Curriculum Professional Development Research Articles

Studies on the Course System Characteristics of British Open Universities and Inspiration to Chinese Open University Education

British open universities are generally people-oriented in the organization of professional curriculum, and achieve flexible and efficient professional setting, curriculum development, curriculum system development, etc.. British open universities’ professional curriculum setting and management model are the core elements of guarantee for their high quality teaching. Chinese open universities need to use the British open universities for reference and learn from their successful experience in professional curriculum organization, and establish a people-oriented, open education philosophy. At the same time, Chinese universities should constantly improve the professional curriculum development, focusing on using the modern educational technology, and monitor the teaching quality, and really achieve the sustainable development of modern distance education. Key words : British open universities; Professional curriculum; International; Innovation

The Need To Incorporate Health Information Technology Into Physicians’ Education And Professional Development

Nationwide, as physicians and health care systems adopt electronic health records, health information technology is becoming integral to the practice of medicine. But current medical education and professional development curricula do not systematically prepare physicians to use electronic health records and the data these systems collect. We detail how training in meaningful use of electronic health records could be incorporated into physician training, from medical school, through licensure and board certification, to continuing medical education and the maintenance of licensure and board certification. We identify six near-term opportunities for professional organizations to accelerate the integration of health information technology into their requirements.

Teaching professionalism through virtual means

Virtual patients are used across a variety of clinical disciplines for both teaching and assessment, but are they an appropriate environment in which to develop professional skills? This study aimed to evaluate students' perceived effectiveness of an online interactive virtual patient developed to augment a personal professional development curriculum, and to identify factors that would maximise the associated educational benefits. Student focus group discussions were conducted to explore students' views on the usefulness and acceptability of the virtual patient as an educational tool to teach professionalism, and to identify factors for improvement. A thematic content analysis was used to capture content and synthesise the range of opinions expressed. Overall there was a positive response to the virtual patient. The students recognised the need to teach and assess professionalism throughout their curriculum, and viewed the virtual patient as a potentially engaging and valuable addition to their curriculum. We identified factors for improvement to guide the development of future virtual patients. It is possible to improve approaches to teaching and learning professionalism by exploring students' views on innovative teaching developments designed to augment personal professional development curricula.

Community mental health nurses' perspectives of recovery‐oriented practice

Recovery-oriented practice, an approach aligned towards the service user perspective, has dominated the mental health care arena. Numerous studies have explored service users' accounts of the purpose, meaning and importance of 'recovery'; however, far less is known about healthcare staff confidence in its application to care delivery. A self-efficacy questionnaire and content analysis of nursing course documents were used to investigate a cohort of community mental health nurses' recovery-oriented practice and to determine the extent to which the current continuing professional development curriculum met their educational needs in this regard. Twenty-three community mental health nurses completed a self-efficacy questionnaire and 28 course documents were analysed. The findings revealed high levels of nurses' confidence in their understanding and ability to apply the recovery model and low levels of confidence were found in areas of social inclusion. The content analysis found only one course document that used the whole term 'recovery model'. The findings suggest a gap in the nurses' perceived ability and confidence in recovery-oriented practice with what is taught academically. Hence, nursing education needs to be more explicitly focused on the recovery model and its application to care delivery.

A Law Graduate's Guide: Navigating Law School's Hidden Career and Professional Development Curriculum

Preparing to enter law practice takes learning a lot more than what law students experience in the classroom. This book's premise is that law school has a hidden professional-development curriculum beyond the traditional curriculum. Lawyers serve in many different practice settings doing many different kinds of legal work. Because of the variety of practice settings and legal fields in which lawyers work, law students have an opportunity and obligation to evaluate in law school their best career choices, to learn more about those practice settings outside of the classroom. This book organizes those activities based on the knowledge-skills-ethics construct used in the Carnegie Foundation’s report Educating Lawyers, applying the same explicitly for career and professional-development activities. That design gives this book the comprehensiveness and order that career and professional development warrants. Every law student deserves to find their best career and be as fully prepared for it as possible when they graduate. This book serves that end.

An electronic performance support system to support teachers in (re-)designing curricula

In several countries around the world, the national government stimulates school-based curriculum decision-making. Schools and teachers are offered ample |curricular space|. However, research shows that teachers need professional development in curriculum design and evaluation. In this study, the focus is on the usability of a tool to support teachers in carrying out curriculum evaluations. The research question is: To what degree is the available web-based EPSS which was developed initially for professional curriculum developers, also usable for teachers when planning and performing formative curriculum evaluation activities? This question was answered using a prototyping approach. The results are promising in that they show that the tool can be supportive for teachers in planning and conducting formative curriculum evaluation. However, the usability of the tool in its current form needs to be improved by focussing on specific subject matter, by limiting the use of complex (scientific) information and diminishing the number of (sub-)stages.

Evaluation of suicide awareness programmes delivered to veterinary undergraduates and academic staff

In an effort to increase suicide awareness skills among veterinary undergraduates, a three-hour suicide awareness workshop (safeTALK) was delivered to third-year Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies undergraduates as part of their professional development curriculum. Students were able to opt out of the session by contacting the course organisers. A total of 26 of 151 (17 per cent) third-year students attended the workshop, and 17 completed a feedback questionnaire. The vast majority of the students reported that after completing the workshop they were more likely or much more likely to recognise the signs of a person at risk of suicide, approach a person at risk of suicide, ask a person about suicide, and connect a person at risk of suicide with help. Five veterinary academics attended a two-day Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) course, and all reported that the course was effective in improving suicide awareness and intervention skills.

Personality preferences of accounting and non-accounting graduates seeking to enter the accounting profession

The aim of this study is to investigate the relative personality preferences of accounting and non-accounting graduates seeking to enter the accounting profession. This study is motivated by the recent changes within the Australian accounting profession to encourage non-accounting graduates to enter the discipline, a key motivation for which is a perceived need to attract a greater diversity of individuals to pursue careers in accounting. Using the personality preferences (as measured using the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator [MBTI]) as an indicator of diversity, the results of this study signify that accounting and non-accounting graduates seeking to enter the accounting profession are likely to share similar personality preferences. The implications of this finding for a range of stakeholders associated with the accounting profession, and for matters such as stereotypical images of accountants, graduate recruitment, and university and professional curriculum development are discussed.

Evidence-based teacher education: becoming a lifelong research-oriented chemistry teacher?

A novel professional development curriculum model has been implemented for a chemistry teacher education programme. The aim of this five-year programme is to educate future chemistry teachers as lifelong learners and researchers, capable of following developments in both chemistry and its teaching, implementing up-to-date research findings in their work as teachers and engaging in research on chemistry teaching. All eight courses for chemical education on the programme are developed with regard to research findings on course instruction. As an example of the design of an evidence-based course, a case study is presented on the M.Sc. course ‘Central Areas of Chemical Education I’ which conveys students’ views of the characteristics of a teacher as researcher. Based on nine years of experience and some studies of students’ views, it can be concluded that this type of evidence-based teacher education emphasising inquiry-based learning can help future teachers to become lifelong research-oriented teachers.

The Systematization of a Professional Development Curriculum for Student Affairs in the U.S. Universities

The Systematization of a Professional Development Curriculum for Student Affairs in the U.S. Universities

Desired and Feared—What Do We Do Now and Over the Next 50 Years?

An intense debate about Harvard University’s General Education Curriculum demonstrates that statistics, as a discipline, is now both desired and feared. With this new status comes a set of enormous challenges. We no longer simply enjoy the privilege of playing in or cleaning up everyone’s backyard. We are now being invited into everyone’s study or living room, and trusted with the task of being their offspring’s first quantitative nanny. Are we up to such a nerve-wracking task, given the insignificant size of our profession relative to the sheer number of our hosts and their progeny? Echoing Brown and Kass’s “What Is Statistics?” (2009), this article further suggests ways to prepare our profession to meet the ever-increasing demand, in terms of both quantity and quality. Discussed are (1) the need to supplement our graduate curricula with a professional development curriculum (PDC); (2) the need to develop more subject oriented statistics (SOS) courses and happy courses at the undergraduate level; (3) the need to have the most qualified statisticians—in terms of both teaching and research credentials—to teach introductory statistical courses, especially those for other disciplines; (4) the need to deepen our foundation while expanding our horizon in both teaching and research; and (5) the need to greatly increase the general awareness and avoidance of unprincipled data analysis methods, through our practice and teaching, as a way to combat “incentive bias,” a main culprit of false discoveries in science, misleading information in media, and misguided policies in society.

Teaching The Soft Skills: A Professional Development Curriculum To Enhance The Employability Skills Of Business Graduates

Todays business climate requires that management recruits not only know the technical aspects of their jobs, but also possess communication, teambuilding and leadership skills. Most business school curricula, however, focus only on technical skills, and do not address the soft skills in a formal setting or on a consistent basis. As graduates compete for fewer jobs, business schools must develop creative and innovative ways to give their graduates a competitive edge. Thus, the purpose of this article is to present a curriculum that has been implemented in the business program at South Carolina State University to enhance and balance students soft skills with their intellectual development.

Enhancing Field Instruction in Child Welfare: Evaluation of a Training Program to Promote Quality Field Instruction

ABSTRACT Field placements in child welfare are generally recognized as a recruitment tool for professional social workers. However, little attention has been given to improving these placements in an effort to enhance recruitment. This study evaluates a comprehensive professional development curriculum for child welfare practitioners that is designed to provide participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide quality field instruction in a child welfare setting. The curriculum is based on a comprehensive review of the social work literature, as well as focus groups conducted with practicing field instructors. Results indicate field instructors increased their knowledge of quality field instruction and were able to make positive changes in their practices as a result of participation in the professional development program.

Curriculum Development for Business and Industry

Curriculum development is usually associated with educational institutions. As a result, there are few curriculum development models that have been specifically created for the business and industrial setting. Those that have been published tend to adopt a “let's begin at the beginning” approach. They prescribe starting as though nothing previously existed within the organization to provide personnel training and development. The Professional Development Curriculum (PDC) model presented in this article starts with what already exists organizationally. It adopts a convergence strategy. It begins by systematically matching known needs with known resources and then, over a series of generations, creates closer fits between needs and resources. The model has been applied to two very different settings in General Motors: all GM wholesale divisions and GM's Latin American retail and wholesale operations. The results have been positive in creating coherent curricula tied to career path progressions for all employees in these organizations. Evolutionary and practical, this PDC model can be applied to any business or industry to build competency-based curricula that not only provide personnel development support systems for today's needs, but for tomorrow's as well.

IT Competence for All: Propel Your Staff to New Heights

ABSTRACT In 2005, the University of Minnesota libraries charged a task force with the development of a list of core information technology (IT) skills that could be expected of all 300 staff, from technical services to reference services to stacks maintenance. Once this list was developed, the task force designed and administered an online self-assessment survey to identify gaps and patterns in staff computer skills. Both the development of the core competencies and the administration of the assessment are discussed. Also provided are recommendations for next steps, including using assessment reports and data gathered in the process to develop a training and professional development curriculum focused on the specific identified training needs of staff.

A Professional Development Course for the Clinical Clerkships: Developing a Student-Centered Curriculum

Although professional development is addressed throughout the medical school curriculum, it is particularly salient to third-year students as they become integral members of health care teams. We present a professional development curriculum for third-year medical students. Urban medical school. In 2005, our curriculum consisted of 3 large group panels, each followed by a small group, occurring after the first, third, and last clerkship. Before each small group, students prepared critical incident reports, which led to focused group reflection. The individual topics were, respectively: (1) transition to clerkship learning; (2) challenges to professional behavior; and (3) medical errors. In 2006, based on student feedback, we piloted a revised student-centered panel on professionalism that was based entirely on themes from students' critical incident reports. Students rated the curriculum well overall. In 2005-2006, the small groups ranged from 3.95 to 3.98 (SD 0.88) on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = poor, 5 = excellent) and the panels ranged from 3.54 to 4.41 (SD 0.9). The pilot panel in 2006 was rated 4.38 (SD 0.80). The most common professionalism themes generated from 185 critical incident reports were communication, compassionate patient care, accountability, and team collaboration. A professional development curriculum, consisting of panels, small groups, and critical incident reports, can promote reflection among third-year medical students.

Professional development for family learning programmes: a rationale and outline curriculum

AbstractPractice in working with parents is changing and communicating with parents is increasingly a part of teachers' responsibilities. Besides focusing on supporting their children's learning, many schools now involve parents in education for themselves. Yet despite the expectation that they will work to engage parents in their children's learning, in England and Wales pre‐16 teachers receive little or no support in understanding the different pedagogical practices for working with adults. This article outlines a curriculum for professional development to support family learning programmes and describes approaches that enable both pre‐ and post‐16 teachers to gain transferable skills for working with adult groups. The main focus is on the needs of pre‐16 teachers who have to meet the challenges of working across sectors. The article highlights the need to include in professional development programmes both content and methods that are most likely to result in reflection and changes in practice.

Mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University: professional curriculum development and teacher training

This paper offers a multi-perspective view on engineering education at RWTH Aachen University: curriculum design, examples of newly developed teaching methods for engineering curri-cula, and teaching competencies and teacher qualification. It is based on the theories of student-centred learning, project learning, social skills, etc., but the paper covers the practical implications and ways of implementation of these items in a current design process of a new study programme: In the course of the Bologna process the mechanical engineering study programme of RWTH Aachen University has encountered a complete and thorough revision responding to the need of present-day technical students and—accordingly—to the fast-growing requirements of the engineering industry. This change process will be presented. A case study from engineering informatics shows concepts for modern teaching methods, responding to the requirements of students and industry, especially regarding social skills. Teaching competencies have to change and grow accordingly. Thus, a concept for the improvement of educational skills and abilities of engineering teachers—integrated into their work process—is demonstrated.

Personal and Professional Development (PPD) Facilitators’ Guide

OPEN ACCESSJanuary 23, 2007Personal and Professional Development (PPD) Facilitators’ Guide Kristi Ferguson, PhD, MSW Kristi Ferguson, PhD, MSW University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.167 SectionsAbout ToolsDownload Citations ShareFacebookTwitterEmail AbstractThis personal and professional development curriculum consists of 14 sessions, each 2 hours long. The aim is to make participants more competent, compassionate, and ethical clinicians. Topics covered include an introduction to personal and professional development, professionalism, the medical interview, the history of the present illness, understanding the social context of medicine, cultural competence in medicine, physician-patient communication, patient counseling, and handling death and dying/spirituality. The curriculum also contains a role-model session, interview sessions, and a service activity. The two sessions on balancing the demands of medical school with other aspects of student life both involve one-on-one interactions with simulated patients. These interviews are video recorded and made available for students to review and then discuss with their colleagues during the curriculum. The sessions on cultural competence in medicine and physician-patient communication involve having two simulated patients visit each group to give students additional practice with history taking related to specific situations. Discussion activities are provided for most sessions. The curriculum also includes written assignments to be completed by the students; feedback from facilitators and students is consistently very positive about this aspect of the course. Educational Objectives By the end of this resource, learners should be able to: Practice medicine in its sociocultural context.Continue self-directed learning in clinical practice.Apply relevant basic and clinical science to the practice of medicine. Sign up for the latest publications from MedEdPORTAL Add your email below FILES INCLUDEDReferencesRelatedDetails FILES INCLUDED Included in this publication: PPD Facilitator's Guide.doc To view all publication components, extract (i.e., unzip) them from the downloaded .zip file. Download editor’s noteThis publication may contain technology or a display format that is no longer in use. CitationFerguson K. Personal and Professional Development (PPD) Facilitators’ Guide. MedEdPORTAL. 2007;3:167. https://doi.org/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.167 Copyright & Permissions© 2007 Ferguson. This is an open-access publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike license.KeywordsPPDProfessional CompetenceAttitude to Death Disclosures None to report. Funding/Support None to report. Prior Presentations Ferguson KJ, Woodard VS. Personal and Professional Development: A Semester-long Small Group to Promote Social Support, Reflection, and Clinical Skills Development. Poster presented at: Association of American Medical Colleges Central Group on Educational Affairs Conference; 2004. Ferguson KJ, Woodard VS. Understanding the Patient's Perspective through Personal and Professional Development Group Discussion. Poster presented at: International Conference on Communication in Healthcare; October 2005; Chicago, IL. Loading ...

Teachers’ professional discretion and the curricula

At the heart of many current debates about curriculum and curriculum policy is an inadequately conceptualized and articulated notion of teachers’ professional discretion. This paper begins to detail a normative and descriptive theory of the social and individual conditions required for the development of professional discretion. A better understanding of teachers’ professional discretion should enable professional curriculum developers and policy writers to help teachers to adapt to the dynamic, complex social conditions of schooling.