TY - GEN

T1 - Faculty Instructional Skills Development Program: a Comparative Examination of a Technical and a Business School Implementations

AU - Станко, Татьяна Сергеевна

AU - Шарахин, Павел Сергеевич

AU - Zhirosh, Oksana

PY - 2026/4/27

Y1 - 2026/4/27

N2 - This study compares the adoption of the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) program, aimed at faculty professional development, in two Russian higher education institutions: a technical university established in 2012 and a business school founded in 1993. The ISW, originally developed in Canada in the 1970s to enhance faculty teaching skills, was introduced at the tech-nical university in 2017 and at the business school in 2023. Both institutions serve around 1500 students, with the technical university specializing in fields such as Software Engineering, Data Science, and Robotics, and the business school focusing on Management in Logistics, HR, Marketing, Fi-nance, IT, and Public Administration. The ISW implementation follows a structured process involving facilitator and trainer certification. Our research design is informed by the Gurskey’s model of teacher change, Huber et al.’s approach to professional development program evaluation, and an extension of Huber’s evaluation framework proposed by Hiew and Murray. To compare the program launch and adoption processes at the said institutions, qualita-tive data were collected via two sources: (1) through in-depth interviews with business school participants who had applied ISW methods in their teaching; these data were compared with the results of early adoption survey from the technical university; and (2) through reflective practices with facili-tators from both institutions. The findings highlight key differences, such as the selection of facilitator candidates and the greater readiness of industry representatives to implement ISW techniques in their teaching practice, as well as similarities in program structure and participant progress. The study concludes that (1) while adherence to international ISW standards ensures quality, facilitators should adapt to institutional differences to optimize fac-ulty development outcomes; (2) facilitators benefit from engaging with di-verse environments, which, in turn, broadens and enriches their repertoire.

AB - This study compares the adoption of the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) program, aimed at faculty professional development, in two Russian higher education institutions: a technical university established in 2012 and a business school founded in 1993. The ISW, originally developed in Canada in the 1970s to enhance faculty teaching skills, was introduced at the tech-nical university in 2017 and at the business school in 2023. Both institutions serve around 1500 students, with the technical university specializing in fields such as Software Engineering, Data Science, and Robotics, and the business school focusing on Management in Logistics, HR, Marketing, Fi-nance, IT, and Public Administration. The ISW implementation follows a structured process involving facilitator and trainer certification. Our research design is informed by the Gurskey’s model of teacher change, Huber et al.’s approach to professional development program evaluation, and an extension of Huber’s evaluation framework proposed by Hiew and Murray. To compare the program launch and adoption processes at the said institutions, qualita-tive data were collected via two sources: (1) through in-depth interviews with business school participants who had applied ISW methods in their teaching; these data were compared with the results of early adoption survey from the technical university; and (2) through reflective practices with facili-tators from both institutions. The findings highlight key differences, such as the selection of facilitator candidates and the greater readiness of industry representatives to implement ISW techniques in their teaching practice, as well as similarities in program structure and participant progress. The study concludes that (1) while adherence to international ISW standards ensures quality, facilitators should adapt to institutional differences to optimize fac-ulty development outcomes; (2) facilitators benefit from engaging with di-verse environments, which, in turn, broadens and enriches their repertoire.

KW - faculty professional development

KW - Instructional Skills Workshop

KW - TPL evaluation

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 978-3-032-18890-8

VL - 4

T3 - Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

BT - Innovation via Collaborative Learning in Engineering Education

PB - Springer Nature

T2 - 28th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning

Y2 - 1 October 2025 through 3 October 2025

ER -