Professional Development and ICT: Technology-pedagogy for Professional development

Professional development and ICT

Professional development refers to skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement. Professional development encompasses all types of facilitated learning opportunities, ranging from college degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning opportunities situated in practice. It has been described as intensive and collaborative, ideally incorporating an evaluative stage. There are a variety of approaches to professional development, including consultation, coaching, and communities of practice, lesson study, mentoring, reflective supervision and technical assistance.

Who participates and why?

A wide variety of people, such as teachers, military officers and non-commissioned officers, health care professionals, lawyers, accountants and engineers engage in professional development. Individuals may participate in professional development because of an interest in lifelong learning, a sense of moral obligation, to maintain and improve professional competence, enhance career progression, keep abreast of new technology and practice, or to comply with professional regulatory organizations.

Approaches to professional development

In a broad sense, professional development may include formal types of vocational education, typically post-secondary or poly-technical training leading to qualification or credential required to obtain or retain employment. Professional development may also come in the form of pre-service or in-service professional development programs. These programs may be formal, or informal, group or individualized. Individuals may pursue professional development independently, or programs may be offered by human resource departments. Professional development on the job may develop or enhance process skills, sometimes referred to as leadership skills, as well as task skills. Some examples for process skills are 'effectiveness skills', 'team functioning skills', and 'systems thinking skills'.

Professional development opportunities can range from a single workshop to a semester-long academic course, to services offered by a medley of different professional development providers and varying widely with respect to the philosophy, content, and format of the learning experiences. Some examples of approaches to professional development include.

Case Study Method - The case method is a teaching approach that consists in presenting the students with a case, putting them in the role of a decision maker facing a problem.
Consultation - to assist an individual or group of individuals to clarify and address immediate concerns by following a systematic problem-solving process.
Coaching - to enhance a person’s competencies in a specific skill area by providing a process of observation, reflection, and action.
Communities of Practice - to improve professional practice by engaging in shared inquiry and learning with people who have a common goal.
Lesson Study - to solve practical dilemmas related to intervention or instruction through participation with other professionals in systematically examining practice.
Mentoring - to promote an individual’s awareness and refinement of his or her own professional development by providing and recommending structured opportunities for reflection and observation.
Reflective Supervision - to support, develop, and ultimately evaluate the performance of employees through a process of inquiry that encourages their understanding and articulation of the rationale for their own practices.
Technical Assistance - to assist individuals and their organization to improve by offering resources and information, supporting networking and change efforts.

Professional development is a broad term, encompassing a range of people, interests and approaches. Those who engage in professional development share a common purpose of enhancing their ability to do their work. At the heart of professional development is the individual's interest in lifelong learning and increasing their own skills and knowledge. The 21st century has seen a significant growth in online professional development. Content providers incorporate collaborative platforms such as discussion boards and wikis, thereby encouraging and facilitating interaction, and optimizing training effectiveness.

Professional development may be separated into two distinct phases: Types

1. Continuing Professional Development

2. Initial Professional Development.

1. Initial Professional Development.

Definitions from Different sources

Initial Professional Development (IPD) is defined by the UK Initial Professional Development Forum as "a period of development during which an individual acquires a level of competence necessary in order to operate as an autonomous professional". Professional bodies may recognize the successful completion of IPD by the award of chartered or similar status.

The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications defines IPD as "a pattern of learning undertaken by a graduate mathematician to develop the range of skills and competencies needed to achieve professional status".

The Institution of Structural Engineers states that "Initial Professional Development (IPD) comprises the acquisition and development of the specialist knowledge and skills, and their practical application that are needed to practice as a structural engineer. It bridges the gap between your educational base and attaining professional qualifications. The Institution defines IPD in terms of Core Objectives, which are defined to minimum standards".

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers states that Initial Professional Development builds upon academic skills and leads to registration as a Chartered Engineer or Incorporated Engineer. IPD must be challenging and based upon the level of educational achievement reached. It can be undertaken prior to, during or after the completion of a course of study.

Note: Lot of researches is going on this content.

2. Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) or Continuing Professional Education (CPE) is the means by which members of professional associations maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge and skills and develop the personal qualities required in their professional lives.

CPD is defined as a commitment to structured skills enhancement and personal or professional competence.

CPD can also be defined as the conscious updating of professional knowledge and the improvement of professional competence throughout a person's working life. It is a commitment to being professional, keeping up to date and continuously seeking to improve. It is the key to optimizing a person's career opportunities, both today and for the future (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2000)).

CPD should be engaging, informative and progressive, embracing 'best practice' and easily digestible knowledge. It should neither be excessively demanding nor uninteresting. It should stimulate a desire to learn more about your profession and participate in it (The Association of Personal Assistants).

CPD Represents :

continuing, because learning never ceases, regardless of age or seniority;

professional, because it is focused on professional competence in a professional role; and

Concerned with development, because its goal is to improve personal performance and enhance career progression, which arguably is much wider than just formal training courses.^[

Because the world that teachers are preparing young people to enter is changing so rapidly, and because the teaching skills required are evolving likewise, no initial course of teacher education can be sufficient to prepare a teacher for a career of 30 or 40 years. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is the process by which teachers (like other professionals) reflect upon their competences, maintain them up to date, and develop them further.

The extent to which education authorities support this process varies, as does the effectiveness of the different approaches. A growing research base suggests that to be most effective, CPD activities should:

be spread over time
be collaborative
use active learning
be delivered to groups of teachers
include periods of practice, coaching, and follow-up
promote reflective practice
encourage experimentation, and
respond to teachers’ needs.

The CPD process asks:

What do you to achieve?
Where do you want to go?:

in the short term
in the longer term

What is required?:

Knowledge
Skills

The P in CPD could also stand for 'Personal' or 'Performance'. This very much depends on the interpretation and how it is applied. CPD is about planned self-development which covers personal and professional aims and may improve performance.

A CPD profile may include the following:

Goals
Skills
SWOT analysis (SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in an education venture.)
Diagnostics
Development Needs
Learning Objectives
Activities which may include:

Reviews and reflection
Evidence/Portfolio of learning
CPD learning log/Notebook
Future Intentions

Top tips for recording CPD

The following top-tips will help you get started and support you with compiling your CPD records:

Aim to document at least 1-2 pieces of learning per month.
Decide which method of recording you wish to use to record your CPD.
Look back through your diary of the last few years and make a note of the following and consider what you have learnt from these activities and document these as a CPD record:

     o    Learning events you have attended or undertaken e.g. meetings, PCT training
          sessions on EHC, smoking cessation, training sessions on the implementation
           of the new contract, multi-professional training sessions / meetings,
     o    Queries’ from patients or other health care professionals that you have “looked
          into” resulting in undertaking a learning activity.

Identify your learning and development needs – consider any areas of your practice that you would like to learn more about e.g. a clinical condition or new therapy
You can start at any point of the CPD cycle when recording CPD (reflection, planning, action, evaluation). The Society states that some of your entries must start at reflection.
Using a small notebook or your diary make a note to yourself whilst you are busy at work of any CPD ideas that you come across to avoid forgetting when you write up your CPD record.
Initially keep your CPD records simple – you can always add more detail at a later date if you wish.
Discuss your CPD with colleagues and peers this will provide a broader range of ideas for CPD records. If recording online, you can provide others with permission to view your CPD records.
Record as many CPD records as possible - when you are requested to submit your CPD records to the Society, you can select which entries you wish to submit and you can also edit them before submission.

CPD Records to Illustrate the CPD Cycle

Each stage of the learning cycle is identified by an aspect of the way in which we learn.

Reflection on practice – (scheduled learning) there is a specific need or issue that you wish to address about your professional practice
Planning – (scheduled learning) – this is when you have no specific need; however you have decided to increase you knowledge or understanding of an area relating to your professional practice.
Action – (unscheduled learning) this is where an occasion or circumstance requires an action resulting in a new thing being learnt
Evaluation – (unscheduled learning) – this is incidental learning, where through your professional or personal life you apply a new skill or knowledge that is the by-product of some other activity.

In the majority of cases you will find that you enter the learning cycle at either “reflection on practice” or the “action” stage of the learning cycle. Below are two CPD records, one starting at reflection on practice and the second starting at action to illustrate the above.

Pedagogy-Technology integration for Professional development: Implementation using Rubrics.

The following pages present a continuum in the rubric format to assist educators and administrators alike in their efforts to situate themselves for the purpose of reflection and professional growth. The Eastern Townships School Board’s Enhanced Learning Strategy is predicated on the fact that professional educators are at various stages of development in terms of their understanding and integration of technology in the learning context in the classroom. By providing this information to teachers and administrators, professional development activities can be more accurately directed on

Specific identified needs, focused on what teachers/administrators want to learn. This format also allows for clarity in terms of expectations by outlining destinations in specific areas of growth.

Professional Development and the use of technology in the classroom is particularly complex because the focus of attention is not on technology, but on the improvement of student learning through more effective instructional practices. Education technology not only plays a role in improving learning through instructional practices, it also acts as a catalyst to facilitate change from a more traditional approach to a greater independence for students towards constructivist learning.

No doubt, educators must be proficient in the use of technology tools and have skills in the use of a variety of models of curriculum design and learning strategies. Educators must develop new organizational and management strategies to support innovative learning in a technology rich environment. The expectation is that 6 months after receiving a laptop, a teacher needs to be at least in the “emergent” stage. One year after using a computer in the ETSB teaching environment, teachers should be at the “proficient” stage particularly in the Personal Technology Competencies and Pedagogy and Technology categories. Within 2 years of receiving a computer, it is expected that all teachers would find themselves in a number, if not all, aspects of the “exemplary” stage of competency. Technology can support new collaborative professional practices on an anytime/anywhere landscape.

Definition & Demonstration stage of rubrics

The rubric uses four stages to define and demonstrate progress, competencies and behavior. These stages are defined as follows:

Exemplary

At this stage, technology and learning are integrated in practice. New learning opportunities are possible through the creative use of project-based learning, collaborative interactions and sophisticated computer usage. This practice serves as a model.

Proficient

Technology is thoroughly integrated into the class to support existing practices. Educators have developed skills related to the usages of technology but primarily apply these skills to automate, accelerate and enhance the teaching and learning strategies already in place.

Emergent

Educators are aware of the potential of using technology in the classroom, however, the teaching is relatively unchanged resulting from a lack of confidence on the part of the teacher to explore the possibilities. Some of the requisite skills to implement and sustain changes are lacking.

Beginning User

Technology is perceived as an add-on support in the teaching and learning process. Teachers feel insecure in their knowledge of the basic computer skills and this results in a hesitant use of technology by students.