A Brief History of Performa

In 1973, the Cégep de Sherbrooke entered an agreement whereby the University of Sherbrooke would offer pedagogical professional development to its teachers.

The following year, three Montreal-area colleges signed on to this arrangement and made these same services available to their faculty : thus was Performa born.

During the first ten years of its existence, Performa offered training at the baccalaureate level. By the end of 1983, its network included 27 colleges.

The second stage in Performa’s development also extended over a decade. This period was characterised by the introduction and implementation of a set of new, masters level programs and the addition of one or two new member-colleges annually.

With the Reform of College Teaching in 1994, Performa entered a third stage. The Reform presented new challenges for the colleges’ pedagogical development. Now, teaching institutions had to implement integration, evaluation and professional development policies for their teachers. This situation led Performa and its collaborators to produce Un profil de compétences du personnel enseignant du collégial (A Profile of the Competencies of College Teaching Personnel) (1998). Several task forces, including the Pôle de l’Est, and researchers made significant contributions through their reflection and publications to the development of college level competency-based programs.  

Since 2000, in cooperation with its members, Performa has designed training programs from a network coherence and professionalization perspective. The implementation of the Masters in College Teaching, Masters Level Microprogram for Professional Integration into College Teaching and Microprogram in College Level Pedagogical Coaching are all part of this trend.

From the outset, training and innovation have been at the heart of Performa’s mission, one to which all of its member-colleges adhere to this day.