Teaching and Learning > DOCUMENTS
Personal Development Planning
Danielle Lamb
The What
PDP has been defined as 'a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development'.
The Why
The idea behind PDP is to help students:
- become more effective, independent and confident self-directed learners;
- understand how they are learning and relate their learning to a wider context;
- improve their general skills for study and career management;
- articulate their personal goals and evaluate progress towards their achievement;
- and encourage a positive attitude to learning throughout life.
(The above information is taken from the Centre for Recording Achievement)
Implementing PDP in departments of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies
As of the autumn of 2005, all higher education institutions in the UK are required to provide students with the opportunity to take part in Professional Development Planning; however, how institutions go about implementing PDP is largely left to their own discretion. Moreover, individual departments within institutions will be able to decide how they wish to make best use of PDP and, to a certain extent, whether they wish to make use of it at all.
Departments of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies that choose to take PDP seriously may find it to be a useful tool for encouraging better communication between students and tutors. Implemented as part of a personal tutoring programme, it can be helpful for monitoring progress, identifying specific skill deficiencies, increasing retention, and encouraging students to take more responsibility for their own learning.
Although the name 'PDP' might be new, the idea behind it is not. Many departments across the country have been participating in PDP-like activities for some time even though they may not be aware of it. Learning journals emphasising the value of reflection, for example, might be considered a kind of proto-PDP.
When considering implementing PDP, departments ought to think about what they are already doing or what they have done in the past that could be considered PDP-related. The point is to build on those mechanisms that already exist within the department and make the process useful to both students and staff. Unless it is valued as something that can make a difference and improve the overall learning experience, PDP is unlikely to be effective.
The PRS Subject Centre can help departments by running workshops on PDP for both staff and students, and offers an individual consultancy service for academics on this topic, as well as many others. Please contact us if you have any questions. See below for the resources we have available.
Resources
HEAcademy website:
QAA website:
- Progress files for Higher Education
- Progress Files for Students
- Guidelines for HE progress files
- Policy statement on a progress file for Higher Education
- Developing a progress file for higher education - a discussion paper
Centre for Recording Achievement:
- Centre for Recording Achievement website Support for HE institutions/practitioners etc
Other PDP pages:
- University of Glasgow page on PDP
- University of Bournemouth page on PDP
- Palgrave Macmillan page on PDP
- University of Leeds page on PDP
- University of Leeds Geography department page on PDP
Downloadable Files
Deirdre Burke
Discourse Volume 6 Number 2
This article discusses an initiative at the University of Wolverhampton to help support student transition to Higher Education.
This page was originally on the website of The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. It was transfered here following the closure of the Subject Centre at the end of 2011.
