The aim of the Professional Development Review is for you to review your learning so far and develop your learning agenda for the Period of Placement and to reflect on relevant theory.
Thereby, it will become an important reference document when you will complete your Professional Development Portfolio as part of the Assessment of Professional Practice (see also AMP Handbook).
Learning Journal (800-1,000 words)
Throughout all activities of the Learning in Organizations module and beyond this module and in preparation of your assessment, you are expected to complete a regular Learning Journal. The aim of your journal is to step back from classroom experiences and note down your thoughts, feelings and intentions in response to these activities, also considering what you are learning about developing competence as a management practitioner. We encourage you to use specific methods of reflective practice, such as freefall writing and the 2 or 6 column approaches that are introduced in the classroom and in the literature (Case, 2005; Fisher, Rooke & Torbert, 2000; Gosling & Mintzberg, 2004, Seibert, 1999).
For the assessment, please include extracts from your Learning Journal (1,000 words). These should provide evidence of how you reflected on workshop and assessment activities, in particular questions such as: What new issues did I recognise? What questions were raised? What appeared puzzling? What emotions did I notice in response to my experiences? How was this relevant to me, in particular with respect to previous experiences, my placement?
Literature Review (ca 700-800 words)
Use relevant literature to discuss your experiences from
theoretical angles. Especially structure your literature along
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Revised Schedule, 31th January, 2014
your key themes that you would like to discuss more deeply and find a structure to organise your review: What are the author(s)’ key arguments? What is the context? What are the strengths of this article or chapter? What are its weaknesses? Why are these arguments relevant to our understanding of management practice and professional development? How may this be relevant to learning in your placement and future career? What do you conclude?
Please note, that aside from describing the contents of this article or chapter, we would like to see your critical engagement with the arguments put forth by the author(s).
It is important that you refer to relevant literature in order to ground your reflections in academic knowledge. Try to move beyond a descriptive presentation of this knowledge. For example, rather than saying ‘Gabriel and Griffiths, 2002 think that…’ try to use the literature to illustrate your own ideas rather than just telling the reader what Gabriel and Griffiths have to say. This is an example of thinking ‘critically’ about the literature you use. It is also beneficial to include some critique of your ideas, for example, by reflecting openly on the assumptions and interpretations you are making and their limitations. (For further advice see the ‘What characterises a good essay/ not so good essay’ section of this handbook.)
Please ensure that you reference all the literature you use correctly. For example, the two references used here would be presented as follows:
Gabriel, Y. and Griffiths, D.S. (2002) Emotion, Learning and Organizing, Learning Organization 9/5: 214 – 221.
Vince, R. and Martin, L. (1993) Inside Action Learning: the psychology and the politics of the action learning model. Management Education and Development 24/3:205-215.
Reflect on your Professional Development Agenda
(700-800 words). Identify three to four competence areas that you have decided to develop over the course of your placement e.g. interpersonal skills including certain aspects ‘improving my active listening’, ‘developing my competence as a reflective practitioner’, ‘developing my approach to relational learning’, or ‘attending to what I can learn from my emotions at work’, etc. Justify your choice of these competence areas, based on analysis of course activities, self-assessment and feedback. Based on relevant learning theory, describe what approaches you will adopt to develop these areas, what new behavioural strategies you will experimented with, how you will evaluate your learning and seek feedback.
To help with this essay I would recommend that you make written notes of your experience in the classroom in a LEARNING JOURNAL. This is best done after rather than during the sessions.
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