A Professional Development Plan - Scholarship Essay Example

A Professional Development Plan A Professional Development Plan Introduction Mentoring refers to a professional activity formed from a trusted relationship that creates a meaningful commitment between two or more parties (McCoy & Winkle-Wagner, 2015). Its origins can be traced back to ancient Greece whereby it was utilized to impart youths with spiritual, social and personal values. However, today, it is highly modeled as an apprentice relationship wherein young individuals are taught directly or indirectly by a master artisan. Corporate America, in the mid-70s, redefined mentoring as a career development method (Turner, Wood, Montoya, Essien-Wood, Neal, Escontrias & Coe, 2012). The notion of a mentoring faculty and administrators is fairly fresh in higher education, where professional staff development usually takes the form of certifications and technical manuals. Mentoring relationships vary from loosely defined and informal collegial relationships wherein a mentee learns through observation and example to structured and formal agreements between novice co-mentors and experts wherein both parties develop professional by a two-way transfer of perspective and experience (Conway, Hibbard & Rawlings, 2014). Whether or not the relationship is considered formal or informal, the objective of mentoring is to offer or grant advancement, both professional and personal. In higher education, professors are charged with the duty of passing knowledge to students and prepare them for life after college or university. This makes this group very significant in ensuring continuity of society (Wald, 2015). In order to ensure that they are also on the right path of leading students on the right academic path, this paper will develop a professional development plan for enhancing a professor contribution to higher education. The working definition of mentoring for this paper is helping and supporting individuals to manage their own learning so as to develop their skills, maximize their professional potential, improve their performance, plus turn into the person they hope to be. Professional Description of a Higher Education Professor The work of a higher education professor is to educate academic and vocational subjects to both post and undergraduate scholars in institutions of higher learning. Some of their teaching method comprise of lectures tutorials, seminars, practical demonstrations, e-learning and field work among others (Limoges & Jagos, 2015). Multimedia technologies are also more and more being used today. A professor is also liable of pursing his or her own research in order to aid in the broader research activity of their institution or academic department. The goal is to have his or her scholarly article or book peer reviewed and published, which, on the other hand, will raise his or her profile and also that of their institution. A professor’s working day is consumed mostly by administrative tasks and some of them take on pastoral role with their students. As they progress along their career paths, they are expected to undertake on managerial duties in their institutions such as being a dean of studies or head of faculty (Limoges & Jagos, 2015). The duties carried out by each and every professor depends on the institutions that they work; nevertheless, they include, but are not limited to, delivering lectures, tutorials and seminars; planning and implementing new strategies of teaching to echo changes in research; assessing students coursework; preparing, designing and developing teaching materials, setting and marking examinations, supporting students through a advisory or pastoral role; undertaking personal research projects and actively aiding to the institutions research profile and writing up research and preparing it for publication among others (Reihlen & Wenzlaff, 2014). Career Aspirations and Trajectory When people reach out to mentors to talk about their career trajectory and aspirations in higher education, normally they are looking for the mentor to spell out the best or perfect path that will make them reach that goal (Liddell, Wilson, Pasquesi, Hirschy & Boyle, 2014). However, in reality, there is never a “best path” in higher education and most fields are a about career aspiration and readiness, but a lot about life. For a professor, their aspirations and trajectory are as previously stated; they wish to get to managerial positions in their institutions maybe as a dean of studies or maybe a seat in the university’s board. They seek to be recognized in the highest possible level of education, that is doctorates and PhD’s and have their scholarly articles or books peer reviewed and published, which, on the other hand, will raise his or her profile and also that of their institution (Krause-Parello, Sarcone, Samms & Boyd, 2013). Most of them advance their careers to consultants in big organizations and also start their own institutions. This is a path that looks great on paper actually fits with the other prospects of a professor’s lives. At the end of the day, most people the professor will adapt their career aspirations to their lifes course, not the other way around. Career decisions are persuaded by one’s grand plan, but they are influenced even more by their opportunities, needs and even restrictions (Toth, Griffiths & Thirolf, 2013). Why a Mentor Would Mentee a Person in Higher Education In recognition of the significance of mentoring to the careers of professors and lecturers, colleges and universities are implementing formal guidelines on faculty development and mentoring (Gmelch, 2013). This is because experts believe that these personnel are a vital resource and a considerable investment for academic health centers. Learning to be a leader takes time that starts through leading one’s own career development under the supervision and guidance of a well-informed mentor. A formal mentoring program for professors would make sure that all them would work effectively in the institution environment as well as in a number of social environments, and that they would be retained as productive professors in the university context. Such a program ought to be structured, with a clear measurable goals, rationale and outcomes, as well as methods for assessment (Mazerolle, Bowman & Dodge, 2014). Mentees and mentors ought to be selected and assigned formally, plus their achievements be monitored constantly. Mentoring is a strong and popular way for the professor to learn a number of professional and personal skills. A mentor would mentor a professor because it would be an effective method for the mentor to help the professor with orientation, career advancement, coaching, problem solving, as well as support. Furthermore, mentors can assist professor to deal with the challenges associated with productive, successful, meaningful higher education life (Kasworm & Bowles, 2012). Professional and Ethical Responsibilities as a Mentor Kasworm & Bowles (2012) believe that career and educational experts have a professional duty to mentor those entering or already working in the field preparing to climb into higher or more complex organizations. Experienced educational and career experts can offer guidance and help to professors in many ways, including: (1) be willing to provide career development advice to them in advancing or pursuing education management careers, (2) address questions linked to required competencies for success at their specific career stage, (3) offer internships, externships, and residency fellowships to professors, (4) view mentoring as a significant leadership skill and use available resources to improve this competency, (5) improve mentoring chances and an organizational culture, which endorses mentoring of senior, mid- and early careerists, and (6) help mentees form clear expectations concerning their role so they will actively aid to the mentoring relationship among others (Reihlen & Wenzlaff, 2014). When it comes to the ethical, there are key ways that mentors should conduct themselves. A mentor should make it his or her sole responsibility to ensure that their mentees realize their career goals. Mentors ought to uphold the autonomy and dignity of the professions, maintain harmonious intraprofessional and interprofessional relationships, and acknowledge the professions self-imposed standards (Kasworm & Bowles, 2012). The mentor ought to prohibit anyone under their supervision from partaking in any practice that breaks the Code of Ethics, and finally, mentors shall not partake in any kind of unlawful harassment, including power abuse or sexual harassment (Kasworm & Bowles, 2012). Goals of the Mentor Some of the profession or academic goals in higher education include: (1) to enhance teaching outcomes for learning undergraduate and postgraduate students, (2) to take on a higher role coordinating core teaching units, (3) to enhance undergraduate and postgraduate teaching load and variety of teaching activities, (4) to plan a solid publication profile by major contributions to tier 3 as well as higher ranked journals, (5) to spread research findings by appropriate national conferences at least twice, (6) to endorse the supervision of honors students through senior members of the institution, and (7) to recognize and participate in at least one general or professional development committee each and year (McCoy & Winkle-Wagner, 2015). A professor’s duty to engage in research during any performance times comprises of a duty to carry forward the fruits of the research - for example to create things in the course of research and to work with the university to commercialize and/or to patent any invention(s). The professor’s duty and obligation to the university is to assign any invention or intellectual property created by them in the course of their employment with the University, to the University, from the day the intellectual property comes into mind (McCoy & Winkle-Wagner, 2015). What are Some SMART Goals? Some of the SMART goals can be summarized as (1) research, (2) teaching, (3) business and community relations, and (4) administration/management including collegiality and teamwork (McCoy & Winkle-Wagner, 2015). The work of professors is to ensure that they also play a key role in finding out new knowledge regarding what they teach in their faculty. This is same as the case of simply keeping up with the trend of how businesses also work. A professor should ensure that they uncover knew knowledge that they will be able to pass on to their students in order to impact their readiness in the employment field. When it comes to teaching, they need to ensure that their core purpose of being a professor is being achieved (Reihlen & Wenzlaff, 2014). This is simply through passing proper knowledge on to students. For the business and community relations, a professor has to ensure that they are staying in line with the key purposes of the university or college and that is ensuring that students get value for the money they are paying to be educated. This is also the process that will see them through their journey of climbing the organizational ladder and also proving to the community that they are not just after money but truly passing on knowledge to scholars. Finally, collegiality and teamwork is ensuring that they work together in order to achieve that university’s objective off passing knowledge to students. Steps for Achieving Goals and Assessment Steps In order to achieve these goals, it is significant to (1) work with the mentor to recognize suitable high ranking journals to target for publications, (2) work with performance supervisor to identify upcoming conferences to target, (3) partake in presentation skills workshops, (4) copy senior lecturers who work with honors students, (5) take part in perhaps ProQuest and unit evaluation procedures, (6) complete some university scholarly challenges, (7) apply for a teaching innovation program to support development of e-learning program for learners, (8) take part in training for OHSE, as well as first aid training, (9) apply to join the different faculty committees, and (10) join the department’s graduates activities planning group. Assessment The assessment will be conducted in the following procedure, ensure that the professor has a minimum of 2 research papers are submitted to 1, 2 or 3 tier journals. Ensure that they have a minimum of one research paper published in a tier 3 journal or above. Ensure they at least sit in one conference presentation is delivered in a year. Most universities also have presentation skills workshop, it is vital to ensure that workshop is attended. Also, the ProQuest scores should be in the 80th percentile of results for the faculty. Unit evaluations and teaching should show improvements in line with the execution of new learning tools and methods. Teaching innovation grant should be acknowledged, submitted and approved. As a compliment, the professor should be included in bodies such as OHSE Zone Officer and OHSE committee member and finally, they should take part in alumni group, actively. How the Professor’s Goal would contribute to: Higher Education as a Field Earlier in the paper it was discussed that the main goal of the educator is to pass on knowledge to students of under- and postgraduate students in order to allow them to be effective in the educational field (Conway et al., 2014). Therefore, it goes on without saying that if the mentorship program becomes successful so will universities or colleges. If the professor attains his or her goal of seeking to be recognized in the highest possible level of education that is doctorates and PhD’s, this will mean that students will have the chance of being educated with a well learned professor (Conway et al., 2014). If the professor attains his managerial anticipations, they will be in a position to offer counsel to other professors of how to climb this ladder and also how to effectively pass on their knowledge to students that they educate. Conway et al. (2014), who are all professors in psychology argue that only developed minds have the ability to influence other minds. Even though, no other article presented here can classify this, the authors argue that in order to influence others effectively, you need to be learned in order to have full knowledge of what you are teaching others. For example, only a doctor can make an impact on a patient and no other individual (Conway et al., 2014). Professional Socialization in the Field Regarding the professor’s professional socialization in the field of higher education, having a mentor in itself is a significant addition to their recommendation when it comes to searching for better employment opportunities. People also feel significant knowing that they are walking with individuals who have surpassed the challenges that they are going through in order to reach where they are even if it is not in the same field. For instance, even if a professor is being mentored by someone who is the CEO of an IT company, they will feel that this individual is significant in the employment and that is all that matters when it comes to deciding whether the advice of some is legitimate or not. References McCoy, D. L., & Winkle-Wagner, R. (2015). Bridging the Divide: Developing a Scholarly Habitus for Aspiring Graduate Students Through Summer Bridge Programs Participation. Journal of College Student Development, 56(5), 423-439. Turner, C. S. V., Wood, J. L., Montoya, Y. J., Essien-Wood, I. R., Neal, R., Escontrias Jr, G., & Coe, A. (2012). Advancing the Next Generation of Higher Education Scholars: An Examination of One Doctoral Classroom. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 24(1), 103-112. Conway, C., Hibbard, S., & Rawlings, J. R. (2014). 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Development of professional identity through socialization in graduate school. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 51(1), 69-84. Krause-Parello, C. A., Sarcone, A., Samms, K., & Boyd, Z. N. (2013). Developing a center for nursing research: An influence on nursing education and research through mentorship. Nurse education in practice, 13(2), 106-112. Toth, C. M., Griffiths, B. M., & Thirolf, K. (2013). " Distinct and Significant": Professional Identities of Two-Year College English Faculty. College Composition and Communication, 65(1), 90. Gmelch, W. H. (2013). The Development of Campus Academic Leaders.International Journal of Leadership and Change, 1(1), 7. Mazerolle, S. M., Bowman, T. G., & Dodge, T. M. (2014). The professional socialization of the athletic trainer serving as a preceptor. Journal of athletic training, 49(1), 75. Kasworm, C. E., & Bowles, T. A. (2012). Fostering transformative learning in higher education settings. The handbook of transformative learning: Theory, research, and practice, 388-407. Read More