How can I continue to forge my professional and academic development? How might I inquire (research) into my learning in an ongoing manner? How might my professional and academic development practice be informed by my ongoing research? How do I respond to ongoing research? How do I respond to the opportunity for inquiry? How do I meet my own learning needs?

I think that continuing academic development after college is not a privilege or an option, I think it is a must. In today’s ever changing society, we do not have the opportunity to decide if we should or shouldn’t continue learning. We have to continue to discover new things or we will be lost in the profession that we spent so many years studying. New ideas, research, and data develop daily. In addition, old practices become obsolete. It is important for people to consume new information to ‘stay on top of their game’, especially in a field like speech pathology. When you are in a profession that deals with serving the public in some manner, it is your duty to provide them with the best possible service. You cannot provide good service if you do not stay informed with the newest developments. With continual consumption of knowledge, you are able to make informed decisions about professional situations. Now that I have mentioned the importance of persistent learning, I will provide a few ways to continue development. When I am in the ‘real world’ working as a speech pathologist, I think that I will gather information by subscribing to professional journals, attending professional workshops, and communicating with other professionals. I think that you have to have a desire to be good at what you do in order to continue professional and academic development. I have that desire. I want to be the best SLP that I can, and I will be unable to do that if I do not stay informed. To me, reading is the most important way to continue learning. You can attend professional workshops and take new classes, but you will not have time to attend meetings all the time if you want to work. Therefore, I think that reading newspapers, magazines, and professional journals is the best way to obtain new information. I also think that communicating with inter- and intraprofessionals will be a great way to gather new information. It isn’t a difficult way to obtain information either. All you have to do is talk to them, either at work, on the phone, or by exchanging e-mails. Communication with professionals can be a reciprocal way of learning as well. A colleague may provide you with something interesting and new, and you may be able to do the same thing for them.

In reply to the questions about my performance on inquiry I have to be honest, at this point it isn’t very good. I am not the best at uncovering needed information. To be blunt, I am awful. I can find articles that relate and maybe even answer my questions, but I can never find an abundance of good information. After hours of online searching, I end up with one article to work with. When I am given an assignment that requires research, I get nervous. I am scared that I will be unable to find what I am looking for. After looking into the assignment, I get frustrated because I know that there is so much to find on the Internet and I can’t find anything. I guess that I met my needs because I search until I find what I need, but it takes hours. I am hoping to discover the secret to the Internet in this class.