PD sanctions and benefits

I have written a couple of posts about professional development logs (here), but a few things about PD are still niggling. Firstly, should it be the role of professional organisation's to police members' logged PD quality? Secondly, who actually benefits from the PD logging and reflection process? And thirdly, should professional organisations have a philosophy of trust towards their members? 

First things first: policing quality. A UK report found that PD should aim to be more "carrot like" than "stick like, avoiding becoming "overly structured" and "focus[ing] too heavily on the input of learning" (Lawton & Wimpenny, 2001, pp. 44-45), which seems sensible. Caution is also advised as mandated PD "may have a negative effect, undertaken because it has to be done, rather than done for the benefit it may have" (p. 48, emphasis added). 

Thinking about that got me to wondering how many people don't actually get enough PD? Has anyone quantified that? And are there some patterns amongst those who don't keep up their continuous professional development? The UK report in the last paragraph found that "senior members in [the Institute of Professional Development did] not regard CPD as being relevant to them but for junior staff", which is ironic in the extreme (Lawton & Wimpenny, 2001, p. 47). Maybe UK senior members of IPD feel expert enough already; possibly they have seen many patterns come and go through their professional lives, and maybe they do have less need for PD. Perhaps that is a trend across older professional organisation members. A UK 1997 survey obtained a "59% response from members",  who reported their PD (Lawton & Wimpenny, 2001, p. 47), but the authors noted that increasing continuous PD requirements from a range of professional organisations in the UK seem to be a key driver in falling professional membership numbers; and in falling member numbers seeking to "upgrade their membership" (p. 47) to higher levels. So it appears that making the process to difficult will have members choose something simpler.

Second point: who benefits. If we are first appropriately trained to write a reflective journal entries, "professional development logs [created] on work placements have been shown to be effective as an assessment tool" (Cain et al, 2008, p. 30); but it should also be noted that membership organisation assessors will also need training to undertake the assessment of the submitted logs... and one would assume that the reflective logs will have been exception reporting, not a reflection on every task completed daily. The researchers further note that reflective entries need to also be discussed amongst their peers for learners to gain full benefit (Cain et al, 2008). Course-end reflective questionnaires are also reported to be useful for course providers, but student utility is not explored (Cain et al., 2019; citing Holt et al., 2004); and a professional organisation is unlikely to obtain this feedback at all.  Research focused on New Zealand tertiary nursing educator PD reported that participants found that some form of real time post-PD discussion paid off: logs were not mentioned. Collegial "exchanging [of] ideas, sharing practice, forming partnerships for ongoing projects and forums" very useful, and backed up in the literature (Haggerty et al., 2019, p. 70). It was further noted that "informal teacher communities" fostered academic staff PD, while "validat[ing] and strengthen[ing] their identity as teachers", alongside a discussion "space where informal, inter-collegiate learning is stimulated, stories and concerns are shared, tacit knowledge is made explicit and teacher identity is nurtured" (p. 70).

However, keeping a practice diary (which could include PD) is likely to have value for the writer: "by disclosing my own worries and apprehensions in my diary, I could use these as incentive prompts with which I could measure my maturation as a teacher. It is very likely that without the diary, the confessions and revelations would never have materialised and, consequently, neither would my desire to challenge myself by stepping out of my comfort zone" (Batten, 2012, p. 38). The author also notes that diarying must be practical: too many entries will simply make this a chore; and an inability to enact workplace change as a result of reflections may create frustration (Batten, 2012). 

In research of new teachers using a book club as a means of PD, having an easy means to log entries over two sessions each year was important: as when participants found "logging on to do posts was a hassle", they did them superficially and at the last minute (Broemmel et al., 2023, p. 11). We are used to smooth digital media platforms, and are impatient of clunkiness. Even more interestingly, in this same research, online logging was thought to have less value than meeting face to face: "Everyone, including myself, was posting at the last second, and responding quickly to get it over with", whereas "inauthentic academic ‘performance’" - i.e. hoop jumping - "was not present in the face-to-face meetings" (p. 11). We seem to take learning and reflection more seriously when we are kanohi ki te kanohi. I was quite struck that two books being set for the year's PD - on top of the teaching load - was considered 'enough'. That makes logging and reflection far more manageable... or in the words of Batten, 'practical' (2012).

Third point: trust. In the career field where we take a development focus to our mahi, having sanctions against members whose PD is not considered of sufficient quality or quantity seems at odds with our tikanga (culture). Also the "input-orientated" focus of logging "hours [...], content and [the] process of learning", and being monitored in doing this (Lawton & Wimpenny, 2001, p. 58), too seems at odds with our field. It is difficult to find a replacement mechanism for professional organisations to understand and 'certify' the skill level of members, which is simple, fair and lightweight for all to operate. Like Batten (2012), I keep a daily dairy and explore exception experiences through reflective writing. However, that is purely personal reflection, and is not for public consumption: I would not consider submitting this for a membership renewal without considerable rewriting (and thus returning to the form over substance issue). 

I wonder about keeping a practice e-portfolio as do medical staff (Miller et al., 2012); but I can see that the workload could easily slip. It is mahi requiring continual updating to remain effective (Batten, 2012), with data which is (a) unlikely to be in a suitable format, and (b) of a much greater volume of data than needed for membership renewal with a professional organisation. I keep all my PD in a spreadsheet, but this is not a suitable format for my annual membership renewal (see here). 

And after writing this post, I now realise that what I am troubled about is the two halves of the table accompanying this post: should PD be enforced via a sanctions model, or should it be encouraged via a benefits model (Lawton & Wimpenny, 2001)? I am personally in the carrot camp. That fits better with a trust-based membership organisation in the career development field. 

Carrots, after all, are said to help us to see better :-)

Sam

References:

Batten, T. J. A. (2021). My Experience with Reflective Diaries in the Classroom. Explorations in Teacher Development, 27(3), 36-41. https://td.jalt.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ETD-273.pdf#page=37.00

Broemmel, A. D., Rigell, A., Jordan, J. J., & Rearden, K. T. (2023). ‘It was natural and real-life’: book clubs as professional development for preservice teachers. Teacher Development, 27(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2022.2137576

Cain, M., Le, A. H., & Billett, S. (2019). Chapter 2. Sharing stories and building resilience: Student preferences and processes of post-practicum interventions. In S. Billett, J. Newton, G. Rogers, C. Noble (Eds.), Augmenting health and social care students’ clinical learning experiences: Outcomes and processes (pp. 27-53). Springer International Publishing.

Haggerty, C., Duignan, G., Hitchcock, J., Singh, L., Fraser, C., Walke, J., ... & Stewart, D. (2019). Continuing Professional Development or Experienced Educators: What Do We Really Want? Whitireia Journal of Nursing, Health & Social Services, 26(1), 63-72.

Lawton, S., & Wimpenny, P. (2001). Professional Development: Perspectives from other professions [report]. Robert Gordon University. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=5b41562079e1561b010cf1a772696a704511e47d

Miller, L., Divall, S., & Maloney, A. (2012). Using the learning log to encourage reflective practice [Teaching Exchange]. Education for Primary Care, 23(1), 50-55. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22306147/