The process of staff development involves five major steps:
Step 1: Identification of Needs:
In order to identify needs, the first thing to do is to appraise the present and expected/desired/ideal performances of both the individuals and the institution. In other words, performance appraisal is a pre-requisite to staff-development.
In industrial and business organizations, appraisal of performance is used in promotions, rewards and training.
On the other hand, performance appraisal in educational institutions is concerned with training, improving academic quality, providing support services as well as individual, instructional and institutional developments.
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This can be done in two ways:
(a) By identifying individual members’ strengths, weaknesses,] developmental needs and opportunities through a comprehensive Performance Appraisal from the students, superior, colleagues and self.
(b) By convening a meeting of all staff members wherein the extent” of institutional goal accomplishments is critically appraised and suggestions for improvement are solicited and discussed. The staff’s perceptions of the needs, deficiencies and weaknesses are also studied at this stage.
Step 2: SD Goals and Objectives:
Having identified the needs, an attempt is made to identify the broad goals and specific objectives of SD in terms of desired outcomes concerning knowledge, attitudes, skills, behaviours or processes.
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This is aimed at determining ways of doing things in a better or a different manner. These specific objectives would serve as a performance indicator while evaluating the effectiveness of staff development programme/s.
Step 3: Programme Design:
This stage involves choosing the mode of Staff Development Programmes (SDP) which can be classified as (a) On-the-job programmes, (b) Off-the-job programmes – both course and non-course programmes.
This stage also involves determining whose needs are ‘net, taking decisions concerning who will be the participants, where will the programmes be implemented, how long the SDP will last, who will implement and how, nature and place of activity.
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In addition, it deals with the cost of the programme in terms of money, disruption in students’ activities and learning, additional time the staff will have to put in and determining priorities in academic terms.
Step 4: Implementation of SDP:
At this stage, support, commitment and co-operation of senior management of an institution is sought so as to make implementation of SDP possible.
Senior management should be explained and convinced about the need for SDP, persuaded to implement it and explained its implications in terms of time, resources and benefits.
The process of SDP must be participative in nature. This stage also involves organizing for resources required for SDP.
This includes making necessary provisions for money, adjustments in the time-table, exploring possibilities of using after school/college hours for SDP, possibilities of using vacations for SDP, allocating duties to senior staff-members, convening staff-meetings for discussions and disseminating information, establishing SD steering committee, stimulating interest in SD at regular staff-meetings and so on.
Step 5: SDP Evaluation:
Staff development programmes are evaluated in terms of the extent to which their objectives have been accomplished. The criteria for ascertaining their effectiveness are determined at the second stage of the process. Feedback is then communicated to the stakeholders.
Alexander (1980) has summarized this process diagrammatically as follows:
In this figure, four major aspects are as follows:
1. Focus: Whose need is fulfilled?
2. Control: Who makes decision regarding what are the needs, strategies, forms, degree of participation, etc.
3. Mode: Nature and form of the SDP.
4. Location: Venue of the SDP.