Las Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) desde la perspectiva del educador patrimonial. DAFO del método en su aplicación práctica

The aim of this research is to show the insights of the educators of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona regarding the implementation of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), an increasingly popular teaching method in museums. For this qualitative case study, approached from a constructivist perspective, we used techniques and methodologies corresponding to ethnographic research in education, more precisely, semi-structured interviews. Informants are eight museum educators, two men and six women, that regularly put into practice this method during Catalan schools’ visits to the Picasso Museum. The results, that have been analysed using qualitative content analysis techniques, show the strong and weak points of the VTS. The data revealed that the positive aspects relate mainly to the artwork and the school group, highlighting how the method can encourage public participation and change the way students approach the artworks: all of these strengths match different theoretical contributions related to VTS. Regarding weaknesses, educators have referred mainly to those linked with strategies concerning the own method, the educator, the context and the public, negative aspects that have been discussed in connection to previous studies. The results allow us to conclude that Picasso Museum’s educators perceive many more strengths than weaknesses in the VTS, the former being indicative of the need for educational renewal in museum education whilst the latter are related to the frequent reluctances towards new methodologies of people educated under traditional education systems. Data also suggests that the most experienced educators detect more difficulties in the implementation of the Visual Thinking Strategies than those who have just started.