Curriculum Development Session — designed to provide a forum for the instructors to discuss curriculum issues and work together to streamline the delivery and set learning standards and guidelines to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the program as a whole.

Theoretically, providing the instructors with a more team-oriented atmosphere would eliminate the isolation and information gaps, provide a vehicle for the development of new, consistent curriculum and delivery methods, increase the success of the program as a whole and reduce the levels of instructor stress, consequently lowering turnover as well. Based on this information, the research question for the project was defined as:

Will applying team building concepts with the instructors increase the effectiveness of the program?

The only remaining step necessary before creating the implementation or action plan was the development of the measures of success for the project. Criteria had to be established to determine whether the observations and information gathered provided an accurate answer to the research question. Based on the situational information and the research question itself, the following criteria were developed. The intervention would be a success if:

• The consistency of instructional quality increased

• An orientation program for new instructors was created

• Interaction between instructors increased

• Shared curriculum resources were created and made available to all instructors

• Staff and participant mentoring increased

• Instructor and participant turnover decreased.

Understanding the Situation

Implementation Plan for the Action Phase

The Dofasco Essential Skills Program has a 12 week session that runs twice per calendar year — February to May and September to December. This information, along with several other factors, had to be taken into consideration when developing the timelines for the action research implementation plan. The factors included the 12 week program schedule with start and end dates, the impact of summer months on the instructors ’availability, and the time needed for instructors to internalize the intervention and make changes in preparation and delivery.