Ê

 


  
  
  


 
‘ © entify problems
‘ © entify factors which might influence
potential solutions
‘ evelop creative thinking approaches to N/A
problem solving
*Problem Solving 3valuate a vantages an isa vantages of
‘ [or ©n epen ent
potential solutions Project Work?]
‘ Jonstruct a rational proposal in response to a
problem

‘ 0n erstan a range of research metho s

‘ Plan an carry out research
‘ Pro uce aca emically appropriate reports ©n epen ent Project
Research Skills 3valuate research metho s, esign an
‘ Work
proce ures

‘ Rea in ifferent contexts an for ifferent

purposes Oral iscussion/
‘ Write for ifferent purposes an au iences Presentation
*Jommunication ‘ Speak in ifferent contexts an for ifferent
purposes (inc presentation an iscussion) Writing in an
‘ £isten effectively
Aca emic Jontext
‘ Show awareness of own learning styles,
personal preferences an nee s, an barriers to
learning
‘ evise an apply realistic learning an self
management strategies
*©mproving Own £earning ‘ evise a personal action plan to inclu e short Self Management
an Performance an long-term goals
‘ Review an monitor progress, revising action
plan as appropriate, to improve overall
performance

‘ 0n erstan the concept of group ynamics

‘ Jontribute to the setting of group goals
‘ Jontribute effectively to the planning of group
activities
*Team Work ‘ Play an active part in group activities. Group Activity
‘ 3xercise negotiation an persuasion skills
‘ 3valuate group activities an own
contribution.

‘ 0se a range of commonly use software

packages
‘ Prepare an input ata
‘ Manage storage systems ©T an ©nformation
*©nformation Technology Present information an ata
‘ Han ling
‘ 0se email /internet appropriately an
effectively

c
 ‘ Obtain an interpret mathematical an
statistical information 0se/Analysis of
*Application of Number Tackle problems involving number
‘ Numerical ©nformation
‘ evelop awareness of personal skills, beliefs
an qualities in relation to course/career
progression
‘ Plan an prepare for future course/career
Personal evelopment an ‘ Market skills, experience an achievement
Jareers Nee s
Jareer Planning effectively on paper an in person Awareness
‘ 0n erstan an use a range of job search
strategies

‘ evise by epartments - as appropriate

Subject-specific Skills Subject-specific Skills

Problem solving is a mental process an is part of the larger problem process that inclu es problem
fin ing an problem shaping. Jonsi ere the most complex of all intellectual functions, problem solving
has been efine as higher-or er cognitive process that requires the mo ulation an control of more
routine or fun amental skills. Problem solving occurs when an organism or an artificial intelligence
system nee s to move from a given state to a esire goal state.

Ô   

What will © learn tomorrow? £et me put it another way. © hope that tomorrow will be interesting, an will challenge
me as a professional. © on't want to have to o the same ol tasks that © have spent the last ten years repeating,
honing my skills in narrow areas to perfection. © want new experiences, so that © can continue to grow as a
professional.

Furthermore, by continuing to learn, © can re-awaken part of myself an reconnect with the worl that my stu ents
inhabit. © can re iscover the frustrations of not being able to un erstan fun amental concepts or master essential
skills, an © can again experience the joy of success an the fear of failure. © can remin myself of the value of the
great teacher an of great teaching. © can experience first han the hur les we place in front of those who wish so
much to learn.

D
©n any case, learning is goo for the soul. ©t lea s to regeneration an growth, without which our intellects will
wither. ©t lea s to a questioning approach an to reflection on experiences from which both we, an our stu ents,
benefit - an if that questioning an reflection take place in view of the stu ents, then it will also influence their own
approach.

Of course, there are many other reasons for signing up to continuing professional evelopment, an we will look at
these in more etail below.

º  

This gui e has two principal objectives. The first is to highlight the skills require for successful, lifelong
professional evelopment. These skills, like many others in life, can only be acquire by coaching an by practise.
The secon objective, therefore, is to suggest strategies an metho ologies that can assist in the acquisition of
professional evelopment skills.

Ê  

For many people in further an higher e ucation, professional evelopment is synonymous with short courses or
with post-gra uate qualifications. However, professional evelopment is more than training or continuing e ucation
- increasingly it is recognise that learning also occurs in the work-place, as an integral part of working. Work-base
learning focuses on solving real-worl problems. The time an effort investe in the learning are imme iately
rewar e through completing the task in han an the usefulness of such learning, together with the short-term
nature of the rewar s, improves the motivation to learn.

Professional evelopment therefore covers a wi e range of learning situations:

‘ Private stu y an rea ing

‘ Atten ing conferences an seminars
‘ Preparing papers an presentations
‘ Jommittee work
‘ Jollaborative work with colleagues
‘ Jonversation an iscussions with others
‘ Jourses an istance learning
‘ Researching the solution to problems
‘ Working with others outsi e the organisation

To these we might a the learning an evelopment that take place when we are transferre to new situations, or
when we take on new responsibilities within our existing job functions. Professional evelopment also inclu es the
full range of intellectual iscipline, from conceptual un erstan ing to the practical application of knowle ge.

The informal an a -hoc nature of much professional evelopment poses problems for us as e ucationalists. How o
we evaluate an assess it? How can we recognise an rewar it?

elivering professional evelopment on eman to practising materials technologists using a variety of learning
mo es will require new approaches to teaching an learning, an shoul make use of mo ern information
technologies, a apte an a opte for teaching an learning.

However, such matters lie outsi e the scope of this gui e.

º  

 
We will start by reviewing the importance of both continuing professional evelopment an the skills that enable it
to take place. We will then efine the terms 'professional evelopment' an 'professional evelopment skills'.
Finally, we will consi er metho s to i entify an eliver relevant lifelong learning. These metho s also provi e the
training regime through which we can become skille at professional evelopment.

Ô  Ê




 ! "


Professional evelopment is not a new concept, but it is becoming increasingly important. The continuing pace of
change in materials science an engineering means that what we learne in our initial training courses soon becomes
ate an irrelevant. ©t has been estimate that the half-life of technical knowle ge is about seven years.
Furthermore, the amount of knowle ge - an the amount of information - continues to increase. Materials science
an engineering has become knowle ge intensive: we have entere the knowle ge-base economy.

©n this new worl , it is impossible for us to know all that there is to know, yet access to the knowle ge base is
increasingly rea ily available. So what will make us goo materials technologists, rather than poor ones, is that our
knowle ge is more relevant, an more current, an is applie more efficiently an effectively.

The work-place has also change , with the result that materials scientists an engineers are expecte to have a wi er
range of skills (see table 1). We increasingly work in teams on projects an much of what we o is virtual rather
than tangible. As one project en s, another begins, an so we move from project to project, from team to team, an
from one work-place to another. ©n ee , for many, the increasingly itinerant nature of work lea s us into several
ifferent careers uring our working lives.

These are strong, compelling reasons for professional evelopment skills, but there are many more!

‘ A better informe an more sophisticate public is eman ing a higher uty of care an level of service
from professionals.
‘ £inke to this is the increasing risk of claims for negligence from professionals eeme to have 'faile ' in
their uty or given poor a vice.
‘ Within organisations, mo ern quality management systems eman that qualifie people are in place to
make ecisions.


Jombine general an specialist engineering knowle ge an un erstan ing to optimise the application of existing
an emerging technology.
Apply appropriate theoretical an practical metho s to the analysis an solution of engineering problems.
Provi e technical, commercial an managerial lea ership.
Jommunicate effectively an possess goo interpersonal skills.
Apply appropriate co es of professional con uct, recognising obligations to society, the profession an the
environment.
Source: 0 3ngineering Jouncil


Transform existing systems into conceptual mo els.
Transform conceptual mo els into eterminable mo els.
0se eterminable mo els to obtain system specifications in terms of parametric values.
Select optimum specifications an create physical mo els.
Apply the results from physical mo els to create real target systems.
Jritically review real target systems an personal performance.

Î
Source: 0 3ngineering Professors Jouncil


Apply knowle ge of mathematics, science an engineering.
0se the technical skills an engineering tools necessary for mo ern engineering practice.
esign an con uct experiments, an analyse an interpret ata.
esign a system, component or process to meet sopecifie nee s.
Function in multi iciplinary teams.
Formulate an solve engineering problems.
©nterpret an employ gui elines on professional an ethical responsibility.
Jommunicate effectively.
Apply knowle ge of contemporary an cultural issues.
Appreciate the impact of engineering solutions in the global an social context.
Work in teams or in collaboration with others.
©nformation technology an management skills.
0S Accre itation Boar for 3ngineering an Technology
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©f we o not respon to this challenge, we face the prospect of becoming irrelevant. ©f, as professionals, we assume
that our ol time-serve competences will last a lifetime, we will fin ourselves becoming can i ates for
re un ancy. The organisations we work for equally run the risk of failing to provi e the new pro ucts an services
that the market requires, resulting in ecline.

An so we nee to learn continually as we work. This requires a skill set all of its own, a skill set we nee to learn
for ourselves as teachers an mentors, an a skill set we nee to instil into our stu ents for their future benefit.

Ô Ê





Professional evelopment is the process by which a person maintains the quality an relevance of professional
services throughout his/her working life. ©t has been efine by the ©nstitute for Jontinuing Professional
evelopment as:

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©t follows that we have an ethical responsibility as professional materials technologists to continue our professional
evelopment throughout our careers.

Professional evelopment is not a pro uct, evise by training provi ers an aca emic institutions. ©t is a min set, a
habit to acquire.

Professional evelopment requires self- irecte , in epen ent learning. ©t also eman s an active rather than passive
approach to learning. ©t iffers from other forms of learning because it requires us to eci e that nee s to be learne
or un-learne , how to learn it, an how to test an assess our learning. These are issues that we will iscuss below.

3 Ê





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£ewis Jarroll (1865), p54

The 3uropean Society for 3ngineering 3 ucation (S3F©) has issue a iscussion ocument (Pa fiel et al., 1998)
with the intention of stimulating ebate on professional e ucation an lifelong learning for engineers. This
ocument efines professional evelopment skills as the ability of the learner, fluently an without external
irection, to:

‘ au it an assess what they alrea y know an can o

‘ work out, at a level of etail that will iffer from in ivi ual to in ivi ual, a career an a learning
evelopment plan
‘ integrate, into their learning, acknowle gement of their nee for continuing personal evelopment in the
private as well as the professional realms
‘ un erstan the qualities of ifferent kin s of knowing, of un erstan ing, an of skills an competences an
un erstan how the ifferent kin s of knowle ge inter-relate an reinforce each other
‘ reflect upon their knowle ge, establishing links between ifferent kin s of knowle ge, an formulating
relevant theoretical constructs to explain it
‘ con uct research into elements of professional knowle ge, practice an competence that lie within the
context of their work, in pursuit of solutions to 'problems of the ay', personal professional evelopment,
an (more generally) the evelopment of their profession

The above is a list of 'performance criteria' by which we might assess our professional evelopment skills. However,
what is missing from the list is the route by which we might achieve these objectives. ©t is suggeste that a five step
approach is use :

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º 

This is the starting point for our in ivi ual professional evelopment plan an shoul contain the ingre ients from
the table below:

The personal profile - base upon the Macmillan open learning course for Nursing

£ist strengths an successes

Working £ife
Skills inventory
Values, attitu es an beliefs
£earning skills
eveloping our personal profile will make use of the reflective practices iscusse in step 5.
© entify expertise that has not been exploite
Rate skills an competences on a scale of 1-5
© entify skills nee ing further evelopment
Review the opinion of others
3valuate your own views an opinions
© entify types of learning preferre

3Ê$#
   

Our professional evelopment nee s to be correctly focuse for maximum impact so that it meets both our
in ivi ual evelopment nee s an those of the organisation for which we work (see Table 2 below). ©f our employer
has in place an annual staff review an appraisal process, then our in ivi ual aspirations an the organisational goals
may have been reviewe , an a training an evelopment plan agree for the foreseeable future. Otherwise, we
shoul iscuss our professional evelopment nee s with our manager an our training or human resources
epartment.

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Not linke to organisational goals £inke to both organisational an in ivi ual nee s
Seen as a cost not an investment Viewe as an investment in human resource management
Focusse on training ( iscontinuous) not evelopment Focusse on on-the-job evelopment an skills
(continuous) evelopment in a ition to knowle ge-base training
0nsystematic 3valuate with both pre- an post- course assessment
Menu riven, like or ering from a mail catalogue About 'learning' as oppose to 'training'
About irective training an knowle ge acquisition Transferre to action an change in the workplace
Viewe as unimportant, with course atten ance
Flexible in application inclu ing open, istance an self-
frequently cancelle ue to pressure of work or lack of
evelopment
commitment
Not transferre , with learning rarely being implemente
at the workplace
Viewe as a rewar for goo performance
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Putting the strategy into action can be the biggest challenge. An action plan can help. An effective action plan has
four key ingre ients:

‘ A clear statement of the goal to be achieve

‘ The actions require to achieve the goal
‘ The target timescale for achieving the goal
‘ Jriteria to assess when we have reache our goal

©n or er to eliver the action plan, we will have to seek out opportunities for learning an skills evelopment, i eally
in partnership with our employer. An since professional evelopment benefits both the employee an the employer,
we might fin that our employer asks us to make a contribution to our own professional evelopment, by
committing some of our own time an perhaps by sharing the costs.

Having establishe our action plan, we next nee to eci e how we are to go about the learning process.

3Ê'#(

  

Research commissione by the British Au io Visual Society in 1988 suggests that we remember 10% of what we
rea , 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see an hear, 80% of what we say an 90% of
what we say an o at the same time. For this reason, Fisher (2000) recommen s that we integrate learning an
working, so that we learn within the context of our work using real-worl problems. Then the time an effort we
invest in professional evelopment is rewar e by imme iately assisting us to complete the task in han . Fisher
believes the imme iate usefulness of the learning greatly improves our motivation to learn.

Whilst this may be generally true for groups of people, as in ivi uals, we each have our own preferre learning
styles.

There are many ways to categorize learning styles, but the simplest places learners into one or more of three
categories:

6
 ‘ Visual - those who learn best through their eyes an what they see an rea . The i eal learning approaches
in this case will involve stu ying magazines an books an learning online.
‘ Au itory - those who learn best by hearing things, either on tape or in iscussion. ialogue an iscussion
is important to their learning process. The i eal learning environment is the classroom, but iscussions with
colleagues an au io tapes can also be useful.
‘ inesthetic/Tactile - those who learn best by ' oing', such as taking their own notes or participating in
emonstrations an han s-on projects. © eal structure: magazine an online learning; classroom that
encourages participation.

©t is important to analyse the way we learn best before evising the learning strategy/action plan to achieve our
goals. £ike me, you might fin the way that you learn changes as your grow ol er. © now fin myself rawing upon
my past professional experience to buil new knowle ge an un erstan ing, whereas before © coul assimilate facts
almost effortlessly.

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A A Milne (1928), p163

As we have seen, goo professional evelopment relies strongly on self-analysis an appraisal to evelop our
personal profile an to analyse our preferre learning styles. This is not necessarily easy for a number of reasons.
First, it can be har to un erstan ourselves an 'see ourselves as others see us.' Secon , reflecting on skills an
competences is not something that engineers are necessarily traine to o. Thir , as the pace of life continues to
increase, it is not easy to fin time for self-analysis an reflection.

Mentoring is one way of overcoming these problems. A mentor is someone who can a vise an gui e you in your
career. He or she has a number of roles - as an appraiser, a supporter, a communicator an a motivator. The
relationship therefore is ifferent from that between a superior an his/her subor inate, an it is unlikely that a
manager can carry out these functions. A goo mentor has coaching skills, is trustworthy, respecte an is free from
major istractions either within or outsi e the workplace. Jhoose one with care!

Without a mentor, reflection is also not always a pro uctive experience. ©t can be a bit like looking for Piglet - we
can spen time thinking without arriving at a conclusion. ©t helps, of course, if we have a structure to our thinking.
The key questions are:

‘ What is happening/has happene ?

‘ What brought this about?
‘ What went well an what i not go well?
‘ How can the situation be improve ?
‘ What might we learn from the situation that might influence future action?

©t is recommen e that we carry out this reflective evaluation both uring an at the en of any task or learning we
might un ertake. One way of encouraging reflective practise in our professional life is to keep a reflective iary or
log.

Many of us keep iaries that list our business or social appointments. Some of us also keep 'to o' lists. A reflective
log is like a personal iary or recor in which we note not just what we have one or accomplishe , an what we
have learne but also reflect on our feelings. What i we fin ifficult? What shoul we o to resolve the situation?

Often, a particular inci ent requires us to take a look at ourselves an our performance. Such critical inci ent
analysis shoul be reporte in the log or iary. As engineers, we make goo use of major isasters an failures in

]
our teaching an learning. However, when it comes to personal reflection, we shoul take care to inclu e successes
as well as ifficulties so that we keep a balance recor of our achievement.

As well as provi ing a focus for us to reflect on professional experiences, the reflective iary also has a role in
helping us to evaluate our learning. Some useful questions are: 'Was the learning task appropriate to our nee s? Was
it efficient, achieving the esire outcome with the appropriate effort? Was it economic?'

Reviewing our reflective iary can also provi e useful information. By looking back on our experiences, we can
reassess our goals. What have we accomplishe ? What shoul the next steps be? This lea s us naturally back to
revisit an up ate our professional profile an our action plan.
An so the process continues....

Professional institutions are struggling to fin ways of evaluating professional evelopment. There is still a ten ency
to measure the inputs (number of hours) rather than the outputs (increase competence). The establishment of
competence statements in the 3r e ition of Stan ar s an Route to Registration as a professional engineer
(SARTOR 3) by the 0 3ngineering Jouncil provi es a useful structure. The ©nstitute of Materials, Minerals an
Mining has a apte an evelope these competences within the iscipline of materials engineering an has
specifie over 100 areas in which Materials Technologists shoul emonstrate competence. However, whilst these
are useful stan ar s, we shoul remember that professional evelopment is not a pro uct or an outcome - it is a
process.

* 
  

Accre itation Boar for 3ngineering an Technology ©nc (www.abet.org)

avis, M (1993), A Stu ent's Gui e to Open £earning, Macmillan Magazines £t .

3ngineering Jouncil 0 (www.engc.org.uk)

3ngineering Professors Jouncil (www.engprofc.ac.uk)

3uropean Society for 3ngineering 3 ucation (www.ntb.ch/S3F©)

Fisher, G (2000) '£ifelong learning - more than training,' Journal of ©nteractive £earning Research, Fall 2000, p265

Guest, G (2000) £ifelong £earning for the Global Networke Society, presente at Technological 3 ucation an
National evelopment: Jrossroa s of the New Millennium, Abu habi, 0nite Arab 3mirates, 8-10 April 2000

©nstitute for Jontinuing Professional evelopment (www.trainingzone.co.uk/icp )

©nstitute of Materials, Minerals an Mining (www.iom3.org)

ennie, T Jontinuing Professional evelopment: The growing importance of JP, ©nstitute for Jontinuing
Professional evelopment (www.icp .co.uk)

Pa fiel , J et al. (1998) £ifelong £earning in 3ngineering 3 ucation: A Jall to Action. S3F© ocument No. 20.
Brussels: 3uropean Society for 3ngineering 3 ucation.