It is that time of year again where I sit down and reflect on what I’ve learned in 2023 and what I want to learn in 2024. It is part of the formal requirements of maintaining my registration as a psychologist.
At a practical level it looks like putting the finishing touches on my learning journal for 2023 and setting up my 2024 journal. If you want to know how I organise my learning journals, check out my free guide.
One of the things I am focused on for 2024 is Active CPD.
“Active CPD refers to activities that engage the participant and reinforce learning through written or oral activities designed to enhance and test learning. Active CPD is recommended because knowledge that is reinforced and tested is more likely to be retained and is more likely to lead to positive changes to practice.” [Guidelines for continuing professional development]
This is of relevance to me because I consume a lot of content in a given CPD year. For example, my total CPD hours for 2023 were 157 (I am required to get 30). I achieve this, not because I am a learning beast, but because I consume a lot of content via passive means (e.g. books, videos, podcasts, audiobooks, articles, audio courses etc).
In previous years, I have tried to make such content consumption more active by endeavouring to take notes on everything I consume AND asking myself the specific question “Is there some way I can use this in my work?”
This has generally worked OK but I do find myself getting anxious that I am consuming content faster than I can process it. I get worried that my approach emphasises quantity over quality. I feel guilty that a lot of learning is going by the wayside.
So I trying a couple of new things this year to address this.
First, I am making a distinction this CPD year between content consumed and content studied.
Books and articles I read, podcasts I listen to will all get listed in my CPD journal, with a basic summary for each describing the key content/ideas. This is content consumed.
But I will then take some of those articles/books/podcasts, particularly those that align with my specific learning goals for the year, and mark them for further study. That means I will revisit the text/podcast and re-consume it, whilst taking notes, organising the key ideas and thinking about how to incorporate it into my work. That process is done through writing, including I hope, some blogs here on my site about what I’ve learned.
As an example, last year I read the book The Dreaming Path by Paul Callaghan and Uncle Paul Gordon. It was a great read, but I didn’t take many notes whilst I was reading it (it was mostly read on the bus). This year, I am studying that book closer, working through each of the chapters, taking notes, understanding key terms, organising ideas and integrating them with my existing knowledge. I deliberately chose this text to study because it aligns with my learning goal of better understanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives on wellbeing.
That brings me to the second modification for this upcoming CPD year.
Subjecting content to further study means setting aside time each week for dedicated study/active learning. At this stage I have set aside early Saturday mornings (90 minutes to 2 hours) to take content I’ve earmarked for study and engage more closely with it. This creates a learning situation where I can consume content freely during the week, knowing that I have time set aside on the weekend to deep dive the content that is most relevant to my work. Content consumed versus content studied.
My hope is that I end the 2024 CPD year with a clear distinction in my learning journal of what I consumed and then what I decided to dive deeper on. I also hope that I stress less about not giving everything I consumed my full attention. We’ll see how that goes 🙂
Dr Gareth Furber 