Search results

The purpose of this paper is to report on a longitudinal study that explored the perceptions and experiences of part-time doctoral students using the researching professional development framework (RPDF) as they progressed through the first year of their EdD programme at a research-led English University.

Following an initial questionnaire completed by students and supervisors (n = 18), six students were interviewed at the beginning, middle and end of the year.

The findings suggest that students found the RPDF had been of particular value early in their studies and had helped them realise that they were developing their identity as researching professionals, ready to make a difference to professional practice through their research.

While Doctorate in Education (EdD) courses have been around for some time, supporting frameworks have tended to be based on traditional PhD routes of study, with the unique development needs of part-time students (who are often working full-time and undertaking research into their professional context) often being ignored. To fill this gap, the authors recently proposed a new framework – the Researching Professional Development Framework – which was specifically developed to support EdD students by offering them an opportunity to reflect on key areas of their professional development as they progress through their studies.

The increased demands for access to and accountability for mastery of social studies curriculum by all students, including students with disabilities (SWDs) and diverse learning needs, is a current reality within secondary schools. Research has suggested classroom implementation of evidence-based instructional practices to improve content literacy. However, the lack of descriptive data related to classroom implementation of instructional practices seems to be an area of concern, especially following professional development (Correnti & Rowan, 2007). Research related to the context and conditions of classroom implementation is needed. This manuscript describes a district-wide professional development initiative within secondary social studies classrooms, outlines qualitative research, reports findings related to teacher perceptions of classroom implementation, and describes the considerations and implications related to implementation of professional development as part of comprehensive school reform.

The purpose of this paper is to determine an effective approach to developing university vocational lifelong learning (VLL) professionals as researchers.

Two quite different approaches to developing VLL professionals as researchers were piloted, one involving face‐to‐face training and the other distance learning. These approaches were evaluated by the VLL professionals who underwent the training, and the organisers of the training. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed in the evaluation.

Evaluation of the two development methods revealed that the fact‐to‐face method was more successful due to its greater impact in the affective domain of learning, although some VLL professionals are able to develop through distance learning with close tutor support via electronic communication. Overall, the evaluation findings indicate that a combination of face‐to‐face and distance learning methods is likely to prove most effective.

The pilot national research study involved small numbers of trainees across the UK. The training may be more effectively carried out at an institutional level.

VLL professionals in higher education are increasingly called upon to conduct and to manage research. There are many calls on their time, and this research project has demonstrated an effective approach to their training in VLL research within a very limited time period.

No methods for developing university VLL professionals as researchers have previously been piloted or evaluated. The research demonstrates the effectiveness of a training method combining face‐to‐face and distance learning.

The private club industry is undergoing major change as it forges new links with academia in the areas of research, teaching and management development. This bodes well for hospitality management programmes. Indeed, the primary mission of most hospitality programmes in North America includes the dissemination of information in ways that will translate into tangible benefits for the greater hospitality industry. This article examines the context within which changes are taking place in the relationship between private clubs and hospitality education in North America, discusses the current research agenda on club management and reports the results of a survey of club managers about the nature and importance of industry/education linkages. It concludes by proposing a framework for continued collaboration that would strengthen both academic and industry partners while emphasizing a renewed and refocused research agenda.

This paper represents a written, expanded, version of a keynote address presented at the Vitae Researcher Development International Conference, at the midland Hotel, Manchester, UK, in September 2011. It is intended both to contribute towards defining researcher development as a field of research and scholarship, and to motivate those with an interest in the field to go beyond mere description and to incorporate clarity, rigour and analytical depth into their work. Its specific objective is to propose a research agenda for researcher development and to present the case for this agenda.

This is an analytical and conceptual paper. It presents the author's subjective views, illustrated, where appropriate, with examples of the author's conceptual and theoretical work. These underpin the research agenda for the field of researcher development.

There are no “findings” as such, only the author's perspective and observation that, as an emerging field of research and scholarship, researcher development must follow the path of academic rigour (e.g. analytical depth, conceptual clarity, definitional precision, and the development of theory and theoretical perspectives) if it is to achieve credibility within the academic community. The field also needs to widen its focus, it is argued, reflecting a broad interpretation of the concept of researcher development.

This is the first paper dedicated to an attempt to define the field. Its value also lies in its definitions and conceptualisations of researcher development, and its presentation of a taxonomy that deconstructs researcher development, revealing it to be multidimensional.

The aim of this paper is to present an interview and postscript that examine the specific meaning, rationale, conceptual framework, assessment and teaching of critical reflection in and on professional development in management and higher education from an action research perspective.

This article is presented in the new genre of PIP (Zuber-Skerritt, 2009): Preamble – Interview – Postscript. The Preamble (P) sets out the background, purpose, structure and conduct of the interview (I), which addresses six probing questions and is followed by a Postscript (P) that reveals additional comments and reflections on the interview, and identifies learning outcomes and implications.

Reflective practice is essential for a deep approach to learning, research and professional development and it is a driving force to enable learners to be adequately equipped for constant and complex change in today's and tomorrow's turbulent world.

The article is positioned to inspire further R&D in the current debate on urgently needed radical and rapid change in higher education for the twenty-first century.

As well as the article's practical suggestions about why and how to develop reflective learning/practice, the PIP conceptual model applied in this article offers a useful practical approach for researchers to explore self-ethnography through interviews.

Two conceptual models illustrate the essence of this article, providing practical help to academics and other professionals to advance reflective practice in research and learning.

This paper seeks to compare the influence of self‐efficacy, organizational socialization and continuous improvement (CI) practices on the career aspirations of research and development (R&D) professionals in government research institutes (GRIs) and multinational corporations (MNCs) in Malaysia. R&D professionals in this study refer to a specific group of knowledge workers.

Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) was used as this study's theoretical framework. The study involved 164 respondents from GRIs and 120 respondents from MNCs in Malaysia. Descriptive statistics and inferential multiple linear regressions were used to analyse the data.

Self‐efficacy and organizational socialization were found to differ significantly in terms of their levels, and CI practices and career aspirations were not found to be significantly different between the two groups of respondents. Regression results showed MNCs reported higher explanatory power compared to that of the GRIs in terms of the variance in career aspirations.

The insights generated about the factors affecting career aspirations are based on three independent variables, namely: self‐efficacy, organizational socialization and CI practices that are most suitable for a R&D environment.

This study confirms the relevance of CI practices in the existing model of SCCT because it represents the organizational variables. HRD practitioners in both types of organizations should consider changing the work practices of R&D professionals by strengthening the quality improvement procedures because they affect the professionals' career aspirations.

Incorporating CI practices into the SCCT model is believed to be a contribution of this study to the theory.

The purpose of this literature review was to identify best practices in coaching faculty within higher education and the subsequent benefits of effective faculty coaching programs for the retention of quality faculty. In higher education, where an emphasis is on the delivery of curriculum for student learning, faculty performance reviews are not universally defined, nor are coaching practices consistently employed. Giving teaching performance feedback promptly to faculty may be a means to foster professional growth and enhance the implementation of progressive practices to benefit student learning.

The authors undertook a content analysis of current literature on the evaluation and coaching practices of higher education faculty that specifically addressed the quality and timeliness of feedback and gaps in practices.

Through this study, the authors gleaned recommendations for improving faculty evaluation, coaching, and feedback.

Developing coaching programs to include all higher education faculty may lead to improved teaching performance and alignment of the faculty with institutional goals. The insights from this study may provide the impetus to develop structures and processes for university-based professional development and coaching programs that could lead to positive student learning outcomes and better relationships among faculty.

This is the first review to use Cooper's systematic examination of current literature to explore the topics of faculty support, coaching, and development within higher education.

The purpose of this paper is to review and highlight key findings, themes and ideas from selected published academic papers on mentoring in education, with a specific focus on how mentoring can foster the professional learning and development of educators at all stages of their professional development.

The author conducted a literature review of all the papers published in the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, from Volume 1, Issue 1 (2012) to Volume 4, Issue 4 (2015), that contained the word “mentoring” in either the title, abstract and/or keywords and with a discussion of mentoring in the main text. In total, 37 papers were analysed in order to create a meta-synthesis of the primary findings.

The findings present factors that foster mentoring success or failure. The purposes and components of mentoring programmes are diverse and contextually bound. Additionally, there is a tendency to view mentoring as a developmental relationship in which the mentor shares knowledge and expertise to support the mentee’s learning and professional development.

As this meta-synthesis literature review is focussed on articles published in a single journal on mentoring, it has limited scope. However, the range of countries in which the authors of the reviewed empirical studies reside (13 countries), and the diversity of papers included in this review allowed the author to summarize and synthesize unique information for researchers and practitioners who are seeking to understand the process, outcomes and issues related to mentoring for the professional development of educators.

The review provides information for those seeking to study and implement mentoring programmes. It focusses on mentoring for professional development of educators, identifies primary concepts in the literature reviewed and highlights new research areas in mentoring in education.

This literature review discusses mentoring definitions from 37 different papers and contributes important knowledge to produce a picture of the intricacy of mentoring. Complex issues linked with mentoring are addressed, generating a critical systematization of mentoring research likely to have a lasting influence in the field.

Public organizations are investing in e‐government development and e‐services to improve the interaction and services to the citizens. Archivists need to act more pro‐active to capture and manage records in order to be accessible both in the present and in the long‐term. Archivists need to understand the conceptual context and business processes in which the records are created. This study aims to focus on an ongoing process within a specific context, which may have direct, but also future implications for archivists' professional identity. Professional identity is understood as a sense of shared understandings and skills, experiences, common way of perceiving problems and their possible solutions. The study is meant to answer the overall research question and sub‐questions: What is the status of archivist professionals' positions and practice within public organizations? What organizational effect has the change from paper‐based to electronic record keeping had on archivists' professional positions and practice within organizations? How do archivists perceive themselves in their professional roles, i.e. identity? Are there any critical competence issues that need to be solved that are connected to new requirements in working methods related to electronic record keeping? and How do archivists define their skills and working performance?

The data presented and analyzed in this article are based on a literature review and an empirical study. The literature covers areas related to archivists' professional practice and future role. The empirical study is based on interviews with nine municipality archivists at nine different Swedish municipalities identified by the Swedish Association of Local Government and Regions as “good example” e‐government municipalities. All interviews were undertaken during January and March 2011.

The findings provide information on how archivists define their current and future professional role in relation to the organization and the development of information technology: the status of archivist professionals' positions and practice, for example, within public organizations. It explores the importance of strategic approaches to managing electronic records – from their creation throughout their whole existence, including long‐term preservation – and considers necessary changes to the professional image of archivists and the skills they need.

This article will be of interest to record keeping practitioners working in the shift to e‐government in local contexts and also to educators, as there appears to be a shift in the skills and knowledge required by those working in local government.