The not so blazing summer ... ... is turning into a right damp squib as I look out of my office window for one of the final times - next week they're moving us to our new offices (more of a trek from the station and a little too crowded for comfort!) as the new jobs start.

I'm currently reading around about continuing professional development (CPD) in higher education (HE) as my job will be developing a framework for the university. So far the SEDA Paper - Embedding CPD in Higher Education is proving an interesting read and the issues raised about control and links to appraisal as well as the debate and tension around CPD as a right or a requirement raised in John Peter's (University of Worcester) contribution are thought provoking and reassure me that I'm not alone n my ambivalence about the way CPD is discussed. Some of the main points raised in the articles seem to be:

• we should all continue learning and engage in CPD,
• CPD means different things to different people (often institutional managers and academics have different perspectives),
• many people are engaged in a vareity of activities which could be considered CPD,
• that most academics are engaging in unstructured and informal CPD (i.e. not taught courses) as part of their everyday practice that needs to be recognised as part of any framework,
• that offerings need to be flexible and responsive to need,
• that people value networking and experience sharing opportunities that may or may not lead to the creation of communities of practice and
• that non-academic staff should also be included in any CPD framework.

Finally, I'm now treasurer of the ISATT association, following the elections at conference, and our collaborative paper on student engagement has been selected for ISSoTL in October, comments on the paper were:
"the comparison and contrasts of each country's definition of student engagement will be interesting as will the examiniation of the different course contexts in which the survey was given.

An excellent example of the value of an international focus on an important aspect of learning that uses a wide variety of methods and courses."

... more of these activities at a later date.  ¶ 11:15 am 0 Comments