Six of the best: priorities for continuing professional development (CPD) of academics

This article reports on a small-scale study at NU to determine which development activities " formal and informal " staff had found most influential in their CPD. The formal involves such activities as attending workshops, formal training sessions and conferences, consulting experts, undertaking research, getting published, keeping a reflective journal and designing curriculum, teaching materials and teaching strategies. The informal involves reading, conversations with colleagues, receiving informal feedback from colleagues and students and networking. It was hoped that, as a result of the study, we might identify, and further build upon, those formal events which most impacted on that development.