Resolutionary thinking
Education goes against nature. The new year starts just when the leaves are beginning to turn on the trees.
Despite my two decades in the real world of work, where each year was punctuated only by a summer vacation and an enforced slowdown around Christmas, I still find the academic year to be second nature. Progress was so easy to measure then: new year, new uniform, new class, an inch or two taller.
How to continue measuring progress - other than the extra inch on the waist - once you’re outside the academic world? Because learning doesn’t end with your degree qualification. Not if you want to develop as a professional and as a human being.
That’s why I’ve decided to sign up to our professional body’s continuous professional development (CPD) scheme, Developing Excellence. This challenges me to improve in three areas: professional practice, education & training and personal development. (For a full-time educator, this should come with my job description, but doing your day job properly doesn’t count for CPD credits.)