Crash test dummies or knowledgeable practitioners? Evaluating the impact of professional development

Abstract

A B S TR ACTThis paper draws on the authors' experience of developing and presenting an Open University Masters level course: Guidance and Counselling in Learning. Questions of `who is the audience?' and `what is the model of professional development?' are explored, surfacing the diversity of contexts for guidance practices and the assumptions about the relationship between theory and practice which are embedded in various approaches to professional development. The discursive approach adopted by the course team, involving students in processes of `mapping' , `locating' and translating' in and between discourses of guidance, is outlined, suggesting that this provides a means of finessing the traditional theory± practice binary. A small-scale evaluation of the impact of studying the course was carried out on a sample of the first cohort of students. Data from this are used to illustrate some effects of the discursive approach on the ways in which students talk about their learning and their practice.

The role and relevance of theory in careers professionalisation and practice

“…The majority of advisers (24 respondents) reported immediate beneficial impacts from their training. Participants had found a 'capacity to name' theories and 'map' their practice against theoretical frameworks and that these concepts of naming and mapping as defined by Harrison, Edwards & Brown, (2001) had enabled them to articulate their tacit use of theory in practice and developing critical awareness. This in turn had engendered a renewed confidence in their practice and identity as careers professionals.…”

“…The relationship between theory and practice has been encapsulated within a number of significant ongoing debates, specifically prevalent within established westernised professional practice contexts. These debates are multifaceted and include the influence of work-based and academic approaches during initial training (Bimrose & Bayne, 1995;Collin, 1998;Harrison, Edwards & Brown, 2001;Kidd et al, 1997) and traditional, positivist theories relating to the guidance process which are often favoured politically (Bimrose, 2006). Lent (2017) has presented the debate between theory, research and practice while Evetts (2011) has explored the dichotomies arising during ongoing professionalisation where organisational or policy forms of control may circumvent opportunities for an individual's personal fusion between skills and theory (Lauder, 2012).…”

“…Some case study participants with initial competency-based training backgrounds (NVQ 3 and 4 Advice and Guidance) considered themselves to have been "thrown in at the deep end and left to have a go at practice" because theoretical content had been negligible on the initial training programme. These advisers asserted that they had been little equipped to realise theoretical instrumentality in practice and consequently struggled to 'map', 'name' and 'locate' theory (using Harrison, Edwards & Brown's [2001] words) in career guidance discourses.…”

Walking Several Inches Taller: Student Reflections on a University Conference on the Lived Experience of Refugee Children and Families.

“…Thus, a mechanism of written narrative discourse was used in order to enable students to articulate their thoughts and reflections after the conference (Harrison, Edwards & Brown, 2001). As Maher & Smith (2014) assert, citing Lather (1993), discourses around any topic are important, as they are instrumental in shaping and giving it perspective and parameters as well as defining attitudes and social assumptions.…”

A Professional Practice Portfolio for Quality Learning

“…There was specific encouragement for RTLBs to present authentic artefacts as the main type of evidence, ensuring that their work was demonstrated rather than described. Annotation of evidence acted as a bridge between the discourse of practice and the discourse of academia (Freidus, 1998; Harrison et al ., 2001).…”