Personal Development Planning overview

1. Personal Development Planning overview

2. The Focus for the Session. Overview; legal requirements; future developments. And all in 20 minutes, so we’ll need to move quickly!

3. Dearing HE Inquiry : Recommendation 20 ‘We recommend that Institutions of Higher Education, over the medium term, develop a Progress File. The File should consist of two elements: A Transcript recording student achievement which should follow a common format devised by institutions collectively through their representative bodies; A means by which students can monitor, build and reflect upon their personal development (Personal Development Planning/Recording).’   National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, 1997

4. Personal Development Planning Defined: ‘a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development’. Policy Intentions: to help students: become more effective, independent and confident self-directed learners; understand how they are learning and relate their learning to a wider context; improve their general skills for study and career management; articulate their personal goals and evaluate progress towards their achievement; and encourage a positive attitude to learning throughout life.   5 year lead-in-time (2005/06 start date) for the implementation of policy across the whole system and for all HE awards. More recently “..we will review …. the progress being made on the use of transcripts and personal development portfolios. We want them to be used to enable learners to understand and reflect on their achievements and to present those achievements to employers, institutions and other stakeholders.” HE Strategy Paper

8. PDP and effective learning PDP enhances learning i.e. there are positive outcomes when the process of learning involves reflection and action planning. Gough, D.A., Kiwan, D., Sutcliffe, S., Simpson D. and Houghton N (2003) A systematic map and synthesis review of the effectiveness of personal development planning for improving student learning. Report on-line at http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/EPPIWeb/home.aspx?page=/reel/review_groups/EPPI/LTSN/LTSN_intro.htm

9. Measuring and Recording Student Achievement Scoping Group Key areas : Review current methodologies for representing (describing, measuring and recording) student achievement. Identify progress on use of transcripts and personal development portfolios. Consider more sophisticated ways of measuring value added. Evaluate recent research on the honours classification system – consider possible alternative methods for presenting the overall achievements of students. Build upon the best current practice on credit systems, and to scale this up so that there is widespread and consistent use of credit across higher education. Report available at: http://bookshop.universitiesuk.ac.uk/downloads/measuringachievement.pdf

10. From PDP to RDP: links to the minimum threshold standards and QAA Code of Practice; the Postgraduate student perspective.

11. Minimum threshold standards Selection/admission/enrolment/induction…’student and institution to sign up to an agreement on the desired outcomes of the RDP’’. Supervisory arrangements ‘regular structured interations between the student and the supervisor/s to report discuss and agree academic and personal progress..’ Development of research and other skills ‘student and supervisor/s …to identify and agree a training needs analysis…as part of the induction process. Student training needs to be reviewed regularly…student to maintain a jointly agreed record of personal progress in the development of research and other skills.’

12. QAA Code of Practice for Research Students ‘Institutions will put in place and bring to the attention of students and relevant staff clearly defined mechanisms for formal reviews of student progress, including explicit review stages. Institutions will provide guidance to students, supervisors and others involved in progress monitoring and review processes about the importance of keeping appropriate records of the outcomes of meetings and related activities. Institutional guidance … may be facilitated by the introduction of electronic logs, such as can be made available through institutional portals, perhaps as part of personal development planning (PDP). Each student's development needs will be identified and agreed jointly by the student and appropriate academic staff, initially during the student's induction period; they will be regularly reviewed during the research programme and amended as appropriate. Institutions will provide opportunities for research students to maintain a record of personal progress, which includes reference to the development of research and other skills.’

13. Personal Development Planning for Postgraduates ‘..postgraduates welcome the idea of …PDP. Many schemes however seem to swamp the research student leading to half-heartedness and poor implementation. One key problem is that supervisors often do not fully recognise the importance of PDP and without their support, students often lose interest and the schemes become more of a chore than a benefit. Although PDP should be student owned and implemented, strong support and encouragement from supervisors is imperative. PDP can bring the structure often seen in taught p/g programmes into research degrees. This should avert the tunnel blindness often developed by the narrow focus of a thesis and result in a broader context of learning which is essential for future career prospects.’ National Postgraduate Committee