THE DYNAMICS OF CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION The work of professionals is important They poses technical skills and define to a great extent the problems and the solutions on which they work Act as symbolic leadership Professionals must learn throughout their working lives

The concept of lifelong education is a must in every profession They learn through books, discussions with colleagues, formal and informal programs and the rigors of everyday practice Continuing Professional Education (CPE) a form of formal learning has increased Billions of dollars spent to provide and attend such programs Organized comprehensive CPE are evident in traditional professions The concept of lifelong education is a must in every profession

Many professions have a system of accreditation for providers of CPE Participation in CPE as basis for relicensing members of certain professions In Malaysia CPE is not well established CPE should be more organized; proper planning and evaluation, conducted by qualified personnel.

CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR THE PROFESSIONS A new field of educational practice has come into existence In the USA journals in specific professions CPE educators also form their own associations Traditional view: CPE must be directed by its own members

Emerging view: individuals trained in the field of continuing education have the most appropriate qualification for this function 95% of CPE educators trained only in the content of their own profession Only 5% have formal training in education and technical As a new field of practice CPE much to learn: concepts holdovers from the models of preprofessional education

It is important to identify the elements of effective practice in CPE To improve practice: to understand the assumptions and principles that guide the work Examine whether they are the most useful ones Change when necessary

WHAT ARE THE PROFESSIONS? Earliest effort to define a profession by Flexner in 1915 No commonly agreed upon answer to the question of what constitutes a profession In order to think clearly and systematically about CPE the concept of profession must be understood

STATIC APPROACH Oldest definition by Flexner (1915) There are certain objective standards distinguish professions from other occupations Characteristics Involve intellectual operations Derive their material from science

Involve definite and practical ends Possess an educationally communicable technique Tend to self-organization Be altruistic

Static approach because objective criteria firmly discriminate between professions and ordinary occupations Major problem of this approach: lack of consensus about the criteria

PROCESS APPROACH Suggested by Vollmer and Mills (1966) All occupations as existing on a continuum of professionalization The question is how professionalized is an occupation? All occupations go through a natural sequence in their passage to professional status

Occupations can deprofessionalize The continuum is not a one-way street No clear-cut boundary separates professions from other occupations It recognizes the dynamic conditions of contemporary occupational structures Professions never reach a point of becoming an ideal profession for constant improvement and continuing learning

The premise: professions are necessary to the smooth and orderly functioning of society In turn, society provides monetary rewards and status This approach does not recognize the social inequalities as result of these rewards These inequalities are are interpreted as natural and necessary

Criticism of this approach: The approach does not seek to understand the professions in terms of how they gain and use their power and authority Therefore it does not explain how occupations can come to be viewed as more professionalized

SOCIO-ECONOMIC APPROACH In Europe, the status and security of occupations were gained by other means, such as protections provided by their governments Becker (1962) has concluded that any profession is a folk concept that is historically and nationally specific There is no such thing as an ideal profession

No set of criteria is necessarily associated with it General public (folk) who generally regarded which occupations are professions and which are not Profession is an honorific title Reality and meaning are socially constructed which are a political war Social and economic rewards are accorded to the winners

Professionalization is the process by which producers of special services constitute and control the market for their services Professions attempt to negotiate the boundaries of a market for their services and establish their control over it For this professional market to exist a distinctive commodity must be produced

Most professions produce intangible goods which inextricably bound to the person who produces it Therefore the producers themselves have to be produced (adequately trained and socialized) This process occurs in the modern university to control knowledge base and to award credentials