CPD as a Reflective and Purposeful Practice

My continuing professional development is not simply a record of courses, certificates, or completed training. It is an ongoing process of reflection, action, and professional growth. Over the past three years, my CPD has been shaped by a clear purpose: to improve the quality, accessibility, and relevance of the learning experiences I design for adult and further education learners.

Working in dynamic online and blended learning environments has encouraged me to continually evaluate my practice. I support learners who bring different experiences, confidence levels, digital skills, and personal responsibilities to their studies. For this reason, my professional development has focused on inclusive teaching, digital pedagogy, assessment, learner support, feedback literacy, and reflective practice.

Looking back, one of the most significant shifts in my professional identity has been moving from seeing myself primarily as a graphic designer and eLearning developer towards understanding myself as an educator. While design remains central to my work, my focus has gradually expanded from creating content to understanding how people learn, how confidence develops, and how learning experiences can be designed to support meaningful engagement, independence, and success.

This page reflects on how my CPD has influenced my teaching practice, how peer feedback and evidence have shaped my development, and how I plan to continue growing as an educator, learning experience designer, and emerging practitioner-researcher.

Past CPD: Building the Foundations of My Practice

My formal qualifications have provided a strong foundation for my development as an educator. The Masters in eLearning Design and Development, the Graduate Diploma in Adult and Further Education, and my recent postgraduate certificate in Learning, Teaching and Assessment in Higher Education have supported my understanding of learner-centred curriculum design, constructive alignment, digital learning, assessment, and reflective practice.

These experiences helped me move from designing content to designing learning experiences. They encouraged me to think more critically about how learners engage, how they build confidence, and how teaching materials can either create or remove barriers to participation. They also helped me recognise that good learning design requires both creativity and pedagogy: it must be visually engaging, but also purposeful, accessible, structured, and responsive to learner needs.

Academic qualifications

Academic Qualifications by Sandra Picarra | 2026

Alongside formal study, I have engaged in targeted professional learning in Universal Design for Learning, dyslexia awareness, equality and diversity, ADHD informed practice, psychological first aid, digital storytelling, blended learning, Moodle facilitation, AI in teaching and learning, and Adobe Creative Cloud certifications.

These CPD activities have strengthened my ability to design learning that is clear, flexible, accessible, and responsive to learner diversity. They have also helped me recognise that professional development is most valuable when it translates into visible changes in teaching practice. For this reason, I increasingly view CPD as a cycle of learning, implementation, evaluation, and refinement rather than as a set of isolated training events.

A list of my CPD activities is available below:

My CPD activities from the past 3 years

CPD activities by Sandra Picarra | 2026

A Critical Incident that Shaped My Development

One of the most significant moments in my professional development occurred while supporting learners from war-affected regions in Ukraine. I noticed that some learners' creative work reflected difficult personal and emotional experiences. This reminded me that learning cannot be separated from learners' lives, particularly in adult education contexts where students may carry complex responsibilities, trauma, uncertainty, or interrupted educational journeys.

In response, I completed Psychological First Aid training with the Irish Red Cross. This CPD influenced my teaching by helping me better understand the importance of active listening, empathy, flexibility, calm communication, and professional boundaries. It also reinforced the need to create learning environments where learners feel safe enough to participate, experiment, ask questions, and make mistakes.

Critical Incident and Professional Growth

From Awareness to Action

This experience changed my practice in practical ways. I became more intentional about offering flexibility with deadlines, using supportive language, encouraging creative expression, and recognising when learners may need additional support. It also strengthened my belief that inclusive teaching involves more than accessible documents or digital tools; it also requires emotional awareness, empathy, and a commitment to learner wellbeing.

This incident directly informed my teaching philosophy and helped me understand CPD as a response to real learner needs rather than a separate professional obligation. It reminded me that professional development is most powerful when it helps me respond more humanely, thoughtfully, and effectively to the learners in front of me.

Peer Feedback, Dialogue and Reflective Practice

Peer observation and feedback have played an important role in helping me see my teaching from another perspective. While self-reflection is valuable, professional dialogue allows me to identify strengths and areas for development that may not be immediately visible in my own practice.

Through lesson planning, peer observation, and feedback, I became more aware of the importance of clarity, pacing, accessibility, questioning, and learner engagement. This process reinforced Schön's concept of reflection-on-action, where educators review practice after teaching in order to improve future teaching decisions.

Evidence of lesson planning and peer feedback is available below:

Lesson Plan and related peer feedback

Teaching Observation Report

Peer Objervation and Action Plan

Reflection on Peer-review and Action Plan

This process helped me recognise the value of feedback literacy not only for students but also for educators. Just as learners need support to interpret and act on feedback, I also need to engage critically with feedback and translate it into meaningful action. Peer dialogue has therefore become an important part of my CPD because it helps me move from reflection to improvement.

Present CPD: Evidence of Impact on Practice

My current professional development is strongly connected to the redesign of learning experiences and assessment in online creative education. A key area of growth has been my ability to use evidence, learner feedback, and theory to improve course design.

Through redesigning learning activities and assessment structures, I observed that students responded positively when tasks were clear, authentic, and connected to real-world creative practice. The use of scaffolded activities, staged submissions, feedback opportunities, and practical examples helped learners build confidence and engage more meaningfully with their work.

The impact of this professional learning became visible during the redesign of the Visual Design using Adobe Photoshop module. Drawing upon Universal Design for Learning, authentic assessment, feedback literacy, and experiential learning, I redesigned the assessment strategy to include project-based learning, staged submissions, peer feedback, and real-world design challenges.

Evaluation of the redesign indicated significant improvements in learner engagement and confidence. Live class attendance increased from an average of two to three learners to over twenty learners per session. Analysis of learner feedback showed that 86% of responses were positive, 89% of learners felt the assignment prepared them for Adobe certification, and many learners demonstrated increasing independence through research, experimentation, and iterative design practices.

These findings reinforced my understanding that professional development is most meaningful when it results in measurable improvements in learner experience and outcomes. They also strengthened my confidence in using evidence-informed practice to make decisions about course design, assessment, and learner support.

Key Insights from Current CPD

What I Have Learned

At the same time, the evidence also highlighted areas for development. Some students found it difficult to begin project work or experienced the workload as challenging. This encouraged me to think more carefully about cognitive load, sequencing, and early-stage support. I also recognised the need to increase opportunities for interaction, as students often benefit from structured peer engagement, live discussion, and visible teacher presence.

This reinforces the importance of constructive alignment, where learning outcomes, activities, and assessment are coherently connected. It also reflects experiential learning, where students learn through doing, reflecting, revising, and applying feedback. These insights now guide how I plan, redesign, and evaluate learning experiences.

Engagement with the National Professional Development Framework

The National Professional Development Framework provides a useful lens for understanding my development as an educator. My CPD reflects growth across several interconnected domains: professional identity and values, professional communication and dialogue, professional knowledge and skills, and digital capacity.

My commitment to inclusive and supportive teaching reflects my professional values. My engagement with peer observation, communities of practice, and reflective dialogue demonstrates the importance of communication and collaboration. My work in assessment redesign, digital learning, and UDL reflects growth in pedagogical knowledge and skills. Finally, my use of Moodle, multimedia, Adobe Creative Cloud, AI-supported tools, and accessible digital resources demonstrates my ongoing development of digital capacity.

What is most important to me is that these domains are not separate. They interact continuously in my practice. For example, designing an accessible online activity requires digital capacity, pedagogical knowledge, inclusive values, and the ability to evaluate learner response. This integrated view of professional development helps me see CPD as part of my everyday teaching identity rather than as a separate activity.

Future Planning: SMART Goals

My future CPD planning is guided by the evidence gathered through student engagement, peer feedback, and reflection. Two priorities have emerged clearly: improving early-stage learner support and strengthening collaboration in online learning environments.

SMART Goals

These goals are intentionally practical and measurable. They respond directly to what I have learned through practice: that learners benefit from clear structure, early support, social connection, and opportunities to apply feedback. Evidence of success will include learner feedback, retention data, forum participation, engagement analytics, and the quality of student work.

Strategic Overview and Future Direction

Looking across my CPD journey, I can see a clear movement from developing technical and pedagogical knowledge toward building a more scholarly, reflective, and evidence-informed teaching identity. My professional development is closely aligned with my teaching philosophy: learner-centred, inclusive, reflective, creative, and grounded in real-world practice.

My next stage of development is to strengthen my engagement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. This includes sharing evidence-informed practice through Communities of Practice, presenting curriculum redesign initiatives, developing practitioner case studies, and exploring opportunities to disseminate findings through professional publications. Through these activities, I hope to contribute not only to my own professional growth but also to wider conversations about assessment, inclusion, and learner engagement in online creative education.

I now understand CPD as a continuous cycle: identifying a learner need, engaging with evidence and theory, making changes to practice, evaluating impact, and reflecting on what should happen next. This cycle will continue to shape my development as an educator, learning experience designer, and emerging higher education practitioner.

Emerging Professional Identity

Throughout this portfolio process, I have come to recognise that professional development is not simply about acquiring new knowledge or completing courses. It is about developing a deeper understanding of who I am as an educator and how I can positively influence learner experiences.

The combination of formal study, reflective practice, curriculum redesign, learner feedback, peer dialogue, and scholarly inquiry has helped me develop a more confident and evidence-informed teaching identity. I increasingly see myself as an educator, learning designer, and practitioner-researcher who is committed to inclusive, creative, and learner-centred education.

This understanding will continue to shape my future professional development and my contribution to teaching and learning communities. It also motivates me to continue developing learning experiences that support not only technical competence, but also learner confidence, autonomy, creativity, and professional growth.

Conclusion

My professional development journey demonstrates a sustained commitment to improving teaching practice through reflection, evidence, and action. Formal study, targeted training, peer feedback, and learner-centred reflection have all contributed to my growth. Most importantly, CPD has helped me move beyond simply delivering content toward designing inclusive learning environments where students can build confidence, creativity, autonomy, and professional competence.

As I continue to develop, my focus will remain on purposeful innovation, accessibility, learner engagement, and reflective scholarship. I see professional development not as a requirement to be completed, but as a central part of who I am becoming as an educator.

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References

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