Teaching students to become professionals: The heart of the matter

How fostering a sense of professionalism encourages student success.

A student stands among a number of blurred individuals

In my role as an Educational Developer, essentially a 'teaching coach' at the University of Alberta, instructors sometimes express their concern to me about the attitudes, behaviours, or communication of students who are in the process of becoming the next generation of professionals in a field or discipline. While many of these conversations start with instructors' perceptions of what is lacking in their students' professionalism, at the heart of the matter, these instructors care deeply about their students as novice professionals and about clients, patients, issues, systems, and citizens in their respective professions or fields.

Instructors often manage their worries and feelings of certainty by sharing examples, anecdotes, and stories with their colleagues. This sharing is important in creating community and esprit de corps among educators in a department or faculty. I encourage instructors to go further by naming the professional characteristics or attributes instructors want (or need) to see in their students (otherwise, let's face it, these conversations can be unproductive). To illustrate, a recent instructor's concern that "students come late to my class and walk directly in front of me while I'm lecturing" is a desire for respect, politeness, and consideration of others. Another instructor's lament about "Why can't students admit their mistakes and ask for help?" is about accountability, judgement, and ethical concerns.

Once the concerns are identified and priorities, instructors can make practical meaningful decisions to foster the desired professionalism in their students. Students are more likely to act professionally when expectations for professionalism are explicitly defined.

To illustrate, a Faculty of Law instructor states, "In this course respect is very important because we will have numerous discussions and debates on controversial topics. Respect means recognizing and abiding by a law or process, as well as demonstrating that others' thoughts, feelings, rights, views are valid, relevant, and must be heard". The same instructor can then ask students to get involved in setting standards of professionalism by providing examples of respectful and disrespectful behaviour.

What aspects of professionalism would you like to help students improve?

Depending on the context of the discipline, field of study, or profession, the characteristics or attributes of professionalism may be defined as:

Interpersonal professionalism - Attributes necessary for effective relationships with clients and colleagues, including: altruism, respect, integrity, service, compassion, reliability, communication skills, trust, caring, ability to educate, avoiding the misuse of power, admitting errors in judgement, asking for help when necessary, tolerance, sensitivity to diversity, politeness, tact, responsible, benevolence.

Public professionalism - Attributes that society expects of a person in a given profession, including: accountability, commitment, ability to regulate one's emotions, excellence, duty, expertise, thoroughness, deliverance of quality, skill or technical competence, knowledgeable, adherence to guidelines or standards, transparency.

Intrapersonal professionalism - Attributes within the individual professional, including: maturity, morality, humility, goodwill, ability to deal with uncertainty, courage, self-awareness, ability to deal with stress, motivation, lifelong learning.

(Three categories adapted from Van De Camp, K., Vernooiji-Dassen, M., Grol, R., & Bottema, B. (2004). How to conceptualize professionalism: A qualitative study. Medical Teacher, 26(8), 696-702).

Students enter professional programs with an established student identity. For students to acquire a professional identity (a process that research in education is only starting to understand), instructors must create opportunities for students to take responsibility for cultivating a professional identity.

Key questions for students might include:

  • When you hear the word professionalism, what comes to mind?
  • What motivated you to become a teacher, engineer, nurse, lawyer?
  • What do you offer your future profession in terms of behaviours, attitudes, or communication skills?
  • What professional behaviour have you observed in a field placement or job that you would like to emulate? Would like to avoid? Why?
  • How would you like your colleagues, clients, or patients to describe your professional behaviour? What are you doing to cultivate these specific behaviours or attitudes?
  • Who are your professional role models? Why?
  • What kind of professional are you becoming? Give reasons and examples to support your answer.
  • What resources and/or experiences would improve your professionalism? List each resource or experience and how it will help you grow.

Holding Students Accountable

Instructors in a variety of fields have shared (and even published on) strategies for holding students accountable for defined professional behaviours over the term. Here are the greatest hits in terms of strategies I have seen work well with undergraduates:

  • Describe the syllabus in terms of workplace policies and send out instructions in the form of a professional email. For details, see:

Campana, K., & Peterson, J. (2013). Do bosses give extra credit? Using classroom experiences to model real-world work experiences. College Teaching, 61, 60-66.

  • Assign professionalism marks (rather than participation marks). For more information, visit:

Keaton, A. (2017, November 17). Teaching students the importance of professionalism. Faculty Focus.

Wells, E. (2008). Professionalism marks vs participation marks: Transforming the university experience. The Evolving Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1.

  • Ask students to set Professionalism Improvement Goals (yes: PIGs. Don't forget to hand in your PIGs). Give the students individual responsibility for setting professionalism improvement goals for professionalism in your course. Students keep track of their progress and submit a one page report or short email to you outlining their progress at midpoint and the end of the course. The instructor assigns a grade based on documented improvement in professionalism.
  • Include multiple-choice or short answer questions about the most appropriate professional response to a brief case scenario on midterm and final exams
  • Ask students to keep professionalism journals. In smaller classes or field placement experiences, students may be asked to reflect on questions such as:

What do you offer your future profession/field of study in terms of your professional behaviours/attributes?

What professional behaviour have you observed that you would like to emulate?

Would like to avoid? Why?

How would colleagues or clients describe your professional behaviour?

What challenges you about professional behaviours? What are you actively doing to improve?

What kind of professional are you becoming? Provide reasons and examples to support your answer.

What do you need to learn to be more professional? List some resources to help you grow in an aspect of professionalism.

Also see:

Holland, L. (2013). Student reflections on the value of a professionalism module. Journal of Information, Communication, and Ethics in Society, 11(1), 19-30.

Stark, P., Roberts, C., Newble, D., & Bax, N. (2006). Discovering professionalism through guided reflection. Medical Teacher, 28, 25-31.

  • Identify aspects of professionalism in case studies. For example, which aspects of professionalism are relevant to the following engineering case? How will your team demonstrate professionalism?

As engineers for Manitoba Hydro, your team will make a decision about expanding the electrical power generation in Pinawa, Manitoba. Should the new plant be nuclear, fossil fuel, solar, or wind driven? Should the plan involve some combination of the four? Weigh the ecology, technology, ethics, politics, and cultural aspects to arrive at an outcome and present this outcome, in the form of a team presentation, at next week's class.

  • Students use the course content to work through job interview questions. Instructor uses real job advertisements and points out key professionalism attributes required for these jobs. (Weimer, M. (2016). A memo to my students re: college and the 'real world'. Teaching Professor Blog.)

Concern can motivate instructors to make change in their teaching. However, simply going round the loop of frustration leads instructors to feel out of control and even burned with teaching professionalism.

Interested in developing your teaching further? Join us at this years Festival of Teaching and Learning from May 2-4, 2023.


Cosette Lemelin

About Cosette

Cosette Lemelin (PhD, University of Manitoba) is now the assistant director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning. She has 18 years of experience in educational developer roles in a 20-year career in adult and post-secondary education at three universities (the University of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba, and the University of Alberta). She has a Master of Education (2003) and PhD in Education (2016) focusing on adult and post-secondary education. Cosette’s unique specialities include teaching within health professions education (with a focus on clinical practicum teaching and learning) and varying aspects of interpersonal communication in teaching and learning. She is the Chair of the Educational Developers Network of Alberta (EDNA) and on the Board of Directors of the Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA).