Professional Development Portfolio

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

MSc Management with Streams

Professional Development and Practice

Coursework Assessment Brief – Part 2

Professional Development Portfolio

Submission mode: Turnitin online access

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

General Assessment Guidance for this Module

 Your summative assessment for this module is made up of two coursework submissions which

accounts for 100% of the marks

 The deadline for submission is clearly stated on the coversheet of your assessment brief.

Please note late submissions will not be marked.

 You are required to submit all elements of your assessment via Turnitin online access. Only

submissions made via the specified mode will be accepted and hard copies or any other digital

form of submissions (like via email or pen drive etc.) will not be accepted.

 For coursework, the submission word limit is 5000 words. You must comply with the word count

guidelines. You may submit LESS than 5000 words but not more. Word Count guidelines can be

found on your programme home page and the coursework submission page.

 Do not put your name or contact details anywhere on your submission. You should only put

your student registration number (SRN) which will ensure your submission is recognised in the

marking process.

 A total of 100 marks are available for this module assessment, and you are required to achieve

minimum 50% to pass this module.

 You are required to use only Harvard Referencing System in your submission. Any content which

is already published by other author(s) and is not referenced will be considered as a case of

plagiarism.

You can find further information on Harvard Referencing in the online library on the VLE. You can

use the following link to access this information:

http://my.bpp.com/vle/mod/data/view.php?d=223&rid=596

 BPP University has a strict policy regarding authenticity of assessments. In proven instances of

plagiarism or collusion, severe punishment will be imposed on offenders. You are advised to

read the rules and regulations regarding plagiarism and collusion in the GARs and MOPP which

are available on VLE in the Academic registry section.

 You should include a completed copy of the Assignment Cover sheet. Any submission without

this completed Assignment Cover sheet may be considered invalid and not marked.

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

Assessment Brief – Part 2

MSc Management Programme – Professional Development and

Practice Summative Assessment Overview:

This module is assessed through the five components listed below and submitted in two parts, each

of which has specific requirements.

Part 1 - Submitted during and at the completion of term 3 – 55% of module grade

 Management Report Word count: 5,000 words (excluding title, reference list and appendices) 50%

 Evidence appendix 5% NB: The formative assessment – Management Report Research Proposal should be submitted and approved and included in the evidence section of report.

Part 2 - Submitted at the completion of term 5 – 45% of module grade

 Professional Development Portfolio. Word count 5,000 (45%) NB: Both documents should be submitted as one and not separately as they relate to each other.

Part 1 of your assessment is submitted during and at the completion of term 3.

Part 2 is submitted at the completion of term 5. Each has a separate assignment brief available on

the VLE.

Collectively these are known as your portfolio which is a collection of work that shows how you have

achieved the intended learning outcomes of the module. Part 2 is explained below.

Professional Development Portfolio

Word count: 5000 words (excluding title, bibliography, reference and appendices)

Marked out of 100 (45% weighting of final module grade)

Over the last 18 months, your academic programme, part-time employment or a placement, and other

professional development opportunities have been key to helping you expand your knowledge, skills

and behaviours and your professional development over this time, needs to be evidenced.

Critical learning events or incidents can be described as “learning situations which learners have

experienced as effective, exceptional, or personally meaningful, (they) may lead to educationally

significant learning and personal growth.” Soini H. (2012) Please write a detailed account of the critical

learning events and experiences you have navigated through and learned from.

If you have had part-time employment, you should give an overview of your experience at BPP and

your critical learning events can be a mixture of part-time employment experience or a placement and

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

academic experience. If you did not undertake part-time work, your assessment should be based on

your 18 months of your academic experience and your critical learning events should come from this.

Using your learning journal as the primary resource to draw from, you should select a minimum of 3

and maximum of 6 learning critical learning events and explain how these have developed you

professionally and made you more employable –increased your employability.

You should utilise one of the following reflective models to structure your writing:

Kolb’s Reflective Cycle (1984)

Gibb’s Reflective Cycle (1998)

To exemplify your employability, you should source a job description that you would like to apply for

as a BPP graduate and map your skills using your BPP Career Ready Skills Analysis form to those

required from the role. Within each of these experiences you are expected to articulate specific

knowledge, skills and behaviours that you have brought together effectively to enhance your

performance as a professional practitioner. You should also include and reference relevant theories

that you have been exposed to during your time at BPP.

Where you identify areas for development, you should ensure that these appear as goals in your IPDP

and should be discussed in the content of your report to clearly link your development with your intent

to change. Your report should clearly detail what you would do differently because of your new-found

understanding and learning.

The evidence for your professional development should be attached to your Professional

Development Report as appendices. Evidence should consist of your learning journal, your individual

professional development plan, your chosen graduate job description, a personal SWOT analysis, your

updated CV, details of networking events and other training you might have been involved with and

any other additional evidence that reflects your increased employability.

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

Part 2 – Assessment Marking Scheme

Section Mark Approach

Introduction and

Background

5% Clearly state why you are writing this report. In this section you

should detail your course, what you have enjoyed and found

challenging and what you now consider to be your career

direction.

If you had part-time employment, you can also write about where

you worked, your job title and your main responsibilities.

Selection and

Analysis of

“Critical

Learning

Events” within

the

Professional

Development

Report

40%

Your learning journal, kept over your 18-month experience, will

provide more than enough critical learning events and details

for you to draw from. The selection of which “Critical learning

events” will be based around the knowledge, skills, and

behaviours (KSBs) that have improved the most during your

work placement or academic experience. They should also be

mapped to your chosen graduate job description and identify

areas of strength and weakness – areas for development.

You may choose to organise your report around skills and skill sets

rather than chronologically.

You must use one of the two reflective cycle models defined in

the assessment brief (Gibbs or Kolb) and you should seek to

make some short reference to your knowledge or

understanding of relevant theory in support of your work. This

could be related to general employability, skill development,

reflective practice or learning through experience.

The most important aspect here is to ensure you have a good

analytical structure that captures what you learned or felt about

a learning event (or series of events), what went well or not so

well and, ultimately, what conclusions do you make in relation

to what you can do in the future.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: One common error in this section is that students write

too descriptively about what happened with little analysis of

what they learned and how they will apply it to their future.

Linked to your

Learning Journal

and your

graduate job

description

10% How do the events you’ve chosen as evidence for your

development link to your learning journal and your chosen

graduate job description? Have you clearly identified the event and

related developments in your analysis?

Conclusions and

Personal

Assessments

10% This is the forward application of what you’ve told us about

how you’ve developed. How will you use these valuable pieces of

knowledge or skills and behaviours (KSBs)

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

in the future? You will need to evidence your understanding of

what it takes to remain employable in your chosen career or

industry. It is likely that this will be evident in the choice of skills

you have selected to reflect upon in your learning events or the

future development intentions you plan to take forward. This

will be most useful to reinforce your reflections or to justify your

future development intentions that you have noted as goals in

your professional development plan.

You may look to internal or external peers to benchmark your

own development and should refer to your chosen graduate job

description in terms of what future development might

be needed, whether this be in your skill-set, acquired

knowledge or values and behaviours.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: A good support document for this section would be

your personal SWOT placed in the appendices with previous

and current self-assessments.

Supporting

Evidence

30% Have you attached as appendices your learning journal, your

individual professional development plan, your updated CV, BPP

Career Ready Skills Analysis form, details of networking events and

other training you might have been involved with and any other

additional evidence that reflects your increased employability and

work towards professional development goals?

NOTE: Remember; the definition of appendices are the sections at

the end of a paper that gives additional information and context

to the topics explored in the contents of your report. They form

part of the overall appendix.

Report Structure

and Presentation

5% Your professional development portfolio must reflect a

professional standard of writing ability utilising appropriate

Harvard Referencing. This includes the report cover page,

citations, page numbers, use of language, presentation,

organisation and structure, line spacing, use of section headings,

spelling, punctuation and grammar, evidence of proof reading,

properly labelled graphics, adherence to word limits, footnotes,

and captions.

Note: Please see the document provided to all students on the

VLE: Formatting Academic Papers in Standard Harvard Format

Total 100

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

Appendix A - General Grading Criteria - Level 7

Criteria Pass Grades Fail Grades

High Distinction

85-100%

Distinction

70-84%

Merit

60-69%

Pass

50-59%

Fail

30-49%

Low Fail

0-29%

The work displays: The work displays: The work displays: The work displays: The work displays: The work displays:

Knowledge &

Understanding

(a) Systematic

Understanding

(b) Emerging

Thought

(a) Strong evidence of a

comprehensive and systematic

understanding of an extensive

range of appropriate issues,

concepts, theories and

research

(a) Clear evidence of a

comprehensive and

systematic understanding of a

considerable variety of issues,

concepts, theories and

research

(a) Clear evidence of a

comprehensive and

systematic understanding of

all major - and some minor -

issues, concepts, theories and

research

(a) Evidence of a systematic

understanding, which may

contain some gaps, of all

major - and some minor -

issues, concepts, theories and

research

(a) Evidence of an

understanding of an

appropriate range of issues,

concepts, theories and

research but has significant

gaps or misunderstandings.

(a) Evidence of a limited

understanding of issues,

concepts, theories and

research either major and/or

minor.

(b) Sustained excellence in the

application of thoughts and

practices at the forefront of

the discipline

(b) Precise and well-judged

application of thoughts and

practices at the forefront of

the discipline

(b) Some clear evidence of

the application of thoughts

and practices at the forefront

of the discipline

(b) Clear evidence of an

understanding of thoughts

and practices at the forefront

of the discipline.

(b) Unclear or imprecise

understanding of thoughts

and practices at the forefront

of the discipline.

(b) Significant gaps in the

understanding of the debates

at the forefront of the

discipline.

Argument

(a) Analysis,

Synthesis &

Evaluation

(b) Numerical

Analysis

(c) Argumentation

(d) Independent

Research

(a) Consistently precise,

accurate and reasoned

analysis, synthesis and/or

evaluation; addressing issues

with insight or originality

(a) Consistently precise,

accurate and reasoned

analysis, synthesis and/or

evaluation addressing all

issues, some with creativity

(a) Precision, accuracy and

clear reasoning throughout

the analysis, synthesis and/or

evaluation addressing all

issues appropriately

(a) Broad levels of precision,

accuracy and reasoning in

analysis, synthesis and/or

evaluation, and addresses all

key issues

(a) Errors which affect the

consistency of the analysis,

synthesis or evaluation

and/or key gaps in the issues

addressed

(a) A lack of precision,

accuracy or reasoning in

analysis, synthesis or

evaluation with significant

gaps in the issues addressed

(b) Numeric analysis that is

complete and free from errors

with application of methods

that may be insightful or

original

(b) Numeric analysis that is

complete and mostly free

from errors with fluent and

appropriate application of

methods.

(b) Numeric analysis that is

complete and mostly free

from errors with relevant and

effective application of

methods.

(b) Numeric analysis that is

mostly complete and free

from significant or critical

errors with appropriate

application of methods.

(b) Numeric analysis that is

mostly complete but contains

errors with significant effect,

or methods that are applied

inappropriately

(b) Numeric analysis that is

incomplete or contains errors

which have critical effect, or

methods that are applied

inappropriately

(c) Extremely strong and

consistent argument making a

convincing whole with

evidence of originality.

Impressive dexterity in the use

of information gathered to

support the argument.

(c) Extremely strong and

consistent argument that

convincingly addresses issues

including uncertainties and

conflicts. Excellent use of

information gathered which to

support and further the argument

(c) Evidence of an argument

that is generally convincing

with a good internal

consistency and addresses

most issues. Very good use of

information gathered to

support the argument.

(c) Evidence of an overall

convincing argument but may

have weaknesses, gaps or

inconsistencies. Clear use of

information gathered but may

have some weaknesses in the

integration into the argument.

(c) Evidence of a consistent

argument but may have

weaknesses, significant gaps

or be unconvincing. Clear use

of information gathered but

may not be sufficient to

sustain the argument.

(c) Lack of consistency or

structure in the argument.

Serious weaknesses in the

integration of evidence

and/or no awareness of the

limitations or weaknesses of

the research.

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

Criteria Pass Grades Fail Grades

High Distinction

85-100%

Distinction

70-84%

Merit

60-69%

Pass

50-59%

Fail

30-49%

Low Fail

0-29%

The work displays: The work displays: The work displays: The work displays: The work displays: The work displays:

Argument

(continued)

(d) Independent

Research

(d) Evidence of an innovative

or original use of extensive

personal research which has

been thoroughly critically

evaluated both conceptually

and methodologically

(d) Substantial research and

evidence of an innovative use

of a wide range of personal

research with clear and

consistent critical evaluation

both conceptually and

methodologically

(d) Clear evidence of

considerable personal

research and the use of a

diverse range of appropriate

sources but may contain

problems with consistency in

the conceptual and

methodological critical

evaluation

(d) Appropriate use of a wide

range of personal research

which is critically evaluated

for key conceptual and

methodological issues

although this may not be

consistent throughout

(d) Evidence of a range of

personal research but

evidence of methodological

or conceptual evaluation may

be limited, inconsistent or

inappropriate

(d) Over reliance on very

restricted range of personal

or secondary research much

of which may not be

evaluated and may not be

directly related to the

question or area

Presentation

(a) Structure

(b) Referencing

(c) Use of Language

(a) Excellent structure and

presentation

(a) Excellent structure and

presentation

(a) Good structure and

presentation

(a) Adequate structure and

presentation

(a) Adequate structure and

presentation

(a) Poor structure and

presentation

(b) Precise, full and

appropriate references and

notes.

(b) Precise, full and

appropriate references and

notes.

(b) Full and appropriate

references and notes with

minor or insignificant errors

(b) Good references and

notes with minor or

insignificant errors or

omissions

(b) Competent references

and notes but may contain

inconsistencies, errors or

omissions

(b) Poor references and notes

with multiple inconsistencies,

errors or omissions

(c) Subtle use of language

expressing highly nuanced

thought with clarity and

precision to a level appropriate

for submission for publication.

(c) Precise use of language

expressing complex thought

with clarity, accuracy and

precision which furthers and

enhances the argument

(c) Clear and precise use of

language allowing a complex

argument to be easily

understood and followed

(c) Generally clear use of

language sufficient for

arguments to be readily

understood and followed

(c) Generally understandable

use of language but

significant errors in

expression affecting overall

clarity

(c) Serious errors in the use of

language which makes

meaning unclear or imprecise

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

Appendix C – BPP Professional Development Plan Template

KSB Development Goal

Milestones

What are the specific actions

that you need to carry out to

achieve your goal?

Resources

E.g. books,

journals, web

links, training,

events.

Deadline Success Factor(s) Evidence

Example short term goal:

Teamworking

I’ve identified in my Skills

Analysis Form that my

teamworking skills are poor.

I would like to feel more

confident in working in a

team. My team project is

coming up and this would be

a good time to test my skills.

Example:

To work effectively in a team, I

should:

 Analyse my team working

role using Belbin’s Team

Roles (Belbin, 1981)

 Find out how my team

members fit in terms of

roles and try to allocate

roles that best fit them.

 Understand the task at

hand and ensure that we

(team members) attend

update sessions regularly to

ensure we are on track.

Example:

https://www.belbi

n.com/about/belbi

n-team-roles/

Module Handbook

and VLE.

Example:

January 2020

Example:

My team will achieve

a result above the

50% pass mark for the

module.

Example:

Completed Team Roles exercise.

Completed transcript with marks.

1.

Soini H. (2012) Critical Learning Incidents. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA

2.

3.