Adult Basic Skills Instructor Training Project (1988-1991). Phase I (1988-1989) and Phase II (1989-1990) Report

To improve basic skills instructor training in North Carolina's 58 community colleges, the Department of Community Colleges funded a 3-year Adult Basic Skills Training Project. It was designed to develop a cadre of local trainers who could meet the training and development needs of basic skills instructors at each community college. Adult basic education instructors from all the community colleges were selected to participate in five regional workshops and three summer institutes. Seventy-one instructor trainer competencies were identified. Competency training was based on Kolb's experiential learning theory. Participants who completed the 165 hours of instruction represented by the institutes and workshops spaced over a 30-month period would receive a certificate as a Resource Specialist in Basic Skills Instructor Training. The first three workshops and two summer institutes offered instruction in interpersonal communication skills, assessment strategies, methods and materials, reading comprehension, and instructional management. Evaluations indicated that participants viewed the information as useful and colleges were incorporating the instructor trainer role in their local staff development plan. Attached tables provide: (1) data about workshop participants; (2) indicators of competence; and (3) participants' ratings of the program's usefulness. (YLB)