The Instructional Skills Workshop as a Transformative Learning Process

This study was undertaken to explore the nature and impact of the Instructional Skills Workshop process on faculty members and their teaching practice. It draws on Lewin's theory of change and Kirkpatrick's levels of evaluation to analyze both survey and interview data from faculty members who have completed the ISW at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and to identify transformative learning with respect to their teaching and their students' learning. After reviewing a range of literature about transformative learning, adult education, and the needs of faculty members, this research aimed to discover their prior teaching practices and to identify the improvement of this practice after taking the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) course at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Available since 1978, and offered in most universities, colleges, and institutes in British Columbia, the ISW is the longest running professional development activity for post-secondary educators in the province. Through reference to the original educational theories used in the development of the ISW and bringing ideas from new theorists since its inception, a model has been built to encompass the process and identify a basis for the impact that the course has on the participants. The survey and interview research reported here has identified the positive support that participants have experienced as they examined and changed their teaching practices with the intention of improving student learning. The quantitative results and interview narratives describe the immediate and long lasting impacts of the ISW, including awareness of various learning styles, taking an appreciative approach, connections with colleagues, and other effects as experienced by the participants. It also gives a basis for suggestions on ways to enhance and extend communities of practice around teaching and other benefits experienced.