identify sources of support for planning and reviewing own
TRANSCRIPT
Identify sources of support for planning and reviewing owndevelopmentThere are lots of sources of information and support around your own professional
development. We have already looked at some of these including national
occupational standards, peer assessment, observation of practice, supervision
sessions, and other types of feedback.
There are, however, further ways in which you can inform your development and
ensure that you are continually up-to-date on the working practices that link directly
with your job.
Sources of support for planning and reviewing development.
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College tutors
You may need to be assessed in your practical work by your tutor, and this is a good
and constructive way to get feedback that can help you begin your professional
development. This may be done by your tutor coming to visit and observe your work,
or to assess you in your professional practice. It may also be done through feedback
on your theoretical work, and your tutor may be able to suggest further sources of
information for you to work from.
Line manager
Your line manager has a vested interest in helping you improve your working
practices, and they should be able to supply you with a personal action plan in which
you can note suggested ways of improvement. Action plans are usually dated and
contain actions that you are asked to complete in order to further your development.
These might be further training, or further reading of some kind. The actions are
usually dated for review, and after that date your line manager will review whether or
not you carried out the action and what the results of that were.
Personal development plans are a type of longer term action plan that are used to a
large extent in appraisals.
Appraisals
Annual appraisals are conducted in most organisations, and everyone right up to the
directors, or head teacher if you work in a school, will meet with the person who
manages them to go through ways in which their role and their own personal
qualities can be improved upon.
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The Internet
The Internet is an amazing resource, full of information. Not all of it is good
information, however, and it is a good idea to use websites that are comprehensive,
have lots of information that you know is valid, and that are well known.
It can be hard to figure out sometimes which information is good and which is not so
good, but a good rule of thumb is that if it is easy to read and informative, and covers
information that you know to be true already, it is probably a decent site. Bad writing
is harder and more boring to read, and that can be a sign that the quality of the site
in general is not very high.
Books
The library is a good place to start when you are looking for books on a particular
subject, and if your own local library does not stock a particular book you are
interested in, you can always order it from them.
Bookshops, both online and high street, are also great places to find good
information; generally, a book will have been through far more rigorous quality
processes than most information on the Internet.
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