The Lifelong Learning Issue: The Knowledge Base Under Professional Development?

Abstract

Let's begin with the stories of Ted, Joe, and Amanda. None of them would identify themselves as professional educators. Ted is an accountant. Joe is a dentist. Amanda is a hairdressor. Ted (a practitioner of 40 years) and his primary staff in their firm in Menlo Park, California, attend a monthly 1 day seminar and a yearly 1–2-week seminar on the practice of accounting and changes in regulations about taxes. Let's average this out at about 20 days a year. Paid for by themselves, by the way, not to mention days when they could be selling services, but are in study. Joe and his staff in Saint Simons Island, Georgia, study new techniques on about 10–12 days per year. Amanda, also of Saint Simons Island, travels to Atlanta, Savannah, or Jacksonville for workshops that consume about 10 days per year, days in which she has no earnings but, rather, often pays for the service she receives.