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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
ANNUAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OFFERINGS
As defined in the previous section, professional development will occur at the College, campus, unit and individual levels. A variety of departments, committees and groups across the College will continue to schedule events, speakers, workshops and seminars and other services and activities. In order to maximize the effectiveness of such offerings as well as to extend fiscal resources as far as possible, a coordinated program in necessary.
In addition to the breadth of offerings across all constituencies and strategic plan categories, the professional development program must also be of sufficient depth to stimulate continuing professional growth among currently high achieving faculty and staff.
In order to foster the creation of a premier, learning-centered college, any professional development program must be comprehensive. A comprehensive program does the following:
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Responds to the needs of classified staff, faculty and administrators
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Includes innovative programs/presentations that are not reflected in the needs assessments because they are new to our educational community
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Provides staff members with time and/or money to develop skills or projects
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Is attentive to LearningFirst principles
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Includes opportunities for highly specialized projects
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Corresponds to the instructional, technological, and human resources needs and initiatives of the College
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Is widely accessible to as many faculty and staff as possible
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Uses funding in ways that most effectively impact learning
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Is tied closely with the College's governance system
Needs assessments will be conducted each year to determine the professional development needs of each of the employee constituencies on each of the campuses. These assessments will be used in conjunction with CCBC strategic planning activities and annual professional development programming. The Professional Development Advisory Council will work in conjunction with the Professional Development Team and the Director of Institutional Equity and Organizational Development to conduct these needs assessments and analyze the results.
The CCBC Professional Development Program shall be planned in keeping with the College's Strategic Plan. Because the Strategic Plan is tightly focused on student learning, there are several consequences for the planning of professional development.
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Since faculty have the most immediate relationship to student learning, and because faculty are responsible for assigning grades that indicate that student learning has taken place, there is a unique relationship between faculty and professional development. Faculty members are placed in the crucial position of designing, delivering and documenting student learning has taken place. Faculty members, therefore, must be the recipients of professional development tools necessary to provide students with all of the elements of an ideal learning environment.
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Since supervisors have the most immediate relationship to the design and evaluation of the working environment and its structures and systems, a particular responsibility falls upon supervisors to provide leadership for innovation and to prevent bureaucratic practices from stifling creativity. Supervisors, therefore, must be the recipients of training opportunities in all areas that enhance leadership for a creative working, learning, and risk-taking environment.
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Since the strategic plan specifies that "every member of the college community [will be] a learner," professional development plays a particularly important role in providing the mechanisms that classified staff members need for being learners and innovators as well as for assuring that classified staff members having access to training in technology that is necessary for their jobs. Classified staff members, therefore, must not only have access to opportunities to enhance skills needed in their current positions but also access to activities that will advance their careers in new directions, if desired.
Professional development events will be scheduled at times that are most convenient to the demanding schedules of classified staff, faculty and administrators, with a commitment to avoid January and February when precarious weather conditions may necessitate cancellations. Whenever possible, all campuses will be informed of and invited to campus-based workshops. To facilitate planning of professional development initiatives, especially where a series of activities may be needed over time, the Chancellor's Cabinet as a part of its planning processes will establish overarching professional development themes that will stay in place for a period of two or three years. These themes will result from data supplied by various appropriate college sources, including but not limited to, the Professional Development Advisory Council and various groups associated with shared governance bodies and the Council on Innovation and Student Learning. These themes will also be reviewed on an annual basis and altered, when necessary.
In a coordinated, collaborative program of professional development tied to the LearningFirst mission and strategic planning procedures, funding priorities need to be established since all possible initiatives cannot be fully funded in any given year. Five overarching areas should drive the setting of priorities for the expenditure of professional development funds
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INSTRUCTIONAL INNOVATION -- Current instructional innovations such as outcome assessments, infusion of multi-cultural elements into the curriculum, service learning, and learning communities are examples of a critical priority for the College. Stipends and reassigned time are needed by faculty members who are attempting instructional innovation in any of the several areas where changes in the society and the workforce necessitate new ways of facilitating learning.
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TECHNOLOGICAL COMPETENCE -- Classified staff, administrators and faculty will continue to master software packages supported by the College in order to make the learning and working environment an efficient and effective one. Alternative ways of handling data and delivering programs need to be explored as the College changes in response to changes in the external environment. Funding should support a full range of learning opportunities in this regard, not just traditional two-hour seminars as is the past.
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FURTHER INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION -- As individual learners, faculty, classified staff and administrators are often pursuing their own basic or advanced education, including baccalaureate, graduate and post-graduate coursework. For faculty this work may be necessary to keep current in their discipline. For others, this academic preparation may be necessary for career advancement. Adequate levels of funding are needed in order to assist these learners with the completion of this education.
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LEADERSHIP/SUPERVISORY DEVELOPMENT -- Current as well as prospective supervisors at all levels will benefit from a series of high-quality, well-executed activities to strengthen leadership abilities and supervisory skills. With the large number of retirements anticipated within the College in the next ten years, this development is crucial to any succession planning that CCBC might undertake. In addition, college focus group results show that a number of college classified employees aspire to advance upward through the development of their leadership skills.
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PERSONAL AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT -- In the learning-centered environment, individuals should be able to meet a variety of educational needs through education and professional development offerings. Such broad categories such as wellness, pre-retirement planning, communications skills enhancement are examples of programming sought by college faculty and staff. While these types of activities may not be at the top of the list of college priorities, they are important to individual faculty and staff learners and, therefore, should not be overlooked when designing a comprehensive program of offerings.
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