Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Professional Self-Development
Professional Self-Development
SECTION 2
PROFESSIONAL SELF-DEVELOPMENT
Studying Section 2 should take you about 17 hours.
Section 2 addresses all three key questions.
After studying this section you should:
• have a better understanding of the nature of professional learning and
of the relationships between management theory and practice;
• appreciate the role of reflection on practice in professional self-
development and be able to begin to reflect on your own work context
and management practice;
• be able to do an initial self-assessment of your management
development needs using criteria derived from the course material
studied so far or from other sources.
All the readings for this section are in Reader Part
2.1 INTRODUCTION
This section of the Study Guide engages you in the issue of professional self-
development and looks in more detail at reflection on practice as a key process
in professional development and improvement. Some of the readings are quite
theoretical, and you may find some of the ideas presented in this section difficult
to grasp immediately. However, these ideas provide the foundations for
professional learning and development. You will find that spending time at this
stage trying to understand the ideas introduced here will pay dividends for your
study of the rest of the course, and particularly for the assignments through
which you integrate your professional practice with the course material.
In this section, as in others, the activities are designed to help you to relate the
concepts, theories and procedures presented to your own work context and
management practice. You will find that the activities in this section will help you
to achieve the aims set out above. In particular they should help you to build up
a classification of behaviours' and 'deliberative processes' (concepts
explained by Eraut in Chapter 3 of Reader 1), which should help you in assessing
your own management development needs and in undertaking the assignments.
You should continue to bear in mind the three key questions posed in Section 1
as you work through this section and the rest of the course. Consider what each
reading adds to your understanding of these three key questions. This will be
useful for your assignments and for reflection on practice.
Reading 1
This theme is further developed in Chapter 1 by Whitaker in Reader 1. Drawing on the
major writers in humanistic psychology Whitaker considers what characteristics are
required of effective managers and leaders in order to create organizational cultures in
Section 2 Professional self-development 17
which individuals take responsibility for their own work and its development in ways
consistent with organizational goals.
As you read, make notes on:
• McGregor's X and Y theories;
• multiple forms of intelligence and the qualities associated with them;
• the issues of motivation, human potential, self-concept and empowerment;
• the importance of managers taking account of the life cycle and the stage
that individuals have reached, and checking on how they are coping;
• the implications Whitaker derives from humanist psychology about the
characteristics needed for an educational organization to motivate people to
work effectively.
Activity 1
(This activity relates to key question 3: how do individuals improve?)
From your experience, what attributes does a person need to possess or develop in
order to be 'self-actualized' (Maslow's fifth element in his hierarchy of personal need)
and capable of continuous personal and professional development? To what extent do
your views agree with Whitaker's?
Reading 2
You should now read the first part of Chapter 5 by Bennett in Reader up to Two
competence-based models of management'. Think carefully about how these two
approaches to management relate to McGregor's X and Y theories, discussed in
Whitaker, and to right-brained and left-brained thinking. You should also consider how
Bennett's discussion of managerial effectiveness extends that provided by Whitaker.
Activity 2
Make a note of your main management activities for a week and classify them
according to one or more of the taxonomies of the processes that constitute
management (i.e. Gulick and or Mintzberg's).
Practitioners act on the basis of personal knowledge, and this is acquired both
through experience and through learning public propositional knowledge. The
literature on leadership and effective educational organizations reviewed in
Section 6 is an example of this. Public propositional knowledge becomes
personal propositional knowledge when it is understood by practitioners and used
in their work. This distinction between public and personal propositional
knowledge is crucial for the kind of study you are undertaking - a university
course as part of professional development. The knowledge we provide in E838
is public propositional only you can turn it into personal
propositional knowledge. To do this requires reflection.
Eraut, in common with many others, argues that professional education courses
that divorce the acquisition of public propositional knowledge from practice are
ineffective compared with management programmes that succeed in integrating
the two. This integration can be done only if the professional learner mixes
periods of work with periods of studying public propositional knowledge and
then uses the latter in their work setting. A key role for public propositional
Section 2 Professional self-development
Reading 3
You should now read Chapter 3 by Eraut in Reader This is an important article and
you should make sure you understand the concepts and the analysis. In particular,
make notes on:
• public propositional knowledge;
• personal knowledge (propositional and tacit);
• Eraut's classification of the four processes by which knowledge contributes to
professional performance. As you will be expected to use Eraut's
classification of these four processes you should note them carefully.
Activity 3
Use Eraut's fourfold classification of acquiring and interpreting information, skilled
behaviours, deliberative processes and Over the next few days jot
down examples of your personal engagement in the four processes. Note occasions on
which you acquired and interpreted information, used a skilled behaviour, engaged in a
deliberative process or had to direct yourself.
Skilled behaviours
As the inspectors completed reporting back to the staff there was a
deathly silence. I immediately jumped in and said we would not
discuss what they had said but we would go away and reflect, saving
comment for a meeting already scheduled for this. I am convinced
that we needed a digestion period and was commended by the
inspectors for this intervention. The act was not premeditated. It came
as the result of handling staff meetings over a number of years.
Deliberative processes
I planned the agenda for the follow-up meeting with considerable
care, thinking how to approach each aspect of our discussions in turn
so as to focus forward and not allow for recriminations. I planned
what I needed to say to individuals and how to say it. I took on board
what I needed to hear and laid plans to make changes.
Meta-processes
Much of what happened above could only be done as I engaged in
higher levels of thinking in order to manage the changes required.
What did we need to do to address the issues raised by the inspectors?
What was priority? What had they misunderstood and therefore what
could we justify in our present practice? My thought processes were
certainly working overtime as I sought to discuss delicate matters with
individuals and staff as a whole.
Reading 4
The discussion of the nature of professional learning is taken further in Chapter 2 by
Jarvis in Reader 1, which you should read now. This is not an easy article: the
argument is sophisticated and needs careful studying. It develops the points made by
Eraut and is highly relevant to the issue of how one learns about educational
management and how to manage.
After reading Jarvis you should be clear about the following:
• The nature of pragmatic or practical knowledge; the two dimensions of
practical knowledge and how it is learned.
• The significance of reflective learning compared with non-reflective learning
and non-learning. You should in particular study the different routes through
Figure of reflective skills and experiential learning, because you will be
using these learning processes in your assignments for E838.
• The six ways of learning practical knowledge.
Which of Jarvis's nine categories of learning are consistent with either single-loop
learning or double-loop learning (see Reading 2)?
Section 2 Professional self-development
Activity 4
Imagine that you are responsible for managing a change of practice in a school or
college. What do you consider are the implications for this of Jarvis's analysis of
learning practical knowledge?
Reading 5
Read Chapter 4 by Bullock ef in Reader 1, which is a practical application of the
ideas on educational management development examined so far. The authors
investigated the professional learning of educational managers at different stages of
their careers. As you read, make notes on:
• the ways in which the management practices of experienced and less
experienced educational managers differ;
• how these differences relate to the processes of professional learning
examined by Eraut and Jarvis.
In relation to your own stage of experience in educational leadership and management,
consider how far your experiences match or differ from those reported in the chapter.
(Activity 5 also asks you to make notes on this chapter, so you will need to look through
that activity before you begin reading.)
24 E838 Effective Leadership and Management in Education
Activity 5
As you go through the chapter in Reading 5, try to identify specific examples of Eraut's
four processes and note these in the grid below. You will find this useful when you
come to consider your own repertoire of management processes for the assignments.
Information Deliberative
processing Skilled behaviours processes Meta-processes
Reading 6
First, read the second part of Chapter 5 by Bennett in Reader from Two
competence-based models of management' onwards. After reading this you should be
clear as to the difference between the Management Charter Initiative (MCI) and McBer
approaches to management competence. The MCI approach is classified by some
writers as behaviourist and the McBer approach as generic.
Now read two further articles on management competences: Chapter 6 by Ouston and
Chapter 7 by Cave and Wilkinson, both in Reader 1. Ouston relates management
competences to school effectiveness research (which you will meet in Section 6) and
provides a critique particularly of the behaviourist approach to competences. Chapter 7
is a practical exemplification of the generic approach to educational management
competence, which concludes with a taxonomy of three elements of 'management
capability'. These are:
1 knowledge about management functions and processes and the
organizational context;
2 skills - which can be acquired through training and improved through
practice;
3 higher order cognitive abilities, which determine appropriate action in the
specific context.
While reading Chapters 6 and 7, and reviewing Bennett on competences (Chapter 5),
make notes on the following questions:
• What are the differences between (a) the MCI approach (called 'behaviourist'
by Eraut, 1994, pp. 169-77, and 'fundamentalist' by Ouston, Chapter 6) and
(b) the McBer approach to managerial competences (called 'liberal' by
Ouston and 'generic' by Eraut)?
• What is the knowledge base from which the competences are derived?
• What assessment procedures do the two approaches use?
• What are their respective strengths and weaknesses?
The following activity will help to consolidate your learning about managerial
competences. It will also be helpful for your assignments.
Activity 6
Look back at the readings in Reading 6 and classify the specific 'competences' and
they include in their discussion according to the four categories listed
below:
• competence in task performance;
• deliberative process;
• skilled behaviour;
• (Eraut)
• higher order cognitive ability (Cave and Wilkinson).
Note that there is no one correct classification as people will justifiably differ in their
interpretations.
The next activity pulls together the ideas contained in the readings for Section 2
and could also be a useful discussion topic for a tutorial.
Activity 7
Develop and write a short critique of both the behaviourist and the generic approaches
to management competence. Show how each approach relates to particular aspects of
the analysis of the nature of professional knowledge provided by Bennett, Eraut and
Jarvis. Also, indicate any weaknesses in either approach that are due to its failure to
address key aspects of professional knowledge and its acquisition.
26 E838 Effective Leadership and Management in Education
One way of resolving these difficulties is to work with the broader concept of
professional capability. This concept refers to the capacity to perform effectively
rather than to the performance itself and hence is able to encompass a much
richer range of knowledge and qualities than the behavioural competence
approach. Eraut defines capability as the qualities that enable performance of the
professional job and role and that also provide the basis for developing future
competence. This definition covers the following categories of capability:
• underpinning knowledge and understanding of concepts,
theories, facts and procedures;
• the personal skills and qualities required for a professional
approach to the conduct of one's work; and
• the cognitive processes which constitute professional thinking.
(Eraut, 1994, p. 200)
Another advantage of assessing professional capability rather than competence is
that it does not need to be assessed solely in the workplace (Eraut, 1994).
Applying Ouston's critique, professional capability is likely to be more valid as a
set of criteria, though possibly less reliable, than behavioural competence. (Valid
means that the criteria accurately reflect the phenomenon being measured or
assessed. Reliable means that the criteria will be interpreted in the same way by
different people.)
Reading 7
Now read Chapter 8 by in Reader 1, which describes an action research project
in which a group of headteachers was engaged in reflecting on the practice of
educational leadership. analyses their responses through the concept of
dilemmas. She defines a dilemma as a choice in which there are conflicts of objectives
and/or values. A given situation may be seen in relation to several dilemmas. By
definition ethical principles do not provide clear guidance in these situations or there
Section 2 Professional self-development 27
would be no dilemma. There may be a conflict between different values, such as that
between valuing a culture of teacher collaboration and respecting the rights of
individual teachers to put their own beliefs into practice. On other occasions morality
may be 'suspended' when the wish to avoid undesirable personal or organizational
consequences of an action takes precedence over ethical principles.
As you read, make notes on:
• the similarities between Mintzberg's view of what being a manager involves
and what is described here;
• the different types of dilemma that M0ller distinguishes;
• the role of values and ethical principles in dealing with dilemmas.
Activity 8
Write a short statement (about 300 words) on your own values as an educational
manager. How difficult do you find it to put these values into practice? Can you think of
any dilemma from your own practice that involved competing values or a conflict
between an ethical principle and other considerations?
2.8 CONCLUSION
At this point you should reflect and make notes on what this section has added
to your understanding of the three key questions:
• What are leadership and management in education?
• What are effective leadership and management in education?
• How do individuals improve and become more effective?
The emphasis in Section 2 is very much on the individual and his or her
professional development as an educational manager. You have been introduced
to some conceptual analysis of what constitutes professional knowledge and how
it is acquired. In particular, the importance of a deliberate process of reflection
on practice, buttressed by a supportive organizational culture, has been stressed.
Having done the activities in Section 2 you should now be in a position to
attempt your own self-analysis of where you are as a manager, what your
development needs are and how you can best address these using the resources
provided by E838. The framework in Figure 2 at the end of Section 1 should
provide some guidance.
At this point it would be useful to turn to the booklet Reflecting and Reporting
on Management Practice: a guide to the assignments. Here you will find the
assignments you need to complete and guidance on how to do this. This
guidance includes the audio-cassette 'Preparing to write your assignments', which
you can usefully listen to at various points in your studies. Reflecting and
Reporting on Management Practice also contains a summary of the theory of
experiential learning, on which the concept of reflection on practice is based,
together with a case study describing one person's attempt to carry out the
process of reflection on their own practice.