special interest or concern

Application: Professional Development Self-Assessment

Throughout this course, you will focus on professionalism and on exploring career opportunities within the early childhood field. Before you begin the Week 1 Application, review the outline below for an overview of the Application assignments in the weeks ahead. However, do not work ahead. It is necessary to complete the readings and other course content each week before beginning each Application.

  • Week 1: Professional Development Self-Assessment. You will use a self-assessment questionnaire to benchmark your current progress and professional development.
  • Week 2: Career Goals and Intentions Related to Developmentally Appropriate Practice. You will write a “statement of intention” regarding the ways that knowledge of developmentally appropriate practice will influence your career in terms of working with children, families, communities, other professionals, and your own professional growth.
  • Week 3: Investigating One Early Childhood Program from a Career Perspective. You will choose one program from among school- or center-based early childhood programs to research as a potential career choice.
  • Week 4: Exploring Career Opportunities in the Early Childhood Field. Using the NAEYC Career Forum Web site and the Child Care Information Exchange Employment Opportunities page online, you will identify potential jobs from among actual positions advertised on the sites that offer you career opportunities and a possible career ladder.
  • Week 5: Setting Goals for Your Professional Development. You will review competencies for becoming a professional and will set goals to help you guide your professional growth and career direction.

Week 1: Professional Development Self-Assessment

As you learned this week, using ongoing, developmentally appropriate assessment to support the development and learning of young children is one of the goals of an early childhood professional. For this Application, you will use assessment to support your own professional development. Understanding where you are at this stage in your professional growth will help you plan effective ways to continue to develop and learn.

To complete this Application, do the following:

Step 1: Take the Self-Assessment

Click the link below to download and print out the document:

Assessing Your Professional Development (in MS Word format)

Then read through the points below before beginning the self-assessment:

  • To complete the assessment, read each outcome and rate your current progress in accomplishing that outcome using the scoring criteria:

    3 = Full accomplishment

    2 = Good progress

    1 = Need to get started

  • Follow the guidelines at the top of the self-assessment page to help you decide your score for each outcome. Keep in mind that you are beginning the process of becoming a professional and so may rate yourself as a 1 or 2 on many of the items.
  • When you have rated yourself on each outcome, tally your total score, and then check the scoring results at the bottom of the self-assessment page.

Step 2: Reflect on the Results

  • Write a one-page summary of your self-assessment results. Describe insights and new thinking you gained from the assessment and your current state of progress toward becoming a professional.
  • Choose three outcomes that are of special interest or concern to you. For each outcome, write at least one paragraph explaining the reasoning you used to decide how to rate yourself on that outcome and how you hope to grow.
  • Based on this experience, write one paragraph explaining how you could continue to use self-assessment to support your professional development in the future.

Submit your completed self-assessment and your written responses to complete this Application.

Assignment length: 2–3 pages