PD. BULLETIN

College-wide Professional Development Committee

 

ROLE AND FUNCTION STATEMENT
I. Introduction

The College-wide Professional Development Committee has reviewed its
role in co-ordinating professional development activities within the
College and has developed the following set of statements in an effort
to clarify its role and function.

IIl. Background

The need for professional development for faculty has been widely accepted
in the past and Article 14 of the Collective Agreement describes the
responsibility for providing professional development leadership, funds
and recommendations. However, no strategic plan for the management of

the resulting professional development program exists, and the college-
wide joint advisory committee established by virtue of Article 14.03(c)
lacks the guidance of a role and function statement.

To-date this joint advisory committee has consisted of two DKFA represent-

atives-at-large and two administrators. It has tended to concentrate

on planning and executing a college-wide conference in May of each year.
© Some years, the committee has been more ambitious and co-ordinated a

series of workshops during semester-time and has occasionally published

a professional development bulletin. The major focus, nonetheless, has

always been on providing a single high-quality conference.

The committee has remained separate from the activities of the various
departmental professional development committees, and no co-ordinated
plan for providing professional development at all levels of the College
has been formulated.

This committee comprised of only four members is often unable to adequately
carry out its duties. The faculty members are too few to effectively
represent the wide-diversity of faculty professional development desires
and needs.

III. Definition of Professional Development
Professional development is here defined as any activity performed by |
a faculty member, outside normal teaching/servicing duties and departmental :
responsibilities, that develops a faculty member's professional competencies.
Such development will be primarily achieved by pursuing activities that:

a) maintain the currency of subject knowledge

b) improve performance of faculty duties

c) maintain and improve instructional skills