Continuing the educational project for Lithuanian teachers
The educational project “Visual Thinking Exchange Through Art”, which has been very popular with Lithuanian teachers, is being continued once again by the MO Museum and the British Council in Lithuania.
A number of teachers shared that the training for educators should be repeated with even more participants. So we were keen to respond to this need! The project will run again and the teachers who are interested in participating are invited to fill in the registration forms.
The project is open to a total of 150 teachers. The free virtual training for Lithuanian teachers will start on 20 January 2022 and run until 3 March.
Long-term impact – reaching as many Lithuanian children as possible
“This is not the first year that we have seen the benefits of the visual thinking method used by MO Museum educators – it helps to develop critical thinking and dialogue competences, creativity, communication and cooperation skills. The growing demand from teachers to apply this method in their subjects has encouraged us to continue the project and to invite teachers to the training again, thus reaching even more Lithuanian children,” shares Milda Ivanauskienė, Director of the MO Museum.
Ona Marija Vyšniauskaitė, Head of the British Council in Lithuania, who is implementing the project with MO for the third year, is delighted with the popularity of the project: “We appreciate the fact that teachers are willing to take a fresh look at their subjects and are keen to use visual methods to enrich their knowledge. The transfer of this knowledge will encourage students to be more courageous in expressing their ideas and creating meaningful and insightful discussions in schools.”
Students engage, discuss and argument
The project “Visual Thinking Exchange Trough Art” will take place remotely. Teachers will participate both in joint meetings of all participants and in individual training sessions in the groups of 15 people. Together with a MO educator, the teachers will gain theoretical and practical knowledge on the application of the Visual Thinking Method.
The Visual Thinking Method is an art education method developed by Philip Yenawine, an educator at MoMA (USA), and Abigail Housen, a psychologist, and has been actively and successfully used at the MO since the opening of the museum. Teachers who have participated in previous training sessions have witnessed its benefits. From Lithuanian language to biology, history or English, the method can be creatively applied in a variety of disciplines.
Teachers who have tried the method in practice have noticed a freer communication, more courageous speaking and more active involvement in the discussion. Even students who are not always actively involved in the teaching process are speaking up, they said. Many teachers also shared that they have been successful in engaging students in argument-based discussions, developing critical thinking and creativity.
Educational materials and the opportunity to join the MO Teacher Passport community
The project training for teachers will be delivered virtually, through a virtual tour of the photography exhibition “Celebrate for Change“, currently on display at the MO Museum. During the remote sessions, teachers will be able to fully participate in the exhibition, get acquainted with all the works and use the virtual tour of the exhibition in their future lessons as another tool in the educational process.
Teachers participating in the project will also receive a comprehensive package of recommendations prepared by MO educators on how to apply the Visual Thinking Method in practical educational processes.
At the end of the training, all participating teachers will have the opportunity to join the MO Museum’s Teacher Passport community, which is currently made up of almost 3 000 Lithuanian teachers.
The educational project is implemented within the framework of the People to People programme in cooperation with the British Council in Lithuania.
