Independent study and professional education

While there is considerable debate concerning curriculum and qualifications in education for the professions, more account needs to be taken of evidence that professional competence may be related more to modes of study than to syllabus content. Though there may be pressures of innovation within disciplines which seem to legitimise heavier content loadings, the commitment to content-based courses can also be viewed, in Kuhnian terms, as covert instruction in the dominant paradigm of a discipline. Whatever the merits of this as a socialisation process into the profession, or as a means of protecting professional monopolies, it may entail passive modes of learning rather than development of competence to deal with change; to achieve, for example, the techne quality in engineering advocated by CNAA in the wake of Finniston. The strongest empirical evidence that course content is a poor indicator of professional competence comes from McLelland and his associates, through studies relating to over 50 categories of professional practice. Their studies highlight the importance of ‘soft skill competences ̊s in professionals assessed as superior performers by peers, managers and clients. Specific skills include: the cognitive abilities to organise and present complex information in a logical manner and to learn inductively from experience; the interpersonal skill of accurate empathy; and motivational skills involving pro-active performance and effective self-evaluation. While ‘soft skill competences ̊s may or may not be developed en passant in content-orientated courses, Independent Study courses at North East London Polytechnic are designed to have ‘content in the service of process ̊s (to use Klemp's phrase). As individuals and members of inter-dependent groups, the students devise their own programmes of study aimed at the achievement of self-set goals and the formation and solution of problems. Individual case studies demonstrate high levels of achievement on DipHE and BA/BSc (Hons) by Independent Study, amply justifying the growing enrolment of practising engineers, paramedical staff, teachers and administrators on the part-time Degree course. Experience of negotiating with professional bodies in engineering and teaching suggests that qualifications by Independent Study are unlikely to be accepted as evidence of professional qualification. There appears to be a disturbing mismatch in much professional education between professed educational aims and actual pedagogic practise

Curriculum · Empathy · Empirical evidence · Epistemology · Pedagogy · Professional development · Soft skills · Syllabus · Engineering Education and Curriculum Development · Evaluation of Teaching Practices · Higher Education Learning Practices · Psychology · Social Psychology

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