1. Importance of development planning in professional and academic context
Development planning is an important aspect when it comes to professional and academic learning and growth for any individual. The reason is it helps and promotes a systematic and goal oriented approach in an individual’s life and help in goal setting as far as career objectives are concerned. Over time, there have been many developments in the professional field which makes it important for one to be able to identify priorities, establish goals, assess one’s capabilities and requirements and implement a development plan . These requirements are absolutely essential and ideally should promote planning from an early stage.
The aim of this presentation is to highlight my own insights in development planning and to project a concrete path involving strategic and professional learning. It will not only help me as an individual to strategize my own development, but at the same time will also lead to the establishment of the importance of strategic learning and self evaluation in life. Accordingly, this report has been carefully structured under sections that will highlight the relevance of goal setting in strategic learning, concept and application of strategic learning, importance of analysis and evaluation of skills and engrave the importance of development plans in the background of Kolb’s learning theory.
1.1 Three goals in strategic and professional learning
An important learning that I have achieved so far in strategic learning and development is the fact that learning and development needs to have a goal-orientated approach. It is because establishment of a goal-oriented approach helps in formulating a plan of action that will enhance learning and development through streamlining learning and development activities . I aspire to shine brightly in the corporate world after completion of my studies – it is my career objective. But how will I be able to achieve the same? This question is answered with by highlighting the three goals that I have set in my strategic and professional learning process. They have been discussed in the sections below.
1.1.1 Action Orientation: Learning through performance
One of the key factors in successful professional learning and development for an individual is to be able to not only have enough theoretical know-how about the subject, but also to be able to understand the application of theory in the real world. It helps an individual to be able to learn while performing a particular job. In today’s corporate world, practical application of skills is an important factor and to be able to achieve this objective, I intend on joining part time work opportunities in fields related to my learning. It will improve my understanding of real world application of theories and also help sharpen my skills from an early stage.
1.1.2 Commitment to continuous improvement
Stagnancy is a major reason for failure in achieving professional growth and thus, I consider this as crucial factor in learning and development. I will strongly commit to continuous improvement so that I am able to develop the competencies needed in the real world to attain growth. I intend to improve my performance by not only learning and performing tasks assigned, but also improve productivity so that I am able to take up challenges of the next level.
1.1.3 Result orientation
An important fact that needs to be highlighted in strategic learning and professional development is that the objective of all learning and development exercises is to focus on the achievement of objectives . As a result of which, my learning and development endeavours will always be result oriented. In other words, the sole objective of learning and development will be to constantly monitor and evaluate the achievement of intended results, as the same leads to greater efficiency in self assessment and better planning as far as improvements are concerned.
2. Concept and application of Strategic Learning
The concept of strategic learning has been derived from the need of evaluation of knowledge, skills and performance at individual and organisational levels so as to facilitate growth. The moist important factor that needs to be highlighted in this particular case is that strategic learning incorporates evaluation at all levels so as to assess the need for further improvement in learners. The key focus is on enabling individuals to evaluate their performance and learn from the performance about their competencies or shortcomings so that they are able to learn quickly and grow .
In the real world, application of strategic learning principles take place at many different levels, especially in organisations that commit to the development and improvement of the quality of human resources employed in the organisation. In almost all learning and professional institutions, evaluation techniques are installed so as to ascertain the level of skills and competencies of the learner in adapting and acquiring the required set of skills and expertise . Strategic decision making is an important objective that is anticipated to be implemented among the individuals in organisations and institutions through strategic learning. It needs to be noted here that successful completion of tasks at all levels is not the sole component of strategic learning. Limitations and shortcomings in the performance or equally desired to be identified . The reason is that identification of limitations and shortcomings provide the useful opportunity to devise strategies meant for the elimination or reduction of the same. At an individual level it helps in identification of the strategies to be taken in learning an professional development at an organisational level it helps in reduction of shortcomings due to incompetence.
2.1 Analysis of skills (Personal SWOT Analysis)
In accordance to the aspects that have been highlighted above, it becomes necessary for one to become aware of the competencies and limitations as it leads to the identification of own skills and competencies and also, limitations . In the professional world the analytical framework most commonly used for evaluation and identification of inherent qualities of an organisation is SWOT analysis. The acronym stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and it makes a lot of sense to ask why the same cannot be used in case of an individual’s own self assessment? I strongly believe that SWOT analysis is an important criterion which needs to be highlighted before even considering skills evaluation and justification of development plans. Accordingly, my own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can be summarised as under.
Strength – I believe my strengths lie in my belief that I am not perfect and I can never achieve absolute learning and development as there is always the scope for improvement. I have always believed that my performance level in academics or any other area, no matter how good they were, could always have been better as there is always a scope for improvement. It has instilled in me a sense of yearning for improvements in everything that I do. I intend to sustain this thought process always in the future and thus I am sure that I can always improve and achieve growth in the professional field.
Weaknesses – The two biggest weaknesses that I have is occasional inability in meeting deadlines, and the other weakness is I am seldom satisfied with the quality of efforts I put in any assignment or endeavour. It leads to delays in completion of tasks as I always feel that the finished task could always be made better and it often leads to delays due to lack of proper time management.
Opportunities – I am looking forward to enrol myself in professional development courses or programs in order to learn how to improve my skills and expertise in meeting the professional world. I strongly believe that it will help me attain an edge over others in the competitive professional world.
Threats – As far as threats are concerned, I am strongly concerned about my parents’ and my abilities to afford high fees in terms of college and educational qualifications, as these are evidently the most important requirements in the professional world.
2.2 Evidence and Evaluation of skills
Evaluation of skills is an important factor as far as learning and development in the professional world is concerned. Skills and knowledge together constitute the requirements sought in the professional world and they are dependent on the level of learning and development one has attained . In this regard, I feel contempt if not supremely confident about my skills. Problem solving, participative learning and acquiring proficiency in a new area have always been a strong forte and I believe it will continue to do so. Another aspect I would like to highlight that in today’s professional world, knowledge and proficiency in computer skills is considered to be an important determinant of selection and performance. In order to be confident in the matter, I can always present certificated from reputed institutions about my proficiency in computer skills and use of internet.
As far my education and co-curricular activities are concerned, I always take pride and feel confident of the certifications I possess that showcase my skills and qualifications in diverse areas.
3. Development plans and justification
I have already highlighted my development plans in the sections about opportunities and professional goal setting and I strongly believe that the same will provide me a concrete support to achieve my objectives as far as professional learning and development is concerned. However, in support of the development plans highlighted above, I would like to make the following statements.
a) Learning through actions, continuous improvement and result oriented approach are few of the most common techniques used and adopted by teachers and developers in the professional world to develop human resources.
b) As far as qualifications, skills and competencies are concerned, I have made it a point to achieve necessary certifications and skills which will enhance performance in the professional world and allow me to look for opportunities in the next level.
4. Findings and comparison to Kolb’s Learning theory
Concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation are the important stages of learning and development as have been highlighted by Kolb’s . Accordingly, one an easily identify similarity in my own professional learning and development strategies as a learner to the model. I have the will to be actively involved in experience; I always look for reflection on experience, subsequently there is always an urge to derive learning and facilitate decision making and problem from the experience. These serve as evidence that my own strategic learning bears resemblance to Kolb’s theory of learning and development.
I would like to conclude this presentation by saying that the experience of noting down and presenting the important aspects of strategic learning and development have been very enlightening. I also highly anticipate that my attempt to achieve my goal in highlighting important aspects will be considered to be successful and subsequently an important contribution to professional learning and development.
References
Desimone, L., 2009. Improving impact studies of teacher professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational Researcher, 38(3), pp. 181-199.
Easton, L.B., 2008. Powerful designs for professional learning. 2nd ed. Oxford, OH: National Staff Development Council.
Hall, G.E. & Hord, S.M., 2011a. Implementation: Learning builds the bridge between research and practice. Journal of Strategic Development, 32(4), pp. 55-57.
Hall, G.E. & Hord, S.M., 2011. Implementing change: Patterns, principles, and potholes. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Hord, S. S. S. H. G. &. G. A., 2010. Measuring Implementation in Schools: Innovation Configurations. Austin, TX: SEDL.
Killion, J., 2008. Assessing impact: Evaluating staff development.. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
