Goldsmiths - University of London

3D Graduate

The Relationship of 3D Graduate and PDP

The concept of the 3D Graduate came from our thinking about how Personal Development Planning (PDP) might be realised at Goldsmiths.  PDP was introduced in HE by the Dearing Report in 1997 as one element of the ‘Progress Files’ which all institutions must have introduced by 2005/06.  The Progress File provides each student with:

• A Transcript - a detailed record of their learning and achievement in the form of marks grading descriptors for each course and explanations of overall grading and marking schemes;
• Personal Development Planning a means through which students can monitor, build and reflect upon their personal development.

PDP was defined in the Dearing Report as:

“a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and / or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development.”

The name 3D Graduate came from our reflections on this definition. The name Personal Development Planning suggests that the onus is on ‘personal’ development. But at Goldsmiths we are interested in engaging students with a broad learning experience, which would be beneficial to their academic, personal and career development and crosses the ‘dimensions’ of these areas. The scheme is also about supporting students to become ‘3D graduates’ in that we expect our students to develop in 3 intellectual domains.As suggested above we support students in developing:

• knowledge and skills relating to their chosen subject
• more general or transferable skills (including employability skills)
• attributes, and perhaps even values

The 3D Graduate concept is therefore broader in scope than just ‘personal development planning’, although a structured process to support specific PDP activities is incorporated within the 3D Graduate scheme.

To a large extent, PDP is a new way of articulating existing principles and practices as Academic tutors have always encouraged students to become intellectually independent, self-aware, and to plan and take responsibility for their own development. Personal Development Planning makes explicit the fact that the dialogue between tutor and tutee supports both the student’s deepening understanding of their subject and also their growing ability to think critically about their own performance and how to improve it. PDP is one of a number of initiatives to affect a shift in teaching and learning practice from traditional transition modes to those which facilitate students in an active engagement in learning. Goldsmiths believes that PDP practices can be used as important support mechanisms to foster ‘learner-centred’ approaches to learning, which Goldsmiths defines as ‘a means of empowering individual students to become active, critical and reflective learners’. (See 5.1 Learning and Teaching Strategy).

The materials that we have developed supporting the specific PDP process can be found at www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/3d/tools. The website offers students exercises to engage in PDP activities and the opportunity to save a record of their development in the form of a portfolio. Students should be encouraged to use the site and keep a portfolio, although promoting the attributes of the 3D Graduate should run more deeply, and should be incorporated within your departmental approached to learning, teaching and assessment.