both rational and affective dimensions.

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Slow looking, reseeing and permission to wonder are key concepts that connect VTS with original scientific enquiry that starts with perceptual awareness. I will illustrate this from a publication at Karlstad University in Sweden, titled ‘Powerful eyes, imaginative minds’. Furthermore, I will share the idea behind my current study, where the intertwinement of perception, thinking and sensing in a VTS conversation brings me to Goethe’s holistic way of studying natural phenomena in combatting ‘plant blindness’. To conclude, I would like to engage you in a conversation with me about the possibilities and pitfalls of art-based methods as a strategy for science education and communication.

Although the subject matter of natural science education originates in the lifeworld of human everyday existence and common sense, most science lessons start with abstract concepts and mathematical structures followed by illustrative examples and experiments in an attempt to make those concepts understandable. In schools and public venues like museums and botanic gardens, educational practices are often based on 'the knowing’ communicating their knowledge to 'the unknowing'. This classic knowledge-transmission model proves to be very ineffective for many students, especially those from low-income and educational backgrounds, and for sceptics who deny or discredit scientific results.

Such “teaching that doesn’t stick” is a problem that Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine tried to tackle in the 1980s when they developed Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to create opportunities for visitors to have personal and original experiences with artworks through prolonged observation. Since then, the art-based approach of VTS has been known to establish learning environments conducive to questioning, curiosity, and imagination.

In 2020, science education professor Michael Reiss asked, “Do we want science lessons, in addition to the content they include and the skills they develop, also to shape students’ attitudes and behaviours? Do we want students not only to be able to write about the causes of biodiversity loss but also passionately to care about this?” Highly appropriate questions in a world where extinction is rising, and paradoxically, people’s awareness of the natural world around us is declining.

As a biologist and educator, I believe that teaching in secondary and higher education, besides conceptual understanding, should also support personal experiences and affective engagement with phenomena in nature. As a science educational research trainee, I wonder how we can organise effective ‘didactical’ situations in and out of school that support an attentive presence with natural phenomena. I’m looking forward to sharing my insights and questions with you.

Warm welcome,
Harald Raaijmakers

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Do you want to know more?
Podcast: Student’s art-based exploration of science in a third space.
Research paper: Developing museum-school partnerships: art-based explorations of science issues in a third space.

What is a masterclass?
During online Masterclasses VTS practicioners from the VTS community share how they work, think, explore and develop - inspired by VTS. They talk about their experiences, experiments and findings and engage with the participants of the Masterclass in their train of thought. It’s a mix of sharing, inspiring and meeting each other.

For whom
Anyone who did a VTS training and is interested in the subject is welcome.

Price
€ 40,- (Including VAT 21%)

Where and when
14th of January / 19.30-21.00 hrs / online on Zoom