Developing education in Personal and Professional Development
How do you approach this in an existing curriculum?
Most higher education programs have one: courses or a learning path that focuses not just on knowledge and skills, but on the student’s development as a person and as a professional. These pathways go by many names—professional development, professional identity formation, or personal and professional development. At the four-year Bachelor program in Dental Hygiene at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, we call it: Professional and Interprofessional Identity Development (Professionele en Interprofessionele identiteitsontwikkeling; PIIO).
When I (Jorrit Waslander) was given the task of further developing the education in this learning pathway, I faced a challenge: how do you shape a pathway that’s already running, with a legacy of materials, engaged lecturers, and a variety of perspectives? In this post, I’ll share my approach and offer tips for anyone who is facing a similar educational development challenge.
Step 1: Start with what’s already there – and build a shared vision
My first step was to read, a lot. What does the professional profile say about what competences a dental hygienist should have? What’s in the national framework for oral health education? What’s already documented about the PIIO pathway at my program? How do colleagues interpret and apply PIIO? What theories about professional development can be applied to the profession of dental hygienist?
Armed with this knowledge, I engaged in conversations with the colleagues involved in curriculum policy: our curriculum committee. Together, we developed a shared vision, inspired by the pedagogical-didactic framework from SCOPE (Fleer et al., 2024). This led to three learning outcomes for the PIIO learning pathway:
Exploring and developing a personal identity
Exploring and developing a professional identity
Exploring and developing an interprofessional identity
These learning outcomes don’t sound revolutionary, yet they provide a framework to develop education that supports identity development. By making this part of the learning outcomes of your degree program, you make room to develop education and assignments to achieve these learning goals. And room in a curriculum is very important. These learning outcomes are still quite broad, you can even use them yourself in your (paramedical) degree program. But let’s be honest: for a lecturer in a classroom, this is still quite abstract. Perhaps the real challenge lies in translating these words into educational activities.
Step 2: Make it (more) concrete – Start from the endpoint
The process of making the question ‘what educational activities can I do to stimulate personal and professional development’ more tangible began with the in-house KAOS-pilot training at the Hanze (see official KAOS-pilot site for description). This is an interesting approach to educational development. One of their key principles: start from the endpoint. What knowledge, skills, and attitudes do we want students to demonstrate after completing the PIIO pathway?
Together with colleagues at the dental hygienist program, we came to the conclusion that for education in personal and professional development, these elements are much more open and diverse than for theoretical or practical courses (for example: know about mouth-related diseases or can use the mirror to see all teeth). Instead, we defined key themes, questions, and experiences for each of the three learning outcomes. What do we want students to explore when asking: Who am I?, Who am I as a dental hygienist?, and Who am I as a dental hygienist in relation to other (healthcare) professionals? By investigating these questions, students reflect on the process of the development of their identity formation, and learn to navigate between socialization and subjectification (see figure 1). These 3 main questions became the foundation for lessons, assignments, and reflective activities in the program.

Step 3: Use what is already there and develop where needed
In any existing program, there’s a lot of material, assignments and experience which is used to ‘teach’ personal and professional development. I systematically reviewed the curriculum: where is PIIO already present? What is done in this class or assignment? Where can we deepen or connect existing elements?
I also reflected on my own toolkit: what do I bring to the degree program (like SCOPE education)? And what do I still need to develop, such as new or more suitable teaching methods or material on specific themes? It was also crucial to identify where students already gain rich experiences for identity development, for example internships, peer reflection, or interprofessional projects. These moments are golden opportunities to reflect on.
Change is a complex process and you also have to deal with some shit (pardon my words). In the previous paragraphs, I wrote down that you can use? most of the ‘valuable’ material that is already there. However, more often than not the ‘valuable’ material are some vague assignments or colleagues who are used to ‘do their thing based on their feeling and experience’. I had to ask: what can I change now, what will take time, and how can I persuade my colleagues to improve their education? For example, written reflection reports are a common practice in our program, but literature on reflection stresses the importance of using open and creative reflection methods to foster deep reflection. That’s not something you change overnight. In a large program, change takes time, be patient.
Step 4: Engage colleagues – and let them experience it
A pathway like PIIO depends on broad support within your degree program, at least with the teachers who are involved in the education. It starts with developing a shared vision (see step 1). Once you have that shared vision, you always have a common starting point to return to in discussions.
I also invested time in engaging fellow teachers. Not just by explaining the theoretical background why this is important, but by letting them experience it. For example, we organized a workshop on (professional) values for all teachers in the program. In this workshop, we shared some theory about personal and professional development, but more importantly, lecturers explored their own professional values and reflected on how they could better support students in articulating their development from student to dental hygienist. This led to meaningful conversations and practical ideas, thereby activating my fellow teachers to ‘do something’ with PIIO even though they only taught skills classes.
Step 5: Experiment and adjust
Again: developing education in personal and professional education takes time, especially with a ‘valuable’ legacy. I expect to need three to four years for my program. Over the past year, we’ve experimented, gathered feedback, and made adjustments. The focus has been on the start: years 1 and 2, where we emphasized the personal and professional identity. In the coming years, we’ll optimize this and begin developing years 3 and 4, with more attention to interprofessional identity. This will require new teaching methods, collaboration with other programs, and a deeper dive into interprofessional practice together with my colleagues from SCOPE. I’m excited for what is ahead!
In conclusion
Education in personal and professional development isn’t a quick and easy project. It’s a path of trial and refinement—for both students and educational developers. Hopefully, the steps above can help you get started in your own degree program, even if there’s already a lot of legacy. Keep the goal in mind. A well-designed pathway for personal and professional development creates space for something truly valuable, and in my view the most meaningful of education: helping students to investigate how they want to practice their future profession.
Curious to explore how this could work in your program? Or interested in the SCOPE teaching material? Feel free to reach out (scope@umcg.nl)—we’d love to think along with you!
Literature:
Fleer, J., Smit, M. J., Boer, H. J., Knevel, M., Velthuis, F., Trippenzee, M., de Carvalho Filho, M., & Scholtens, S. (2024). An evidence-informed pedagogical approach to support professional identity formation in medical students: AMEE Guide No. 171. Medical Teacher, 1-9.
Really encouraging article! Thanks for writing