Week Four - Chris

What professional development happens at your workplace? What strategies does your organisation have in place to encourage change, development, and innovation?

At my organisation (Hong Kong Baptist University), the encouragement of professional development is an integral part of our annual performance review. As the University has implemented a performance-based reward system, there is a strong incentive to commit to continuous professional development.

Indeed, in the performance review exercise we are asked to think about what relevant skills we would like to improve, and the ways in which we want to see our job develop. These reviews are taken quite seriously (at least in my unit of the organisation) and I personally have found them to be useful exercises in reflection.

As described above, the PD process for senior staff is fairly self-directed. We are asked what skills we think we should develop. Once we identify areas for improvement, we can identify relevant short- and long-term development programmes. These can range from conference attendance, to short courses, to higher degree programmes. While obviously subject to funding constraints, the support offered is significant and I have personally benefited from them greatly. This in turn has fed back into my own performance within the organisation.

The self-directed nature of the PD system might be seen as a weakness as well as a strength. Colleagues who do not have the time or inclination to identify PD opportunities may not engage in continuous development and improvement. PD also seems to me to occur piecemeal, based on individual strengths and needs without sufficient reference to the organisation as a whole. Perhaps one way that HKBU could progress in this regard is to set up Faculty Development Initiatives, as described by Brancato (2003, p. 61):

"Faculty development initiatives that are strategically planned, implemented, and sustainable over time encourage a perspective on teaching as a lifelong endeavor necessitate continuous learning by faculty."

I should add that other faculties and departments at HKBU may have such initiatives, but the Library in which I work might benefit from a more strategic approach to PD.

Brancato's article is also interesting as she discusses PD in the context of Senge's five disciplines model that we encountered at the beginning of this module. Below is a summary:

Personal mastery: PD is clearly important to the development of the proficiencies and skills needed for personal mastery.

Team learning: As educators have historically taught in isolation, PD that includes peer coaching, mentoring, and collaboration is invaluable to the development of this aspect of the learning organisation.

Mental models: In order to gain critical awareness of the mental models that influence their practice, educators must be given the time to reflect upon and reexamine their assumptions. PD can contribute greatly to this end.

Shared vision: PD initiatives that cut across faculty and administrative barriers are brilliant ways to construct shared vision among colleagues who do not ordinarily interact with each other. This is particularly relevant to large organisations like HKBU.

Systems thinking: PD needs to be informed by feedback - the systems thinking discipline encourages new PD to be developed and existing PD to be altered based on feedback. This in turn should help create a flexible system that can meet the needs of individual educators.

You can read the full article from the link below the citation (log in with your HKU Portal account if you are off-campus):

Brancato, V. C. (2003). Professional Development in Higher Education. New Directions For Adult & Continuing Education, 98, 59.

http://search.ebscohost.com.eproxy1.lib.hku.hk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9973779&site=ehost-live