VUE conducts professional development workshops to support school and museum use of VTS. As VTS emphasizes practice, thoughtful interaction, and reflection, so does the VTS professional development methodology. Most of the learning occurs as a result of peer interaction, with a strong emphasis on facilitated discussion. Training opportunities range from one day- and week-long workshops to programs that include as many as seventy-hours of VTS training and debriefing sessions spread over three years. The latter is teacher preparation for a school-wide implementation of VTS. Some training addresses the needs of those who wish to become VTS trainers themselves. VUE will customize its professional development resources to fit the needs of the organization.

VUE offers several kinds of training:

• Extended training courses for teachers in conjunction with implementing Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). VUE staff works with teachers, teacher trainers, and VTS project coordinators. Extended training courses usually consist of several sessions per year, over a course of two to three years. A goal is to identify local teacher trainers, so that the program may become self-sustaining. These have been implemented in Byron, Minnesota, in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in Estonia, Lithuania, Kazakstan, Kyrgysztan, Macedonia, and Ukraine. They are currently underway in Boston, Massachusetts; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and San Antonio, Texas.
  
  
• Trainer Training consists of three four-day sessions, held several months apart. Participants are trained to become Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) trainers. Trainers are equipped and ready to train teachers and/or museum docents to use VTS; and if the situation arises, manage implementation of a complete VTS program. Trainer Training is open to anyone who has an intention to train others to use VTS or start a VTS project in a school or museum. Participants should come with some VTS experience.
  
  
• VUE Institutes for educators, focused on applying Abigail Housen’s research and theory to various museum and school needs. Institute topics range from introductory theory and practice to advanced training for those who have been working with these ideas for a number of years. Institutes are generally four days long, and have been hosted by museums across the US, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Oakland Museum of California.
  
  

• Museum Docent Training: Courses for docents and museum staff, both introductory and extended. These have ranged from one half-day to four-days in length. Recent sponsors of these courses have included the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Taft Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, the San Jose Museum of Art and Cantor Arts Center in Silicon Valley, the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, New York, the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Contemporary Museum, Baltimore.
  
  

For more information about VUE training opportunities, please contact VUE: info@vue.org