Professional learning and development: moving with the times and the human element

This issue exemplifies the diverse and multifaceted nature of professional learning and development (PLD) from a national, international, sector and research approach perspective. The articles are wide-ranging in terms of nations represented, spanning continents across the world that include the USA, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Israel, Australia and China.

The opening article by Fairman et al., deals with the challenge of keeping PLD relevant. This is particularly pertinent as the global PLD community emerges from the COVID-19 Pandemic, which has had a seismic and significant impact on how education and PLD in their many forms have had to firstly, adapt and change and secondly, how their composition, development and delivery have at times been radically altered.

My own experiences, as well as those of my colleagues and educational institutions I work with and for, have led me to reflect on how PLD has changed and what can be regarded as PLD. These reflections lead me to raise issues in this editorial as to how we define our own individual PLD activities.

Being a freelance academic, it is not always easy or financially affordable to access PLD activities, courses and programmes as many of my colleagues can, who work in schools, colleges and universities. Pre-Covid, this could sometimes be to my disadvantage. However, the Pandemic changed that situation significantly, in my view, for the better – not only for myself but for many of my colleagues, who are either employed by educational institutions or like me, work independently.

Traditionally, attending accredited and non-accredited activities, courses and programmes that were delivered face-to-face and could entail further follow-up assessed activities, were the norm for the majority of individuals who had to undertake them either from a statutory, organisational requirement or required qualification advancement perspective.

However, the provision of free online activities, courses and programmes allied to many academic, educational and non-academic conferences and seminars either going solely online or becoming hybrid events, has opened up what can be regarded as PLD to wider audiences, as well becoming more affordable and importantly more accessible, at times and locations that suit the individual.

The introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on platforms provided by organisations such as Coursera, along with the advent of webinars, podcasts, as well conferences and seminars going online have changed the dynamic of PLD from a number of perspectives. Firstly, in terms of cost, as this has saved organisations a lot of money in terms of not having to either utilise or pay for a physical space; the cost has been reduced in terms of employees required to organise, develop and deliver activities and events; applications such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom are relatively inexpensive when used to deliver activities and events, allowing organisations to either make them free or to charge a nominal fee to participants. Secondly, accessibility has been improved. Many of these activities and events are put on at times that are suitable for individuals to engage with and crucially if they are unable to attend them live, recordings are made that they can access at a time that is convenient for them. Thirdly, there are time and cost savings on venue and space, as there is no requirement to travel to a physical location. This means individuals can access these events either in the comfort of their own personal work station/space or within their living space. Fourthly, technological access has allowed participants to utilise multiple devices to engage with such activities and events, which include desktop and/or laptop computers, tablets, smartphones and televisions.

There are many examples of how this operates in practice. I oversee a number of teaching and learning MOOCs for the Commonwealth Education Trust via the Coursera platform. It is common for many of our students (the overwhelming number being teachers) to either sign up for the free versions of the courses we provide or pay a small sum to undertake the assessed element of the courses and be presented with a certificate upon successful completion. Many of the students undertake these courses at different times of the day, using different devices. This includes a growing number utilising their smartphones, particularly in developing nations, where the smartphone is the device of choice, as they are the technological pieces of equipment that are the most accessible, practical and affordable.

Out of necessity, academic and non-academic conferences, seminars and symposia had to go online during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This led to a change in terms of content development, delivery and interaction. For example, a number of colleagues who are members of either the journal’s Executive Editorial Board or International Advisory Board have been involved in developing, organising and delivering the Leadership for Professional Learning symposia that at the outset were face-to-face events, then out of necessity became a fully online event and then the 2022 event was a hybrid affair. Attending online is obviously cheaper and does make the event more accessible to colleagues who may not either have the financial support of their institutions or personal financial resources to attend in person. This has been a welcome development for many academics who have been prohibited by cost from attending such events. It makes academia more egalitarian from a global perspective, as well as assisting colleagues from developing nations to enhance their academic profile and engage in PLD activities that were once beyond them.

The advent of podcasts and webinars and their proliferation during the COVID-19 pandemic has, in my view, enhanced what I term ‘Bite-Size PLD’. They are not time-consuming and can vary in length from on average thirty minutes to an hour. They cover all types of genres and subjects that can be deemed academic or non-academic but always enhance the information and the knowledge you have or need of an issue or a subject. For example, the Harvard Edcast gives authors and academics a platform to discuss their research and publications in a short space of time, such as the episode entitled – Empowering Schools to Take Climate Action (2022).

However, while the digitisation and online provision of PLD continues apace, there is one element of PLD, that if we are not careful may well disappear or become so diluted that it becomes inconsequential. That is the key element of face-to-face interaction, that many of us have benefitted from in the past and will hopefully benefit from in the future. We have all been to PLD events where future collaborations and partnerships have been forged through post presentation discussions, over a morning or afternoon coffee or tea break, or at an evening social function. Such interactions have led to research collaborations and the organising of future conferences and seminars.

Thus, I leave you with this question – how do we ensure the greater accessibility and egalitarianism of PLD without losing the direct face-to-face human interaction that ensues from it?