Importance of Teacher Professional Development

This assignment delves into the significance of teacher professional development. It examines various aspects of this process, including different spheres of knowledge required, the impact on self-efficacy beliefs, and the effectiveness of reflective inquiry for growth. The discussion also highlights how professional development contributes to entrepreneurial education, social work identity development, and personal development in a broader context.

Personal and Professional Development
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................2
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Evaluation of self-managed learning and lifelong learning in relation to my own experience. 2
1.2 Ways by which lifelong learning in personal and professional development areas can be
encouraged.......................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Evaluation of self managed learning to me and my organization..............................................3
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Audit for own personal skills and competencies using the formate and evaluation of skills
needed to work professionally in Starwood Hotels and Resorts.....................................................4
2.2 Identification of own development needs and activities required to meet them.......................5
2.3 Identification of own development opportunities to meet current and future defined goals....5
2.4 Developing personal and professional development plan based on identified needs................6
TASK 3.................................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Discussion of processes and activities required to implement the development plan...............6
3.2 Undertake and document development activities as planned....................................................7
3.3 Critical reflection on own learning against original aims and objectives set in the
development plan.............................................................................................................................7
3.4 Updating the development plan based on feedback and evaluation..........................................8
TASK 4.................................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Investigation of work-based problem in work environment and solution to that problem........9
4.2 Different style of communication at various level of Starwood Hotels and Resorts.................9
4.3 Evaluation of effectiveness of different time management strategies used in Starwood Hotels
and Resorts.....................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Personal and Professional development both are considering as a driving force that boost of
career and growth of individual. To get employment in an organization, it requires a continuous
personal and professional development. In a personal life, by learning various kinds of skills and
knowledge, it becomes simple to manage daily life work. This things assist individual to use it in
professional life to complete their jobs (Andersson, 2012). From research, it finds that personal and
professional skills are most important to promote staff and their development in an organization.
The aim of this development is to develop learning abilities in a person to organize, manage and
practise a wide range of approaches to improve own performance. The present study is based on
personal and professional development and to understand its importance in individual life, various
cases are taking into the consideration. Objectives that will cover under the following research are
role of self managed learning in enhancing lifelong development, ways to promote lifelong
learning, benefits of the self managed learning etc.
TASK 1
1.1 Evaluation of self-managed learning and lifelong learning in relation to my own experience
Working as Assistant Manager in Starwood Hotels and Resorts, self-managed and life ling
learning play an important role. On daily basis, I have faced various problems while working and
coordinate with staff. To deal with issues and deliver right services to the customers, it is essential
for me to work over self-managed and lifelong learning (Bassot, 2014). A problem which I have
been currently faced is unable to understand the preference and needs of the customers. To solve
this, I have taken help of different methods and in this respect, evaluation of self-managed and
lifelong learning approaches are as follows:
Social networks: By getting socialize with local community through numerous social media such as
Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc, it has easier for me to understand the tastes, needs and preferences
of the end users. The reason of selecting this for self managed learning is people spend more time
on social networks where they share their ideas, opinions and other things with the other ones. So,
by connecting with the consumers all the time, it has been easy for me to know about expectations
of them and offer the services according to them (Bates, Swennen and Jones, 2014).
Internet: With the help of this, I have searched different articles that was relating to understand
needs and preference of the end users. On the basis of this, I have been able to developed
questionnaire and survey to solve workplace issue. Responses of the guests assist me to make
improvement in existing services.
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1.2 Ways by which lifelong learning in personal and professional development areas can be
encouraged
There are different methods by which lifelong learning in personal and professional
development areas can be improved that are as follows:
Self evaluation: It is a good method that will encourage me for personal and professional
development areas. By analysing strengths and weaknesses on monthly basis, I can find important
information regarding lacking areas that will require more improvements (Corrie, 2007). With the
help of this strategy, I can maintained lifelong learning in personal and professional development
areas.
Continuous learning: It means learning from experience and events. By learning from past
experience, I can easily find those areas that requires more improvement. Along with this, I will be
able to determine some good ideas and strategies that can be use in the near future to deal with
similar situations (Charleson, 2012).
Self motivation: It is also a good option to promote lifelong learning in personal and professional
development areas. With the help of this, I will be able to learn the things my myself by getting
success or failure in a job duties. My mistakes will motivate me to learn new skills and techniques
so that same thing would not be repeat in near future. My success will motivate me to keep maintain
same attitude and behaviour to deal issues in future.
1.3 Evaluation of self managed learning to me and my organization
Self-managed learning benefits to me: Improve different skills: Self-managed learning approach assist me to bring the
improvements in various skills where I have currently lacking. It will help me in both
personal and professional developments so that I ca deal with Starwood Hotels and Resorts
workplace issues (Chou and et.al., 2014).
 Promote natural development: With the application of self-managed learning approach, it
has bring the development and improvement in self-confidence, taking initiative, able to
take right decisions etc.
Self-managed learning benefits to Starwood Hotels and Resorts: Help in achieve strategic business objectives: Self-managed learning develop new skills
and knowledge in the staff and it delivers various benefits to the organization in terms of
achieving business objectives (Skiff, 2009). Improve decision making process: Self-managed learning assist the hotel to take right and
more effective decisions by analysing past experience and mistakes. It will becomes easy for
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management to do not repeat same thing again and again.
 Raise productivity level: Self-managed learning approach will develop flexible and learning
environment for the employees of Starwood Hotels and Resorts. It will being the
improvement in productivity level of the hotel because the learning environment will assist
the workers to learn new skills and change in working practices in order to perform the jobs
in right manner (Cox, Bachkirova and Clutterbuck, 2014).
TASK 2
2.1 Audit for own personal skills and competencies using the formate and evaluation of skills
needed to work professionally in Starwood Hotels and Resorts
Skill audit is an important process to measure and recording the skills of an individual. The
aim of organization to carry out this process for each and every employee is to determine the level
of skills and knowledge which the company is require to achieve business objectives. In the context
of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, a skill audit of my for evaluating personal skills and competencies
is as follows:
Activities My Skill level now
Able to develop schedule of work 1 2 3 4
Time management 1 2 3 4
Handling employee complaints 1 2 3 4
Taking initiatives 1 2 3 4
Good in decision making 1 2 3 4
Leadership skills 1 2 3 4
Able to manage changes 1 2 3 4
Team building skills 1 2 3 4
Description
1: No experience, need hard training
2: Very basic skills, need training
3: Normal, might need some training
4: Competent
From the evaluation of skill audit, it has found that there are some skills where I have still
lacking and needed improvements. These are developing schedule of work, time management,
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handling employees issues, decision making skills and managing changes (Fullan, 2014). These all
needed to me to work professionally in Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
2.2 Identification of own development needs and activities required to meet them
From the skills audit process, it has found that there are some skills where I have still needed
more improvement. So, to work as a professionally in Starwood Hotels and Resorts at Assistant
Manager position, I have to take some actions. In this context, my first own development need is
develop and manage work schedule. At the time of working, many times, I have faced
mismanagement issues regarding the work. I have not able to complete the tasks as per the set
deadlines. To overcome the problem, I have analysed that by avoiding multitasking and dividing the
entire work into the sub activities. By doing this, daily work can be manage and run according to
the set schedules (Gijselaers, 2013). On the other hand, skill audit shows that I have still needed
improvement in managing conflicts at the workplace of Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Sometimes,
the issues between the staff members remain same and its make impact on organization
performance. So, to bring improvement in this skills, I have to learn various managerial skills that
can be learn by experience of senior persons, case studies, from own past experience etc. Further,
time management is one of another skills that requires improvement because sometime, I have not
managed all work which affect my productivity. To deal with this problem, I have determined that
by developing log dairy and allocate entire time slot into different segments, I can easily manage
time and meet the deadlines.
2.3 Identification of own development opportunities to meet current and future defined goals
Form the above identified areas of skills that require improvement, there are some
development opportunities to meet current and future defined goals while working as a Assistant
Manager in Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Few own development opportunities are as follows:
Self initiation: By taking initiatives such as organize events and other programs within the
organization, it will develop an opportunity for me to bring improvement in those skills where I
have still lacking (Gonzales and Lambert, 2014). With the help of this, I will learn managerial and
leadership skills, time management, scheduling of work, handling issues etc. Along with this, the
following method will meet my future development needs such as good relationships with the staff,
identify the training and development needs of employees, some interpersonal skills etc.
Personal empowerment: With the help of this opportunity, I will allow me to discuss my issues
with the seniors and try to get best solutions from them. It will assist me to learn from their
experience and use them to overcome my weaknesses. Further, a right guidance of seniors able me
how to improve my skills and minimize their impacts on my work (Gregory and et.al., 2014).
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2.4 Developing personal and professional development plan based on identified needs
Personal and Professional Development plan generally used to measure performance on
individual basis with the aim of comparing current skills, ability and knowledge level with expected
capabilities (Haarhoff, Thwaites and Bennett‐Levy, 2015). Working as Assistant Manager in
Starwood Hotels and Resorts, I have to prepare a personal and professional development plan on the
basis of identified needs which is as follows:
Learning
objective
Type of goals
(Short or Long)
Development
opportunities
Judging criteria Time
frame
Scheduling of
work
Long term By using different work
management
techniques
Level of
management of
work
7-8 weeks
Time
management
Short term By during various time
management methods
Meeting the
deadline
3-2 weeks
Conflict
management
Long term By listening the
problems and take right
decisions
Level of
understanding
between employees
5-8 weeks
Decision
making skills
Long term Learning from
experience and study of
different case studies
Achievement of set
outcomes
5-6 weeks
Change
management
skills
Short term Adopt right change
management model
according to the
situation
Impact of managing
change on
employees and
organization
performance
4.-5 weeks
TASK 3
3.1 Discussion of processes and activities required to implement the development plan
To implement above developed Personal and Professional Development Plan, a process that
is selected for this is PDCA cycle. It is an repetitive four step management model to execute and
bring the improvement in plan on continuous manner. In Plan-Do-Check-Act, plan stage establish
the objectives and processes which requires to deliver expected outcomes. Completeness and
accuracy, both are part of this phase (Harland and Kinder, 2014). At Do level, implementation of
plan becomes take place step by step. At Check stage, actual result compare with the expected
outcomes to check whether the activities are taking place according to the set plan or not and
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accomplishment of events. At last in Act phase, actions take place as per the requirements and
needs.
In the case of development of Personal and Professional plan, according to PDCA cycle, a
plan has prepare to execute the idea. For this, first sources have collected and check their reliability.
Then developed plan has implemented by considering various aspects. After this, in Do stage, I
have started working as per the set design and try to make improvements in the skills with the help
of selected sources and achieve it within set time frame (King, 2014). On the other hand, at Check
phase, I have compare actual outcomes with the expected results and ensure that either my skills
improved or not. On the basis of judgement, I have taken actions in Act stage. It will related to
identified those areas where I have still needed improvements and some modifications take place in
plan and same process will repeat over and again.
3.2 Undertake and document development activities as planned
As per the above mentioned personal and professional development plan, it required
documentation process because in future, it will assist in review of that action plan to know its
effectiveness. It can also be considered as a guideline for developing similar kind of event in the
near future. In the context of the present personal and professional development plan, first stage is
identification of learning objectives in which I wants to bring improvement. It includes my some
weaknesses that are strongly needed betterment and require in professional development. Second
section is relating to divide learning objectives into short and long term goals (Kosnik and et.al.,
2015). Short term goals include those activities which involve only for specific situations. Long
term goals include those tasks that apply on all time in professional life. Next step is regarding the
developing opportunities. It involves those sources from which I can improve my skills and increase
my knowledge level. Further, next is judgement criteria by which I can compare actual and
expected outcomes. It assist me to know whether I have achieved my objective or not. Last stage of
development of personal and professional development plan is setting of time scale in which I have
to complete my learning objectives.
3.3 Critical reflection on own learning against original aims and objectives set in the development
plan
After preparing and execution of personal and professional development plan, there is a
need of reflection on my learning against original aims and objectives. First activity is regarding the
scheduling of work. The original objective regarding this is manage work on daily basis. After
evaluation of this, it has found that I have been able to manage my work and probability of
mismanagement of tasks became reduced. Now, I m capable to manage entire work without any
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kind of difficulties. Time management was another learning objective and my aim of learn this skill
is to manage limited time and complete the work within the given time period (Lumpe and et.al.,
2014). Evaluation shows that I have achieve this objective in right manner. With the help of this,
now I am effectively manage my time and finish the given task within allotted time duration. On the
other hand, another learning objective which I have included into personal and professional
development plan in conflict management. Assessment of this objective, I have explored that still I
have not able to manage and resolve employees issues. This areas is require more improvement and
takes lot of time. Beside this, decision making is another my leaning objective and the aim to
include it into the plan is to take right decisions regarding the work. Evaluation of it shows that I
have not found any kind of betterment in decision making skills. Most of the time, my decisions are
not according to the situation and result is my efforts have wasted (McArdle and McGowan, 2014).
Along with this, change management is also a learning objective where I want improvement. The
aim behind to involve it into the personal and professional development plan is to manage change
within the workplace and minimize the resistance of staff towards acceptance of new modifications.
I have achieved this objective and at present, I am effectively manage various changes at the
workplace of Starwood Hotels and Resorts. So, from the evaluation, it has determined that still there
are some area where improvements are needed.
3.4 Updating the development plan based on feedback and evaluation
From the evaluation and feedback on above stated personal and professional development
plan, updated action plan is showing in below table.
Learning
objective
Type of goals
(Short or Long)
Development
opportunities
Criteria for
judging success
Time scale
Conflict
management
Long term By organizing meetings,
placed complain box in
every department and
listen issues of
employees carefully.
Level of
understanding
between staff
8- 9 weeks
Change
management
skills
Long term Implement change
management methods,
understand causes of
resistance of employees.
Level of acceptance
of change at
workplace
7-10weeks
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TASK 4
4.1 Investigation of work-based problem in work environment and solution to that problem
Investigation and impact of employees turnover problem
In Starwood Hotels and Resorts, major work based problem is increase employees turnover.
Exit of staff from the workplace is raising with rapid speed. It is not good for the organization by
seen the performance and brand image in the market place. It has directly affected productivity of
cited firm (McLaughlin and Vuuren, 2012). From the investigation, it has found that the major
cause of high employee turnover issue is because of ineffective motivational methods Starwood
Hotels and Resorts has not given any kind of the monetary or non-monetary recognition of the
employees wok in peak workload and other situations. It has decreased the motivational level of the
workforce and they became start leaving the organization. The shortage of staff has increased the
work pressure on the existing employees.
Solution to overcome issues
To resolve the following issue in Starwood Hotels and Resorts, management of the
organization should use different types of motivational strategies and method. By giving numerous
kinds of monetary and non-monetary rewards, hotel easily motivate the employees and influenced
them tot stay with company for long time (Moorhead, Boetto and Bell, 2014). Along with this, by
identify the needs and preferences of the staff members, some additional benefits can be provided to
them so that they will be self motivated.
4.2 Different style of communication at various level of Starwood Hotels and Resorts
To communicate important information within the Starwood Hotels and Resorts at different
level of management, some styles of communication requires. First communication method is open
meeting where it is easier to communicate essential information to the team members. Here,
employees listen the management and also suggest their opinion regarding any issue or strategy. On
the other hand, email is also a good option of communication where all information and data float in
the entire Starwood Hotels and Resorts (Belonwu, 2013). It enable the management to pass
messages to entire workforce without pulling them out of their workspace. Further, by using
presentation technique, organization easily communicate the information via pictures, videos, table
and sound. The benefit of this is if employees not get clear about certain things, they can ask it
again. On the other hand, communication through training is also a good option to share the
information with employees. By organizing the training, some essential message can be deliver to
them. Along with this, with the application of by connecting with phone calls with the staff,
important content can be shared with them. Therefore, with the use of above stated different style of
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communication at various level of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, information can be shared
effectively (Moss, Gibson and Dollarhide, 2014).
4.3 Evaluation of effectiveness of different time management strategies used in Starwood Hotels
and Resorts
In Starwood Hotels and Resorts, there are various time management strategies used by
different level of employees. Some time management tactics and their evaluation is as follows:
Setting of priorities: Employees of Starwood Hotels and Resorts write down all the tasks that they
have to perform at the workplace on daily basis, they have prepared a separate lists of those
activities. After this, they have set up their priorities to perform them. Effectiveness of this time
management strategy is it save the time of the staff and complete the work within the given time
duration (Mikoluk, 2013).
Creating a to do list: It is a like a reminder of the important tasks that employees need to priorities.
At the workplace of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, with the application of this, staff manage their
work according to it by creating a high attention to the less attention work (Nicholls, 2014).
Avoid distraction: For managing the time, employees of hotel try to stay away from distraction and
they must concentrate on the key responsibilities along with duties assigned to them. This can
surely bring favourable results for the entire business as staff members will devote maximum time
in carrying out overall operations of the company and this can enhance business productivity.
Therefore, in this way all the time management strategies being undertaken are effective and in
turn it has lead to favourable outcomes. Employees can easily focus on their individual performance
and they can devote maximum time in business affairs. Apart from this, they can take initiative on
their personal level which is favourable for entire company (Wallace, 2010).
CONCLUSION
The entire study being carried out has supported in knowing about the personal and
professional development plan. Further, to manage time in appropriate manner different strategies
are present and by undertaking them employees working in Starwood hotel and resort can
contribute maximum in business affairs. Apart from this by undertaking different activities it is
possible to work on own development need and activities. Moreover, it is well known fact that no
individual is perfect and undertaking development plan it is possible to work in favour of
development.
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REFERENCES
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Online
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