Professional Path

Professional Path- Action Plan

Xavier Williams

Unit 8

Assignment 1

Goals

The structural division that I envision working in, is the teaching and learning organizational division. In this particular structural division in an institution of higher learning, I have various goals that I am destined to achieve. Given the technical nature of my profession; Online Instructor for criminal justice course, I will have to have various goals that will guide me all through. First of all, I will have to make myself more knowledgeable and as flexible as possible to make sure that I provide the content to my students at all times. I am also aiming at making the subject that I teach enjoyable to the students so that they can be willing to learn and acquire the skills needed. I will do this by making the subject interactive among the students I teach. Again, I am aiming at doing all that is in my capacity to tell people that taking criminal justice course on an online mode is not a challenging task as many people have always thought. According to Schmalleger et al., (2014), the main goal of an online instructor is making sure that they create an environment that all the students from the various diverse cultural backgrounds can work together to achieve together as far as their social skills and more so, their knowledge and skills are concerned. This is what I am destined to do.

Institution

The institution that I envision working with is a government public university. I believe that a public university will broaden my views on the subject matter as well as helping to develop me professionally. The institution will do this because of the various characteristics that define it. For instance, public universities usually have scholars from diverse backgrounds and this will be very essential in ensuring that I develop mechanisms to manage all of them regardless of where they are coming from. I will be able to interact with a number of them, understand how they view things so that I can incorporate their ideologies in my teaching profession.

Again, the institution will develop me professionally by aligning me to a large pool of resources that I may need to educate my learners. Public institutions of higher learning enjoy large funding from the government that enables them acquire modern and up to date resources that are essential in ensuring that learners acquire the necessary skills and knowledge (MacDonald, 2008). Being in the institution will help me enjoy this resources that will also expand my knowledge.

In addition to all this, I will also have the privilege of interacting with other professionals of my caliber within my department. Through this, we will be able to share and brainstorm on ideas that will build us professionally. For instance, we may decide to come up with a project in the area of criminal justice field that will help the government curb terrorism and related acts of violence.

Action Plan

In the section I will outline strategies that I can use to address gaps in my current knowledge, skills and disposition. In the list of core competencies, I stated five major competencies, that is, decision making, conflict resolution, information technology skills, flexibility and leadership. The following are the strategies that I will used to address gaps in each competency;

· Decision making: Currently I can make good decisions when managing students. My aim is to be able to make complex decisions that involve ethical dilemmas. To address this gap, I will study, materials that involve complex decision making. I will also practice by engaging in decision making activities that involve these dilemmas.

· Conflict Resolution: in my professional fields, I have been handling many conflicts involving domestic students. However, it has been difficult when solving conflict involving students from different nations. To address this issue, I will embark on a study to understand the basis of different cultural beliefs. This way it will be possible to solve conflicts resulting from diversity in learning institutions.

· Information Technology skills: Currently I have some basic IT skills such as data entry and data search. I plan to be equipped with many IT skills to respond to the fast changes in technology. I will therefore need to enroll into an IT school to study a few IT courses. Moreover, I will study various IT concepts on my own.

· Flexibility: I have been able to adapt to various parts of the country. My target is to work in different countries. This requires more flexibility and adaptability skills. To address this gap, I will be visiting various countries during my free time to study more and understand their ways of life. By doing this, I will improve my flexibility abilities and be able to live in different parts of the world.

· Leadership: I plan on becoming a good leader in my profession. To improve my leadership skills, I will enroll for a leadership program in a recognized institution.

Reflection

The above action plan is in line with the trends in higher education. In the recent past, many changes have been made in this sector (Hazelkorn, 2015). Such changes need one to improve their core competencies. For instance, there are many technological improvements in the education sector and that’s why I need to improve my IT skills. The action plan is also in line with my filed of specialization. The plan will play a major role in my job as an instructor.

References

MacDonald, J. (2008). Blended Learning and online tutoring: Planning learner support and activity design. Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Schmalleger, F., Donaldson, S., Kashiwahara, K., Koppa, T., Chase, S., Brown, A., & Marash, D. (2014). Criminal justice today. Prentice Hall.

Hazelkorn, E. (2015). Rankings and the reshaping of higher education: The battle for World Class Experience. Springer.