Teaching Professional Skills: Instructor Handbook

These resources, from SRI International, include a Teaching Professional Skills Instructor Handbook, an instructor rubric, and a student rubric. The handbook offers "... technical instructors with research-based instructional strategies, tested and refined in the classroom, to help students strengthen their professional skills." The 36-page handbook outlines a set of core teaching principles and then describes instructional strategies and lessons for each principle. By using this handbook, instructors will learn how to:

• explain the importance of professional skills,
• define what professional skills are,
• model and explain what professional skills look like when performed well,
• provide opportunities for students to practice and reflect on professional skills,
• help students set goals for personal growth, and
• give students ways to describe their professional skills for career planning, job applications, and interviews.

The rubrics assess students on communication, teamwork, and adherence to deadlines, with performance levels ranging from emerging to advanced. Criteria for sharing relevant ideas, displaying a positive attitude, and treating team members fairly, as well as evaluating the quality of written contributions is included. This rubric provides a structured evaluation of professional skills in group settings. The student rubric is a self-assessment.