The article appeared in The Triple Threat, Fall 1996. The professional development planning process can positively affect faculty's ability to achieve academic success. Faculty Perspective . The professional development planning process enables individual faculty to actively participate in their growth and assessment. After the faculty member and departmental chair agree that the plan is appropriate and feasible, it is implemented.
Flexibility is a critical component.
To be effective, the process must be flexible enough to allow faculty to participate in opportunities unforeseen when the plan was developed. Chair Perspective . Historically, departmental chairs have looked for ways to measure effectively the quality of faculty contributions while improving faculty performance and development. The professional development planning process offers chairs a tool for evaluating faculty as well as a method for enhancing faculty competence. Similar to the management by objective approach used in business, this academic planning process specifies from the beginning the criteria and procedures for evaluating faculty.