Questioning the value of professional development

A new year provides the opportunity for reflection – and often a good spring clean!  In my case I had two large boxes filled with papers and documents collected over a three year period at my previous job.  As is usual whilst sorting and rationalising what is kept (I am unfortunately a bit of a hoarder though) to reminisce, become nostalgic, re-experience a thousand situations and re-visit  a plethora of memories.

These two boxes represented much more than just three years in a job but so many rich learning experiences and professional growth – a real ‘coming of professional age’.  Which made me begin reflecting on the many professional development opportunities I had been given across this time – leadership training programs, seminars, conferences, workshops, courses (I was very fortunate in the opportunities I was afforded) and tried to remember the key points I learned and the key people I learned them from.  I was disappointed to realise that I was struggling to remember the key moments from NLS4 (ALIA’s New Librarian Symposium) that I had attended less than a month ago let alone conferences I had attended years previous – despite trying to decipher copious notes taken at the time.

If I could not remember these experiences with clarity – what was their worth to my professional development? Am I product of informal or formal learning (or both)?  How do conferences, seminars, workshops etc impact on our work practices or are they good only for their immediate context?  Put another way, how transferable are professional development programs into the work place and our work practices?

I have no doubt that these were all valuable experiences (even the not so great seminars – you can learn from anything!) but the real question becomes about our own responsibility and commitment to what happens after the professional development event – attendance is not enough – taking notes at the time is not enough – what is really required is a little time to digest and filter, and then use a forum (whether written or oral, public or private, individual or collaborative) for critically reflecting on the experience.  This solidifies the experience and contextualises it within the individual and their environment – it allows the transfer from one context to another to take place.

Reflective practice then becomes the primary learning tool and the key to enabling professional development and growth, not the event itself.