Time For Professional Development

There were 21 votes to contribute to this data on discretionary time for professional development.



It is a bell curve with most falling in the 2-4 times a month and not too far behind 2-4 times a week. That would mean that most put at least an hour a week into their professional development. An average would be 2 hours a week or 8 hours a month. Two hours a week seems reasonable for 1 or 2 of these items weekly:
• read an article
• listen to a podcast
• take notes to reflect, focus or review learning
• have a conversation to clarify or share learning
• participate in an E-bolt session
• reflect or share learning via the blog
• search on the Internet
• attend a workshop...

I cannot help but wonder what we can do to help the individuals who have no time for professional learning? Certainly as a professional development entity we must encourage everyone to learn professionally. If we create professional development, can we assume that approximately 9% of our clients have no time for professional development and will not access it in any form? Do we focus on the 91 % who can dedicate at least an hour for their professional learning and forget about the 9% who can't? What then becomes of the clients (maybe K-12 students) of the 9%? Do we develop learning opportunities for this 9% which can be accessed more easily within their time constraints? Do we examine why 91 % do have the time and 9% do not, to find solutions?

Russell, I wonder if this data has any significance to your study focusing on when clients will access professional development via electronic means. It is data only from our small LC group, but it may very well reflect the SBBC world. If most people have 2 hours a week, it should be value added. I wonder if a higher value added factor would increase the amount of time that individuals make for professional development? Do your attendance figures mirror this data?

This little piece of data gave me more questions than answers. Of one thing I can be certain, all professional development must be of high quality as everyone has a limited amount of time and none to waste.