sze~ Informer

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

Bill Schermbrucker, Committee Chair

Jim Bizzocchi told a joke to the Faculty
Development Committee, and repeated it to an
appreciative audience at the recent University/College
‘Institute Professional Development Committee
meeting at UBC: A medical doctor and a college
teacher were time-warped out of their workplaces,
through a hundred years from 1895 to the present.
The doctor walked into the hospital room and froze
in shock and amazement; looking around, the only
thing she recognized was the patient. The 1885
teacher walked into the 1995 classroom, and smiled
comfortably; everything was completely familiar!
While this cautionary tale is capable of different
interpretations (letters please!), it does raise some
questions: are we developing and adapting our
teaching methods to improve them, and to adjust to
student needs in a changing world, and making use of
the many modes and methods available to us? (Or
are we not? Should we be? Or not?)

The Faculty Development Committee is
mandated to provide opportunities for faculty to
improve their teaching. We do so through three
formal methods: making grants available for research
and conferences; providing Instructional Skills
Workshops; organizing workshops and other activities
during Faculty Development Days.

GRANT AWARDS. In my last report, | announced
the Fall research and conference grant awards. The
next deadline for applications is April 21, 1995.
Please photocopy the appropriate form (there are two,
and they are different) from the Faculty Development
Handbook available from your Coordinator (or ask
me to send you one--please say which).

INSTRUCTIONAL SKILLS WORKSHOPS: These
workshops have been around for several years, but
they are considerably misunderstood--especially at
Capilano College, where a handful of people have
profited enormously from them, but most people
don’t know what they are, and they have sometimes
actually been misused for remediation! These are not
workshops for poor teachers. They are intended for
excellent, dynamic teachers at both the beginning and
mature stages of their careers. The workshops were
developed some [5 years ago at VCC, and have now
reached such prominence, especially in the U.S., that
two states actually require College Faculty to

participate in them. CIO Magazine, in its seventh
annual list of awards for innovation to 100 North
American organizations (CIO-100), singled out only
two learning organizations, Evergreen State College,
and the B.C. Instructional Skills Workshops.

The workshops are intensive, interactive
sessions lasting several days, in which participants
and a facilitator teach and evaluate one another’s
performance. Training is available, for people who-
wish to become facilitators. At present, our trained
facilitators are Paul Carter, Jessie Pendygrasse and
Margot Rawsthorne. More from Jessie Pendygrasse:

"ISW plans for this May are being devised
as you read this and an early call goes out to faculty
who may have heard how wonderful and supportive
the well-known workshop is. Early planning will
enable us to hold one, possibly two workshops of six
people. For the first time at Capilano a special three-
day workshop will be scheduled--one day less than
the regular [SW format. Each participant will deliver
a ten-minute mini lesson each day, and the positive
feedback from participants and facilitator provide a
forum for learning that has given the ISW movement
credibility among new instructors and master
teachers. UBC tried the 3-day format and the fit for
faculty's timetables was very positive. The
camaraderie established within the group leaves
enthusiastic contacts in diverse departments over the
entire campus.

“Faculty members to contact regarding the
workshop experience are:
Frank Harris local 2450 Math

Karen Ewing local 2464 Geography
Bill Inkster local 2245 Bus. Admin.
Stephen Williams local 2307 Music Therapy
Patrice Karn local 2525 Psychology"

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT DAYS

A big thank-you to the 70 Faculty members
who filled out and returned the questionnaire. The
Committee now has a clear idea of what you want,
and when you want it. Watch for the announcement
of the program for May, in my next report.

Faculty Development Committee: Gordon Bailey,
Jolene Bordewick, Louise Cantin Orr-Ewing, Jann
Gibhs, Scott MacLeod, Anne Watson.

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