Ireland's Higher Education Teachers Have a National Professional Development Framework, Now What?

Momentum has been building for professional development (PD) for all staff who teach in Irish higher education – they now have the national Professional Development Framework (PDF) to support them in planning and engaging with authentic, inclusive, scholarly, learner-centred and collaborative PD across their career. In mid-2016, the PD Framework was published by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. In 2017, the PDF was piloted with 215 individuals from 22 professional identity groups from across the sector, working with the framework to reflect on their professional practice and set goals for their future professional development.

This initial implementation phase has now been fully evaluated and a robust evidence-base of ‘what works, and why’ in relation to staff engagement with the PDF is in place. Disseminating findings and continuing to engage with the sector through relevant platforms such as HEIT is key to advancing this work. Early 2018 witnessed the HEA publishing the HE System Performance Framework 2018–2020 with two recommendations which are key to the momentum of the PDF:

• Implementation of the Continuous Professional Development Framework

• Number of staff with “Digital Badges” for completed CPD by academic year Given these significant developments over a relatively short period, we are now asking the sector, what needs to happen next for the PDF to continue to drive progress for individual's careers and support them in dealing with change and transformation in their professional practice?