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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