Developing New Skills and Behaviors - Essay Example

Professional Development Plan (PDP) and Review - Developing New Skills and Behaviours Introduction In the same way it is important to stop and take stock in any activity on a regular basis; it is similarly important to do the same to your professional development (Janke, 2010). Reflection on the experience of learning helps the individual be able to retain more information as well as become more efficient at applying the retained information towards the improvement of their performance (Smith, 2010). In addition to reflection, a constant review of the progress of one’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) helps them keep track against their plans while maintaining the relevance and appropriateness of one’s goals (Kolb, Boyatzis and Mainemelis, 2000). Since the cycle of development is a continuous process, it is only via reviewing the plan effectively in order to formulate appropriate plans for the future steps. Furthermore, the effective review of the plan can also identify the effectiveness of one’s plan, and that their direction is aligned to their future ambitions. Objectives/Goals Students, just as professionals, require a professional development plan to monitor their academic progress. This tool enables the student to devise a plan which to follow in ensuring their success and development into a sort-after employee (Barrett, 2008). A student’s learning environment is central to their success and as such they must be provided with suitable physical and mental environment from which to grow their academic ambitions. The recent past has seen huge developments in technology that has seen some technologies like the iPad rise into prominence. As a result, Barrett (2008) believes that it is vital to keep up to date with such technological advancements in order to keep by the CPD standards as well as improve the personal performance of the student, team performances as well as inflict organisational or institutional excellence. In order to achieve this, it is essential to set SMARTe goals. The set goals should be strategic and specific with respect to the student’s needs, they can be measured, they are attainable, they should be results oriented or relevant, they can be achieved within a specific period of time and they must also accommodate everyone. The major objectives include: i. To ensure that the students have a supportive, safe, and equitable environment for learning their activities. ii. To explore as well as implement different instructional strategies in order to increase the achievement of the students. iii. To increase the achievement of the students via the use of technological applications in the classroom as well as in the instruction and management of data in the institution. Professional Development Plan A professional development plan (PDP) is a tool that enables students to identify their existing skills as well as help them develop new plans for the further development of other skills in desired and or relevant fields. Employers all over the globe are placing greater emphasis on skills and their advancement or development. As a result, it vital that students be able to lay bare that the skills they possess have been acquired and developed actively over a relatively long time. The development of such skills enables students to develop into productive professionals as well as placing them into better positions to compete for the ever reducing opportunities for employment after successful completion of their academic courses. Day and Sachs (2004) define CPD as “a term used to describe all the activities in which professionals engage during the course of a career, which are designed to enhance their work” (p. 3). Progress Review Among the underpinning stones of long-term learning is the ability to self evaluate as well as update personal skills and knowledge. Critical skills for students’ development are the abilities to learn via experience and become progressively more self critical and self aware (Luzinski, 2011). This can be determined via evaluation and reflection of the professional development and or advancement and the learning experience respectively. Undergraduate and professional programmes associated with professional and vocational careers for instance engineering and nursing have been noted to embrace the importance of reflection. According to Schön (1983), one of the central features of professional practice is the ability to reflect on an action in order to engage in the continuous learning process. An experiential model developed by Kolb, Boyatzis and Mainemelis (2000) puts emphasis on the importance of reflection. According to the trio, students “should plan for and have concrete experiences that they reflect on and derive meaning from” (p. 14). This is achieved via establishment of connections as well as contextualising of the experiences within their current knowledge support. Thus, learning from experience is the heart of reflective practice. Students in the UK are provided with opportunities to develop skills with respect to self-critique, reflection and future action planning. According to Austin, Croteau, Marini and Violato (2003), the process of continuous professional development involves the following steps: i. Assessing current personal skills ii. Identifying the needs for learning iii. Define the desired outcomes of learning iv. Identify the appropriate activity of learning v. Undertake the activity of learning vi. Reflect on the actual learning outcomes and apply to the current academic practices vii. Gather evidence that supports or rather demonstrates the improvements made viii. Identify future needs. Personal Development Planning Most schools in the United Kingdom require their students to keep records of their achievements in the fields of academics, sports, community as well as social activities so as to encourage and support a student development that is all round and integrated (McKevitt, 2005). This is applicable in higher education as well where students set personal and professional development targets which are well integrated with their educational studies (Boud and Falchikov, 2007). According to the duo, Personal Development Planning of a student requires the student to self assess, review and reflect upon their learning, goals and skills so as to come up with suitable plans that can help them learn to their full capacities. Documentation of the Development Progress The use of written logs and diaries to support and monitor the progress of projects and those participating in the completion of the project is vital in indicating the progress of development in the learning process (Bryan‐Brown and Dracup, 2003). In most cases, the use of commentary semi-structured narratives regarding the learning experience accompanied by observations and comments are usually included. In addition, individual teachers may choose to use different approaches for reflection, for instance, some provide a set of questions to prompt the students to consider their development of skills and thus encourage reflection at some vital stages during a piece of task or work. On the other hand, Killion (2002) reveals that some may use a specific format for the students to employ during their reflection practices. Other approaches are rather free form in that the student records their experiences in their diaries from their own perspectives and in ways they deem as viable and useful (Lehr and Christenson, 2002). Portfolios have one distinct feature, that is, the reflections must be supported by specifically selected material evidence as well as suitable examples that demonstrate the key points of learning and or development. Recent developments and or advancements in technology have seen a change and or transition from the use of traditional paper based diaries and logs to modern electronic diaries and logs. Teachers in the contemporary school settings are experimenting with the blogging software where students are allowed to interact via sharing of thoughts and ideas more widely as well as virtually discuss their self reflections. Even though the use of these learning logs is highly on the increase in major schools in developed nations and developing nations; it is almost impossible as well as time consuming for teachers to grade these documentations. Consequently, most of these documents are often graded on a fail/pass basis. However, it is important that these documentations be a required study element for assessment of the professional development progress of the student. A way in which teachers can compensate or rather accommodate the grading of these portfolios is via encouraging students to engage in self assessment as well as peer assessment of their personal learning documentations formatively. Since learning from experience and or what you have done is central to the practice of reflection, it is clear that giving and receiving feedback is a key success factor of this process of student professional development. It is through peer assessment that one can get to know, learn and understand the perspectives and or views of others and by synthesising these views with that attained from self assessment or own thoughts and feelings, the process of reflection is enriched. Utilization of Feedback When students graduate every year the National Student Survey (NSS) sets out to find out their learning experiences in higher education (Boud and Falchikov, 2007). According to the study, students are of the feeling that the feedback they receive on their work is insufficient and of poor quality (National Staff, 2001). As a result many institutions across the EU region and the UK in particular are rushing to find ways in which to address this issue or rather, improve the quality and quantity of feedback they provide for students’ work (Tofade et al., 2010). On the other hand, many teachers are of the belief that most students marginally use their current feedback; where students pay less attention on the comments given after looking at their attained marks and or grade. The aim of feedback is to help the student with self reflection and as such help in improving their future academic work (Iverson, 2002); however, most students are incapable of doing this effectively due to lack of necessary and suitable skills as well as lack of awareness (Wallman et al., 2008). Conclusion Providing motivational activities such as making self assessment part of the module is usually the basis of personal development (Garet et al., 2001). In addition, the structure of the process that helps the student in self reflection is also essential, for instance, the prompt questions used for reflection as well as the time frame. Students need to be convinced that reflection is essential and valuable where many view it as a process that is driven by thinking of the future choices in one’s career as well as thinking of how well they can present themselves in interviews and in curriculum vitas. Teachers, when reflecting have often reiterated the need for the development of meta-cognitive thinking, that is, the ability to think about thinking (Strickland and Kamil, 2004). This enables the students to be aware of how they learn, think, act as well as be able to hold back from performing a given action and look back to get the overview or the big picture of the whole scenario. As a result, students can see and appreciate how they think about responsibilities or how they plan (Livingston, 1997). Future Plans Since the use of feedback by students is believed to be marginal, a number of ways are suggested below that can prompt the students to better use the received feedback in future and they include: i. Reviewing of all comments and grades throughout the course work in order to detect patterns and themes across various tasks and as a result a more holistic assessment about the strengths and weaknesses of the students can be made. ii. Students must self-assess their work before they submit for marking and grading and compare each others’ assessments. iii. Allocation of class time over which to go through feedback as well as provide the students with a set of questions that guides them in the systematic consideration of the provided comments and or guidance and effectively plan for the future. iv. The use of submission cover sheet asking the students to recall feedbacks received from past assignments and or tasks and note how that information has been used in the current work being handed in. References Austin Z., Croteau D., Marini A. & Violato C. (2003) ‘Continuous professional development: The Ontario experience in professional self - regulation through quality assurance and peer review’ American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, vol. 67, no. 2. Austin, Z., Marini, A. & Desroches, B. (2005) ‘Use of a learning portfolio for continuous professional development: A study of pharmacists in Ontario (Canada)’ Pharm Educ, vol. 5, no. 3/4, pp. 175-181. Barrett, B. (2008) Continuing personal and professional development at UCL. UCL Human Resources. Organisational and Staff Development. Boud, D. & Falchikov, N. (2007) Rethinking assessment in higher education: learning for the longer term. Routledge.   Bryan‐Brown, C. & Dracup, K. (2003) ‘Professionalism’ American Journal of Critical Care, vol. 12, no. 5, p. 394. Fjortoft, N. (2006) ‘Self assessment in pharmacy education’ American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, vol. 70, no. 3. P. 64. Garet, M., Porter, A. Desimone, L., Birman, B. & Yoon, K. (2001) ‘What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers’ American Educational Research Journal, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 915-945. Gifford, A., Murphy, R. & Anderson, C. (2008) Professional learning and development in pharmacy, (Paper presented at the 3rd Professional Lifelong Learning Conference), University of Leeds. Iverson, A.M. (2002) Best practices in problem-solving team structure and process. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best Practices in School Psychology IV. National Association of School Psychologists, Bethesda, MD, pp. 657–669. Janke, K.K. (2010) ‘Continuing professional development: Don’t miss the obvious’ American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, vol. 74, no. 2, p. 31. Killion, J. (2002) What Works in the Elementary School: Results-Based Staff Development. Oxford, OH, National Staff Development Council. Kolb, D.A., Boyatzis, R.E. & Mainemelis, C. (2000) Experiential learning theory: previous research and new directions, In Sternberg, R.J. & Zhang, L.F.  (Eds.), Perspectives on cognitive, learning, and thinking styles. NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum. Lehr, C.A. & Christenson, S.L. (2002) ‘Best practices in promoting a positive school climate. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology IV’ National Association of School Psychologists, Bethesda, MD, pp. 929–947. Livingston, J. (1997) Metacognition: an overview, State University of New York at Buffalo. Luzinski, C. (2011) ‘Transformational Leadership’ Journal of Nursing Administration, vol. 41, no. 12, pp. 501‐2. McIntosh, K., Chard, D.J., Boland, J.B. & Horner, R.H. (2006) ‘Demonstration of combined efforts in school-wide academic and behavioural systems and incidence of reading and behavior challenges in early elementary grades’ Journal of Positive Behavioural Interventions, vol. 8, pp. 146–154. McKevitt, B.C. (2005) ‘Creating a school-wide system of positive behaviour support’ Communique, vol. 33, no. 6. National Staff Development Council. (2001) National Staff Development Council’s standards for staff development, revised, Oxford, OH. Rees J.A., Cantrill, J.A., Morris M. et al. (2003) ‘Attitudes to reflective practice and continuing professional development’ International Journal of Pharmaceutical Practices, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 34. Rouse, M.J. (2004) ‘Continuing professional development in pharmacy’ American Journal of Health System Pharmaceuticals, vol. 61, no. 19, pp. 2069-2076. Schön, D. (1983) The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action, Basic Books: New York Schön, D. (1987) Educating the reflective practitioner, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Smith, S. (2010) Admin admired: creating your professional development plan, viewed 16 Apr 2013 from . Strickland, D. & Kamil, M. (Eds.) 2004. Improving reading achievement through ,professional development, Norwood, Massachusetts Christopher-Gordon. Tofade T.S., Foushee, L.L., Chou, S.Y., et.al. (2010) ‘Evaluation of a Condensed Training Program to Introduce the Process of Continuing Professional Development’ Journal of Pharmaceutical Practices, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 560-569. Wallman A., Lindblad, A.K, Hall, S., et al. (2008) ‘A categorisation scheme for assessing pharmacy students’ levels of reflection during internships’ American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 1-10. Ysseldyke, J., Burns, M., Dawson, P., Kelley, B., Morrison, D., Ortiz, S. et al. (2006) ‘School psychology: A blueprint for training and practice III,’ National Association of School Psychologists, Bethesda, MD. Appendix Portfolio Development A portfolio of a CPD begins with the students’ current class position, the context of the position (temporary or permanent, nature of department), one’s key responsibilities and any available opportunities for development. Student’s current academic position Context Key responsibilities and grade Development opportunities Personal Development Plan Time span Objectives/Goals Activity of development Target date Expected Results Meeting short term needs (Short Term) Meet the ever-changing employee needs, roles and requirements and learning context (Medium Term) Meeting of career goals (Long Term) Read More