| There is no body of literature that details the answers to the two questions addressed in this work---how professional development is perceived and how professional development is pursued.; In the experiences of this writer, both of these questions are important, and assumptions (versus positions grounded in reality) regarding the answers to these questions can lead to reduced clarity and effectiveness in development interventions. Who or what, for example, is being developed in a professional development intervention, or how that development is taking place, or in what way that development is different than human resource development, organization development or any of the other forms of "development," are all critical questions that, to date, have not been addressed by the literature.; To address these two questions of how professional development is being perceived and pursued, this Project Demonstrating Excellence is structured as follows. The reader is provided with a "Philosophy" section which articulates the assumptions, biases and expectations of this writer as they affect the entire Project. That philosophy is presented in the form of an extended personal correspondence to the professionals who had reason to have an early interest in this work. The second section, entitled "State of the Art: The Literature of Professional Development", shows the results of a search of the literature of the past ten years on the topics of professional development, career development, and success. That section, when combined with Section III, entitled "The Concepts of Profession and Professional" (which is also a review of the literature of the past ten years), provides a detailed analysis of the available professional literature reference points for individuals choosing to associate themselves with the term professional development. Those two sections can best be summarized as showing no clear (and certainly no consistent) response to the questions being addressed in this Project---how is professional development perceived and pursued.; In addition to the several literature searches, this Project Demonstrating Excellence undertakes a survey of individuals in four separate occupational groups---higher education administrators, industry executives, law enforcement administrators, and nursing home administrators. The "Methodology" section details the procedures that were followed in designing and implementing the 50 in-depth interviews that provide the data base component for that effort. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
