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• K-8 Models
• Program Proposals
• Partner Sites
• VTS Training

Program Models

VTS Programs are carefully structured to meet the developmental needs and interests of students. By remaining truly student-centered and relying on sound research and theory, VTS Programs have been developed and proven effective in a wide range of settings and content areas, including Pre-K through High School, medical and pre-service teaching students, corporate and public sector staff development workshops, and much more. At their core every VTS Program is comprised of two main components: a set of carefully selected and sequenced visual images and lesson plans; a rigorous yet engaging professional development series. The programs detailed below represent the most codified and proven models currently utilized.

Elementary

The VTS K-5 curriculum is utilized in hundreds of schools in the US and abroad. Through over ten years of planning, implementation, and evaluation VTS national has developed and refined VTS School-Wide Implementation models that reflect the 'best practices' from those ten years of experience, apply the new insight gained from ongoing research, are adaptable to fit individual schools' goals and constraints, and insure positive outcomes for both teachers and students.

Click here to learn more about VTS K-5 Program models and professional development

Middle School/Junior High

The VTS Middle School curriculum was piloted from 2001-2007 in diverse settings across the country. While curriculum materials are not available for distribution until the Fall of 2009, VTS national and its partner organizations have begun implementing school-wide VTS Middle School programs across the country in the Fall of 2008.

Click here to learn more about VTS 6-8 Program models and professional development

High School

The VTS High School curriculum is currently being piloted at multiple sites across the country. The curricular content and implementation plan is similar to the Middle School program, with added emphasis on the individual students' and their peers' role in the VTS process, as well as a more systematic approach to fostering transfer of VTS thinking skills to other contexts and content areas. The VTS pilot curricula and program implementations will be available in the Fall of 2009 in select regions and circumstances.

Pre-Kindergarten

The VTS Pre-K curriculum draws from and builds on the principle most core to VTS theory and practice: every child is born with the innate ability to make meaning, to 'think' through what their eyes see. The VTS Pre-K program employs the same models and practices as the K-5 program, with particular focus on the needs and abilities of early childhood development.

Medical Schools

The VTS method, curricula, and program model is being applied in medical school settings in the US, Canada, and Europe. While improving physical and visual inspection skills improves the accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of diagnostic evaluations, medical schools are increasingly aware that such skills have been on the decline. VTS helps improve medical students' skills and confidence in visual inspection: a simple procedure that practicing physicians must routinely provide. Through VTS, medical students grapple with ambiguous visual problems inherent in works of visual art, and then transfer such visual, communicative and cognitive habits to their analysis of medical imagery.