Exploring professionalism
Objective: To produce a definition of professionalism. To permit group discussions on the concept of professionalism.
Methodology:
Phase 1
Working in pairs, participants discuss the questions in the attached questionnaire and give their replies.
Phase 2
In
a plenary session, the viewpoints submitted by the pairs are summed up
to arrive at conclusions.
Time allotted:
20 min for
phase 1
20 min for
phase 2
Notes for the teacher:
the discussions of the plenary session can be targeted on expertise, by starting from a three-dimensional breakdown into know-how/capabilities/attitudes (question 2) or from the model based on a four-dimensional concept of professionalism (oriented on technology /transformation, economics, aggregation of human resources, management/organization), contained in question 3.
It is also possible to introduce a preliminary phase in which course partipants complete the questionnaire individually before discussing the topic as a group.
Sometimes, if time is short, it may be best in the first question to limit discussion to identifying the three most important and the three least important attributes.
1.Please rank the following items according to what you consider the most important attributes of a professional person. Give your opinions using a scale from 1 to 9 in which a score of 1 is given to the most important attribute, a score of 9 to the least important and intermediate scores are used to rank the remaining items.
The most important attributes of a professional person are:
a. having a solid cultural background ____
b. having in-depth experience of a few specific things ____
c. having broad experience of many things ____
d. understanding the origin of problems that arise at work ____
e. knowing who to ask for advice if needed ____
f. having in-depth technical know-how ____
g. having a passionate interest in one?s work ____
h. having good relations with the people one works with ____
i. being able to deal with problems that arise at work ____
2. For a real professional it is more important to have:
(select only one reply from the three below)
a. in-depth knowledge of various areas
b. consolidated operating capabilities
c. a positive attitude towards work
3. Professionalism consists of:
(rank the following four items, as done for question 1)
a. transforming something (working to transform materials, etc.) ____
b. adding value to something (working to make something worth more) ____
c. knowing how to collaborate with others (working so that aggregation of human resources produces good results) ____
d. rational management of resources (i.e. personnel, time, materials, equipment, money, know-how, etc.) ____
4. In the light of your replies, please now give a definition
of professionalism without overlooking any of the important ideas you have
talked about together in the group (write your group?s definition of professionalism
in the space below)
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