Project

SVG

ChitchART

The Erasmus project “ChitchART” is aimed at training teachers on Visual Thinking Strategies, an inclusive methodology based on the use of visual media (from paintings to sculptures, photographs and installations) as a high-potential didactic tool to promote the students’ development of key and transversal competences, such as:
 

  • Visual literacy, i.e. the ability to attribute meaning to images, starting from their subject identification to an interpretation on a contextual, metaphorical and philosophical level. 
  • The spirit of collaboration, improved by the judicious conduct of class discussions in response to open questions posed by the teacher/facilitator. 
  • Communication skills, focused not only on the expression of concepts, but also on the reasoned formulation of opinions and observations. 
  • Critical thinking, i.e. the ability to ask analytical questions, argue one's own opinions, explore new points of view, recognise the complexity of an object of study.

Throughout the consecutive workshops organised by the leading partner (called Study circle), the teachers participating in the project are learning to supplement their teaching approaches based on frontal lessons with strategies that enable students to strengthen the habit of observing, analysing and questioning the world around them. The main idea behind Visual Thinking Strategies is that artworks, as well as aesthetic and historical objects, provide the cue for debates which need to be carried out by posing three open-ended questions: 

  • What’s going on in this picture?
  • What do you see that makes you say that?
  • What else can we find?

 

Mediateque

This website will act as a Mediateque, a catalogue of artworks that our teachers have been selecting among museums and collections of their regions of origin in Turkey, Italy and Spain.

The Mediateque provides a tool for teachers from all over the world. Artworks are categorised in three topics: Relationships, Identity and Environment, which have been identified by our partners as particularly relevant subjects to be explored with students between 11 and 18 years old.

The images can be used to trigger a classroom debate by means of open-ended questions or to conduct compelling activities with your students. The Questions and Activities boxes, present on each artwork webpage, includes on-point suggestions by our teachers trained on the Visual Thinking Strategies. On the other hand, the Resources box contains contextual information regarding the artwork, to be explored by your students.

You can also look for an artist, a museum or a specific word contained in our Mediateque by using the search button (the magnifying glass on the upper right corner of the page). 

 

Resources

Click here to consult the training material regarding the Visual Thinking Strategies methodology.

 

If you wish to contribute to the Mediateque or to learn more about the project, please do not hesitate to contact us by using this form.