Defining the Profile of Educational Developers: Planning for our Professional Learning

1. Defining the Profile of Educational Developers: Planning for our Professional Learning Lynn Taylor, Dalhousie University Lynn.Taylor@dal.ca Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Leuven, Belgium, June 21, 2011

2. The Plan • Ground ourselves in the nature of the work we do • Reflect on how our professional development is influenced by: • the nature of professional learning • the meaning and scope of educational development practice • Contribute to a plan for shaping the professional development experience for educational development specialists at KULeuven • Identifying the learning needs of early career EDs • Identifying the learning needs of continuing EDs • Organizing these topics into functional clusters of professional learning

3. THE BROAD SCOPE OF EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT “ … all the work that is done systematically to help faculty members to do their best to foster student learning” . (Knight & Wilcox, 1998, p. 98) ….. and also to help their institutions (Bédard, Clement & Taylor, 2010)

4. THE SCOPE OF YOUR PRACTICE What are some of the things you do systematically in your own practice to help faculty colleagues and your institution to enhance student learning?

5. PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE: A COMPLEX TASK “Professional competence is the habitual and judicious use of communication, knowledge, technical skills, clinical reasoning, emotions, values, and reflection in daily practice for the benefit of the individual and community being served.” (Epstein & Hundert, 2002, p.226)

6. Theoretical learning Learning from and in research Critical learning Inquiry learning Actions Publishing Learning from and in Practice Lectures/workshops Tool design Implicit knowledge Learning from and in Community Making implicit learning outcomes explicit Explicit learning Figure 4 (adapted). All forms of professional learning (Simons & Ruijters, 2004, p.224)

7. Learning from and in research curiosity interest pride optimization t Learning from and in practice anxiety excitement Learning from and in community confidence Affective dimensions of Professional Learning (adapted from Simon & Ruijters, 2004, p.225)

8. ED Practice: Core Dimensions (Taylor & Rege Colet, 2010) Educational development context and mission Evaluation of impact of educational development Guiding principles, values and ethics of practice The meaning and scope of educational development Educational development units Expertise of educational developers

9. What would you like to learn more about? • Please identify topics that you believe early career (1-3 years) and continuing (> 3 years) EDs would need to know more about to achieve the “results areas” assigned to your group. • How would you like to learn the knowledge and skills identified? • (collaboratively, individually, facilitated, self-study, informal PD, formally recognized PD, etc.) MAKING A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING PLAN

10. Analyze the learning needs identified to form logical clusters or modules of learning for either early career or continuing EDs. • Are some clusters/modules pre-requisites to others? ORGANIZING THE PLAN

11. Almost no EDs in North America have formal preparation for their roles We come from diverse disciplines, but share a commitment to teaching and learning We bring the tools of our disciplines to our ED practice, but must also learn to appreciate (and respect) other disciplines (MacDonald, 2010; Sorcinelli & Austin, 2010) “PATHWAYS” REALITY CHECK

12. Mainly, we learn our roles through apprenticeship It may take 2-4 years to feel competent We learn on the job – from the literature and from colleagues in our professional networks Our learning evolves across the career span, from a focus on teaching and learning, to organizational development and higher education more broadly Recognition of the value of ED work by our institutions brings with it tensions and ethical dilemmas (MacDonald, 2010; Sorcinelli & Austin, 2010) “PATHWAYS” REALITY CHECK

13. Thank-you for contributing to our efforts to enhance educational development practice and scholarship!

14. REFERENCES Bédard, D., Clement, M., & Taylor, K. L. (2010). Validating the conceptual framework : The meaning and scope of educaitonal development revisted. In A. Saroyan and M. Frenay (Eds.), Building teaching capacities in higher education : A comprehensive international model. Sterling, VA : Stylus. Epstein R.M., & Hundert E.M. (2002). Defining and assessing professional competence. Journal of the American Medical Association, 287, 226–235. McDonald, J. (2010). Charting pathways into the field of educational development. In J. McDonald & D. Stockley (Eds.), Pathways into the field of educational development (pp. 37-45). New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 122.San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Simons, P. R. J., & Ruijters, M. C. P. (2004). Learning professionals: Towards an integrated model. In H. P. A. Boshuizen, R. Bromme, & H. Gruber (Eds.), Professional learning: Gaps and transitions on the way from novice to expert (pp. 207-229). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer. Taylor K. L., & Rege-Colet N. (2010). Making the shift from faculty development to educational development: A conceptual framework grounded in practice. In A. Saroyan and M. Frenay (Eds.), Building teaching capacities in higher education: A comprehensive international model (pp. 139-167). Sterling, VA : Stylus. Sorcinelli, M. D., & Austin, A.. (2010). Educational developers: The multiple structures and influences that support our work. In J. McDonald & D. Stockley (Eds.), Pathways into the field of educational development (pp. 25-36). New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 122. SanFrancisco: Jossey Bass