1. Developing a Personal Professional Development Plan
Post-Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE)
Developing a Personal Professional Development Plan
Course 1: Teaching, Learning and Assessment
Mr Geoffrey Shakwa
Head: Professional Development,
Teaching and Learning Unit

2. What is Professional Development?
Professional Development (PD) is defined as those processes and activities designed to enhance the professional knowledge, skills and attitudes of educators so that they will, in turn, improve student learning (Guskey, 2000).

3. Areas for Faculty Professional Development
Areas for faculty professional development cover, but are not limited to the following aspects:
Subject matter knowledge (SMK)
Pedagogic Content Knowledge (PCK)
Technological Pedagogic Content Knowledge (TPCK)
Research and Community Engagement.
Critical: To ensure that an educator or lecturer exhibits the knowledge and competency in these key areas, a professional development plan as a tool to identify both areas and professional learning goals which will guide the attainment of the required competency, is necessary.

4. What is a Professional Development Plan (PDP)?
A Professional Development Plan (PDP) is used as a tool or roadmap to help plan a career, guide development and assess progress toward your career goals.
A professional development plan is a written document used to focus and prioritize professional development activities as determined by the educator working in collaboration with peer/s and supervisor.

5. Why Does an Educator Need a Professional Development Plan?
“He who fails to plan is planning to fail” (Winston Churchill)
It is all about understanding what needs to be done and ensuring that you are using your resources wisely.
Time Energy Money
The important point about PD is to clearly define where you are going in your career and;
What you need to get there.
It helps you stay on track, and;
It assists you to ensure that you always succeed with whatever you always want to achieve in your career

6. How do I use the PDP Template to develop my personal PDP?

7. How do I use the Template to develop my personal PDP?
Developing your PDP is a developmental process which starts with you reflecting on your own professional learning needs in the context of your career and embarking on a learning journey to fulfil your set learning goals.
Consider what knowledge and skills you need to acquire now in your career in order to advance on the ladder or achieve some professional goals.
Refer to the institutional and departmental policies and strategic plans, etc. as your plan needs to be contextualised. This can help you to determine how you can contribute to your departmental/faculty and institutional growth.
Remember, the type of graduates we produce will reflect the type of educators who taught them in industry.

8. Core Steps in Developing Your PDP
Identify areas for development of your professional practice
State your professional learning goals and activities
Specify the PDP Support by Faculty/Department & Teaching and Learning Unit (TLU) – Resources
Describe your PDP Progress Summary Review (to be done every quarter/semester)
4.1 Review o Peer Review of PDP Progress (done by a colleague)
4.2 Summative f PDP Progress (done by supervisor)
5. Complete the Progress Tracker (every quarter or semester)

9. Sources of Evidence for Steps I & II
Step I: Areas identified for development of Professional Practice
Step II: Professional Learning Goals and Activities
The PDP must specify, at a minimum:
One area derived from the results of your most recent annual performance evaluation
One area derived from students’ evaluation of the your teaching
One area derived from self-evaluation, and;
One area derived from critical friend or peer evaluation (colleague).

10. Ensure Constructive Alignment
Step I: Areas identified for development of Professional Practice
Step II: Professional Learning Goals and Activities
Step III: PDP Support by Faculty and TLU
Step IV: PDP Progress Summary Review

11. Steps 1: Identify areas for development of professional practice
Identify in priority order areas for development and growth based on:
One area derived from the results of your most recent performance evaluation
One area derived from students’ evaluation of your teaching
One area derived from self-evaluation, and;
One area derived from critical friend or peer evaluation (colleague).
2. Faculty or department priorities, and any other information/evidence examined to inform this plan. For each area, explain the rationale and related sources of evidence for its inclusion.

12. Step 2: Describe your professional learning goals and activities
Determine specific professional learning goals to address the areas identified for development in Step I. There may be more than one learning goal identified per area; some learning goals may address multiple areas.
Next, describe one or more professional learning activities to address each goal.
For each learning activity, consider follow-up activities, as appropriate, that will help you deepen learning and/or apply the learning to practice (e.g., additional coaching, working with collaborative team).
Next, estimate the number of hours you are expected to put in completing both the initial and follow-up activities.
Finally, indicate the required completion date.

13. Teaching and Learning Unit Other
Steps 3: Specify the PDP Support by Faculty/Department & Teaching and Learning Unit (TLU) – Resources
In the box, summarize the type of support/Resources to be rendered by key players to accomplish your Goals and Activities:
Faculty
Department
Teaching and Learning Unit
Other

14. Steps 4: Describe your PDP Progress Summary Review (to be done every quarter/semester)
Some key fundamentals
Describe the evidence of the lecturer’s progress toward attainment of the PDP goals & activities, and;
Append items of evidence to the PDP as necessary to document progress in addition to the information entered into this form.
Progress summary review is to be completed by:
a minimum of one peer review of your performance by a colleague, and;
a minimum of one summative review of progress by your supervisor

15. Steps 4: Describe your PDP Progress Summary Review (to be done every quarter/semester), cont.
The Peer review (Optional)
a minimum of one summative review of progress by your supervisor and revise the professional goals and/or activities if warranted by evidence of progress or lack of progress toward attainment of the PDP goals during the academic year and revise the PDP where necessary.

16. Criteria for Faculty Evaluation – Peer Evaluation
Effectiveness in Teaching
Scholarly ability
Service to students
Effectiveness of service
Professional activity and growth

17. Steps 4: Describe your PDP Progress Summary Review (to be done every quarter/semester), cont.
Summative Review (required)
a minimum of one summative review of progress by your supervisor and revise the professional goals and/or activities if warranted by evidence of progress or lack of progress toward attainment of the PDP goals during the academic year and revise the PDP where necessary.
for each area identified for development of professional practice, indicate if PDP expectations were met or not met as well as the sources of evidence that were reviewed.
finally, enter the summative review date. A new PDP will need to be created for the next annual planning cycle.

18. Criteria for Faculty Evaluation – Summative Evaluation based on Class Evaluation
Presentation and management of the lecture/class
Evaluation of Teaching and Learning
Use of Teaching and learning aids (including technology)
Classroom Management
Good points
Areas for Improvement

19. Step 5: Progress Tracker (every quarter or semester)
Indicate the review Date
Describe Achievements in this period: State the specific quarter/semester:
Specify the Goals and activities not completed: state the specific quarter/semester:
Explain what happened and how will you overcome these obstacles in the future?