Editing Professional development (section)

{{Short description|Learning to earn or maintain professional credentials}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|Professional education|Vocational education}}

'''Professional development''', also known as '''professional education''', is learning that leads to or emphasizes education in a specific [[professional]] career field or builds practical job applicable skills emphasizing [[Praxis (process)|praxis]] in addition to the [[transferable skill]]s and [[Theory|theoretical]] academic knowledge found in traditional [[Liberal arts education|liberal arts]] and [[Basic research|pure sciences]] education. It is used to earn or maintain professional [[credential]]s such as [[professional certification]]s or [[academic degree]]s through formal coursework at institutions known as professional schools, or attending conferences and [[informal learning]] opportunities to strengthen or gain new skills.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Summer |first=Gail |date=2006-01-01 |title=Professional Education/Liberal Arts Education: Not a Case of Either-Or but Both-And |url=https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/intersections/vol2006/iss24/6 |journal=Intersections |volume=2006 |issue=24}}

Available at: http://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/intersections/vol2006/iss24/6</ref>

Professional education has been described as intensive and collaborative, ideally incorporating an evaluative stage.<ref name=":0">Speck, M. & Knipe, C. (2005) ''Why can't we get it right? Designing high-quality professional development for standards-based schools''(2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press{{qn|date=August 2013}}</ref> There is a variety of approaches to professional development or professional education, including consultation, coaching, [[community of practice|communities of practice]], lesson study, [[case study]], [[Capstone course|capstone project]], mentoring, reflective supervision and technical assistance.<ref name="community.fpg.unc.edu">National Professional Development Center on Inclusion. (2008). [http://fpg.unc.edu/node/4611 "What do we mean by professional development in the early childhood field?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724204955/http://fpg.unc.edu/node/4611 |date=2018-07-24 }}. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, FPG Child Development Institute.</ref>