ABSTRACT
The term 'professional development' (PD) indicates opportunities to acquire new knowledge and/or skills related to one's profession. Typically PD is provided by an expert in the area of interest. PD can occur any time during or after a person has begun working on the initial requirements for the profession; for example, teachers or administrators in their first year of teaching might participate in PD, as might full professors who have been in academia for many years but want to learn something new or brush up on skills they already have. In addition, PD can be formal or informal. Formal PD might be assignment to a required faculty mentoring committee or providing a structured in-service workshop for teachers. Informal PD includes more fluid types of forums and interactions such as online professional communities of practice, accessing websites with information, holding individual conversations with experts, and so on.
