PDP: an important self-regulatory process
I was introduced to the idea of personal development planning in higher education while working on the Graduate Standards Programme (GSP) at the Higher Education Quality Council in 1996. PDP was introduced to UK Higher Education following the 1977 Dearing Review of Higher Education. I was privileged to lead the development of the policy while working at Quality Assurance Agency. I like to think that the policy was enabling rather than controlling and I'm proud that I was involved in its introduction.
Personal Development Planning (PDP) is defined as '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' (QAA Guide).
A few years later, after I had left QAA I tried to make sense of the policy-driven development in terms of the information and awareness needs of a modern world - A fresh perspective on progress files - a way of representing complex achievements in higher education. When PDP was introduced there was no time or resource to establish an evidence-base. Soon after developing the policy I moved to the Learning and Teaching Support Network where I was in a position to commission a Systematic Review of the evidence. Working with the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI Centre) and the Centre for Recording Achievement (CRA)
who provided a reference group of higher education practitioners, we created two questions to focus the best evidence literature search.
Ø Systematic map: What empirical research has been undertaken on the use of PDP in higher and related education?
Ø Systematic synthesis (in-depth review): What evidence is there that processes that connect reflection, recording, planning and action improve student learning?
The results A systematic map and synthesis review of the effectiveness of personal development planning for improving student learning were published in 2003 and the implications summarised in a conference report. 'Developing an infrastructure to support an evidence informed approach to Personal Development Planning'. The work and the conference in July 2003 laid the foundations for the Higher Education Academy to adopt an evidence-based and evidence-informed approach to the development of learning and teaching in UK HE.
I was introduced to the idea of personal development planning in higher education while working on the Graduate Standards Programme (GSP) at the Higher Education Quality Council in 1996. PDP was introduced to UK Higher Education following the 1977 Dearing Review of Higher Education. I was privileged to lead the development of the policy while working at Quality Assurance Agency. I like to think that the policy was enabling rather than controlling and I'm proud that I was involved in its introduction.
Personal Development Planning (PDP) is defined as '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' (QAA Guide).
A few years later, after I had left QAA I tried to make sense of the policy-driven development in terms of the information and awareness needs of a modern world - A fresh perspective on progress files - a way of representing complex achievements in higher education. When PDP was introduced there was no time or resource to establish an evidence-base. Soon after developing the policy I moved to the Learning and Teaching Support Network where I was in a position to commission a Systematic Review of the evidence. Working with the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI Centre) and the Centre for Recording Achievement (CRA)
who provided a reference group of higher education practitioners, we created two questions to focus the best evidence literature search.
Ø Systematic map: What empirical research has been undertaken on the use of PDP in higher and related education?
Ø Systematic synthesis (in-depth review): What evidence is there that processes that connect reflection, recording, planning and action improve student learning?
The results A systematic map and synthesis review of the effectiveness of personal development planning for improving student learning were published in 2003 and the implications summarised in a conference report. 'Developing an infrastructure to support an evidence informed approach to Personal Development Planning'. The work and the conference in July 2003 laid the foundations for the Higher Education Academy to adopt an evidence-based and evidence-informed approach to the development of learning and teaching in UK HE.
| pdp_systematic_review.pdf |
PDP embraces a range of approaches to learning that connect planning (an individual's goals and intentions for working, learning or achievement), doing (aligning actions to intentions but improvising where necessary), recording (thoughts, ideas, experiences, in order to understand and evidence the process and results of learning) and reflection (reviewing and evaluating experiences and the results of learning). Underpinning this fundamental epistemology is self-awareness or metacognition so that personal decision making is informed by the appreciation of the effects of actions.
According to Professor Michael Eraut, who has studied 'How professionals learn through work', these actions are the basic actions that underlie successful performance in the workplace - assessing a situation, deciding what to do, doing it and monitoring the effects of what you do adjusting where necessary. PDP therefore links effective learning in formal study with what professionals do when they are learning through work. Work is learning and learning is the work Harold Jarache
But PDP is no more than a framework for learning through setting goals, acting and reflecting on performance and situations. It needs to be given life, purpose and meaning by students and teachers as they interpret and implement the ideas it contains in different learning contexts.
When I helped develop PDP policy in 1999 I believed that it was the most visionary and useful of all the Dearing recommendations for improving students' learning. I also thought it would take at least ten years to embed into the higher education system. It has the potential to put students each with their own unique identity and voice at the heart of the higher education enterprise and to support the idea of self-regulation - smething we all need to learn if we are to be and become effective professionals.
PDP AND SELF-REGULATION.doc
I still believe this but the reality has been that PDP processes often emphasize the instrumental features of action planning, record keeping and reflection on action and performance and other important features of self-regulated learning are often neglected. All too often little consideration is given to the richness of the underlying motivations, emotions, values, beliefs, personal creativities and identity that underpin an individual's sense of self-efficacy that drives and energizes what we do, particularly when we encounter the unknown and difficult challenges. In particular, I believe that little attention has been given to the issue of individuals' 'will' to engage or not engage with reflective learning practices.
Another neglected are is the opportunity of PDP to support students' creative development and underpin being enterprising.
Creativity and PDP WORKING PAPER JAN 06.doc
ENTERPRISE MODEL FOR PDP.doc
But as an education system we have made an important start and practices inspired by PDP offer our best hope of moving towards holistic notions of learning for a complex world.PDP is intended to encourage the growth in UK higher education of reflective practices that are essential to the development of reflective, metacognitive capacities and levels of self-awareness required to becoming expert at thinking about and working with complexity. Similarly when viewed from the complex world perspective, Progress Files (particularly when they are implemented through e-portfolios) represent an attempt to recognise the complexity of learning, experiences and achievements that make up what Professor Ron Barnett calls 'being for complexity.'
PROGRESS FILE A POLICY SOLUTION TO LEARNING IN A COMPLEX WORLD.pdf But the implementation of PDP is a ‘wicked problem’. By that I mean the challenge of how to do it continually emerges from all the technical, informational, social, political and cultural complexity that characterizes implementation in each teaching and learning context. Such problems cannot be solved through simple, rational, standard solutions because the problem definition and our understanding of it evolve as we continually gain new insights and new potential solutions are implemented.
According to Professor Michael Eraut, who has studied 'How professionals learn through work', these actions are the basic actions that underlie successful performance in the workplace - assessing a situation, deciding what to do, doing it and monitoring the effects of what you do adjusting where necessary. PDP therefore links effective learning in formal study with what professionals do when they are learning through work. Work is learning and learning is the work Harold Jarache
But PDP is no more than a framework for learning through setting goals, acting and reflecting on performance and situations. It needs to be given life, purpose and meaning by students and teachers as they interpret and implement the ideas it contains in different learning contexts.
When I helped develop PDP policy in 1999 I believed that it was the most visionary and useful of all the Dearing recommendations for improving students' learning. I also thought it would take at least ten years to embed into the higher education system. It has the potential to put students each with their own unique identity and voice at the heart of the higher education enterprise and to support the idea of self-regulation - smething we all need to learn if we are to be and become effective professionals.
PDP AND SELF-REGULATION.doc
I still believe this but the reality has been that PDP processes often emphasize the instrumental features of action planning, record keeping and reflection on action and performance and other important features of self-regulated learning are often neglected. All too often little consideration is given to the richness of the underlying motivations, emotions, values, beliefs, personal creativities and identity that underpin an individual's sense of self-efficacy that drives and energizes what we do, particularly when we encounter the unknown and difficult challenges. In particular, I believe that little attention has been given to the issue of individuals' 'will' to engage or not engage with reflective learning practices.
Another neglected are is the opportunity of PDP to support students' creative development and underpin being enterprising.
Creativity and PDP WORKING PAPER JAN 06.doc
ENTERPRISE MODEL FOR PDP.doc
But as an education system we have made an important start and practices inspired by PDP offer our best hope of moving towards holistic notions of learning for a complex world.PDP is intended to encourage the growth in UK higher education of reflective practices that are essential to the development of reflective, metacognitive capacities and levels of self-awareness required to becoming expert at thinking about and working with complexity. Similarly when viewed from the complex world perspective, Progress Files (particularly when they are implemented through e-portfolios) represent an attempt to recognise the complexity of learning, experiences and achievements that make up what Professor Ron Barnett calls 'being for complexity.'
PROGRESS FILE A POLICY SOLUTION TO LEARNING IN A COMPLEX WORLD.pdf But the implementation of PDP is a ‘wicked problem’. By that I mean the challenge of how to do it continually emerges from all the technical, informational, social, political and cultural complexity that characterizes implementation in each teaching and learning context. Such problems cannot be solved through simple, rational, standard solutions because the problem definition and our understanding of it evolve as we continually gain new insights and new potential solutions are implemented.
Applying these ideas
I believe that the orientations and learning practices that underlie PDP are crucial and essential to learning and developing in a complex, messy and emergent world. Since 2008 I have been working on one possible solution to the wicked problem namely the idea of lifewide learning and personal development which provides a context for the holistic development of students and a highly relevant and practical context for PDP. A summary of the work we have undertaken can be found in this book.
In September 2012 the Lifewide Education Community launched then Lifewide Development Award to put these ideas into practice and embrace thw whole of life not just formal education.
If you are interested in these ideas please join our community by visiting our website -
Lifewideeducation.co.uk
In September 2012 the Lifewide Education Community launched then Lifewide Development Award to put these ideas into practice and embrace thw whole of life not just formal education.
If you are interested in these ideas please join our community by visiting our website -
Lifewideeducation.co.uk
I remain committed to the idea of PDP and, after establishing the Lifewide Education Community in 2012, we launched the Lifewide Develpment Award that is underpinned by PDP practice.