Bridging the Gap
Many people feel that there is a huge difference between teaching general studies, technical knowledge and professional development. As one who experienced many different educational paths including K-12, on campus, technical school, online, hybrid and countless professional development programs I believe that there is not a divide but all are connected. After completing my studies in the Masters of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) and serious gaming programs, I feel that promoting growth mindset and the public teaching pedagogies has a place in the corporate learning and development field. My future goals are to continue to build upon the knowledge gained and bridge the gap between corporate learning and development and traditional teaching.
One of the most important steps in reaching my goals is keeping in touch with many of the educators that I have met in my MAET journey. Making connections with others who make a living teaching in the primary, secondary and post-secondary fields has been one of the most invaluable resources that I plan on keeping up with. Learning from their experiences, sharing ideas and best practices influence my decision making when developing training courses for my audience. In the digital age, it is now easier than ever to communicate with these networks of people all around the world.
In addition to continuing to network and build on my relationships for those in public teaching, I have joined corporate learning and development groups such as the Association for Talent Development (ATD) https://www.td.org/. This way I can find relevant courses that will help me to learn about new ways of learning and development in the corporate world that I can use in my organization and share my experiences about blending public teachings.
I joined ATD and attend conferences often. While attending the MAET cohort hybrid program, I ran across an article by Luiz Alexandre Castanha on the seven trends in corporate education https://www.td.org/insights/keep-an-eye-on-these-7-trends-in-corporate-education. Of these trends, many of them are right in line with my studies. This reassured my belief that corporate learning and development can learn from the public teaching sector and implement best practices. I am planning on joining the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) www.ate1.org this way I can continue to learn about new teaching practices in the public sector and share my ideas about corporate learning and development.
I successfully implemented several projects from my MAET program over the past few years into my training programs. However, there were several projects that I think would have fit into certain aspects, but the timing was not right or there was not enough lead time to get the authorizations from my management staff in time to meet the MAET project deadlines. I have set recurring meetings with my manager on a regular basis for the remainder of the year to discuss these areas of improvement, present my MAET projects and how they are affective in corporate business strategies. I plan to use these projects as departmental goals for continuous improvement projects throughout the remainder of this year and beyond.
The biggest gap between the public and corporate learning sectors are the stakeholder’s demands. From my experience, the stakeholders in the corporate learning and development world are much more adamant about providing them proof that your teachings were successful and demand a monetary value tied to the training project. Many of the stakeholders in the corporate world invest their money into training programs expecting specific results, but many of the stakeholders have very little knowledge of teaching or the process of learning. This is where I will continue to build on my research on evaluating results and building return on investment from my MAET program and ensure I am instilling realistic measures for the stakeholders. There are not a lot of studies that I could find that compares public teaching with corporate training. I plan to use the research methods learned from my MAET program to conduct my own research on the subject.
My short-term goals are to continue to implement pedagogies learned from the public teaching sector to my learning and development department, driving results. I intend on recording my results for my practice and building upon my online portfolio of accomplishments. My long-term goal is to use this portfolio to present to others in the corporate learning and development industry. I plan to do this by presenting at conferences and individual organizations. I plan to use these consulting methods to bridge the gap between public teaching and corporate learning and development and open doors for others behind me.
