VUE conducts training workshops to support school and museum use of the VTS. In all of them, the essential teaching method involves practice and reflection, with a strong emphasis on facilitated discussion. Most of the learning occurs as result of peer interaction. Training opportunities range from day- and week-long workshops to programs that involve as many as seventy-hours spread over three years, the latter usually having to do with a full implementation of the VTS in a school. Some training addresses the needs of those who wish to become VTS trainers themselves.

VUE offers several kinds of training:

• 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.
   
• Extended training courses in conjunction with implementing the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), including programs for 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.
   
• Courses for docents and docent trainers, 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 Gerard Holmes, VUE's Director of Administration, at gholmes@vue.org.