Rediscovering the Joy of Teaching
An Instructional Skills Workshop
During the week of August 7-11, ten LACCD educators from six
different colleges spent eight hours a day participating in an
Instructional Skills Workshop or ISW.
The group who attended included experienced, veteran teachers
like Alex Slabo, an English instructor from Southwest, and Adrienne
Zinn, a Fashion Design instructor from Trade-Tech, as well as
several relatively new and expert instructors like David Jordan,
an attorney and instructor in the Paralegal program from Mission
and Amy Baldwin, a Psychology instructor from City. Others who
devoted a week to the project were Carlos Martinez, Dean of Academic
Affairs and Staff Development Coordinator at Pierce, Lloyd Thomas,
English instructor and Staff Development Coordinator from West,
Mary Ellen Eckhert, Staff Development Chair, from East, Bernadette
Tchen, PACE Director from City, Pamela Atkinson, Coordinator of
Academic Computing from City), and Roberta Holt, Coordinator of
Staff & Organizational Development, from City.
Whether they had been teaching three years or thirty-five years,
everyone who attended the ISW felt it was one of the highpoints
of their teaching career.
Basically, an Instructional Skills Workshop or ISW gives instructors
a chance to focus on the instructional design and delivery of
their lessons. Through carefully focused and facilitated feedback,
an ISW provides a non-threatening way for teachers to discover
areas in which they themselves wish to improve.
Two facilitators work with a group of five instructors. After
allowing the groups a day in which to organize themselves, establish
comfort zones, and discuss and agree upon procedures and goals,
the two facilitators conduct forty-minute sessions in which each
of the five instructors gives a ten minute mini-lesson and then
receives peer feedback, both written and oral. The lesson is also
videotaped, so that the instructor can study how effective he
or she was in translating instructional goals and objectives into
new learning for the participants.
To facilitate the weeklong ISW, City College's Roberta Holt, who
is the chair of the District Staff Development Committee, contacted
Charles Miller at "The Company of Experts" and invited
four experienced and creative trainers--three from Canada, where
the ISW idea began, and one from Southern California. The ISW
cycle of mini-lessons and feedback continues for three days.
Although most of the instructors felt a bit nervous for the
first lesson, the Canadian facilitators established a feedback
environment in which instructors felt open to truly "learn"
as much as they wished about their lessons. The emphasis was on
allowing instructors to talk about what they had discovered from
the lesson based on their own intuitions and carefully focused
responses from their peers.
By the third cycle of mini-lessons, instructors had discovered
ways to sharpen their objectives, invite more group participation,
modify their lesson in progress, if necessary, and ensure that
the learners actually "learned" what the teacher intended
to "teach."
The ISW technique began in Canada twenty-one years ago, which
is one reason why three Canadian trainers were invited to the
City College series. The trainers for the ISWs were Glynis Boultbee
from Alberta and Pat Pattison and Judy Wilbee from British Columbia.
In addition, there was Bruce Willats -- an ISW trainer from Laguna
Beach).
Over fifty California community colleges have already hosted ISW
trainings. Although this was the first time an ISW training had
been held in the LACCD, plans are already in process for ISWs
to be offered at City and other LACCD colleges during the January
2001 Flex weeks--or other appropriate times-for instructors who
are willing to devote a week to renewing and deepening
their own joy in teaching.