014223 Professional Learning and Practice
Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a
particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.
Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade, no marks
Requisite(s): 24 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C04427 Master of Education (Learning and Leadership)
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses. See access conditions.
Anti-requisite(s): 013160 Professional Learning and Practice AND 013223 Professional Learning and Practice
Description
This subject provides students with opportunities to explore contemporary approaches to understanding professional learning and practice being developed in Australia and internationally. Students learn to examine their own practices and professional contexts, understand them differently, and imagine possibilities for change. Students gain insights into how professionals learn and the links to organisational and workplace learning.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| a. | Identify and reflect on changing understandings of professional learning, practice and change. |
|---|---|
| b. | Observe professional practice and analyse it using relevant concepts/theories. |
| c. | Identify the implications for learning, practice or change in student's professional setting. |
| d. | Reflect, analyse and identify own learning in this subject. |
| e. | Communicate appropriately using a range of genres for relevant professional learning contexts. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject engages with the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs), which are tailored to the Graduate Attributes set for all graduates of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
- Synthesise advanced knowledge of complex concepts to make research and theory informed judgements about a broad range of professional learning and / or leading practices (1.1)
- Identify, critically analyse and act on evolving personalised learning goals relevant to professional contexts (1.4)
- Apply research skills to investigate complex learning, leading or innovation practices (2.1)
- Critically and creatively reflect on complex relationships between theory and professional practice using highly developed analytical skills (2.2)
- Apply strong communication and interpersonal skills to engage diverse audiences around complex professional practice issues (6.1)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
This subject addresses the following Course Intended Learning Outcome:
1. Professional Readiness
1.1 Synthesise advanced knowledge of complex concepts to make research and theory informed judgements about a broad range of professional learning and / or leading practices
1.4 Identify, critically analyse and act on evolving personalised learning goals relevant to professional contexts
2. Critical and Creative Inquiry
2.1 Apply research skills to investigate complex learning, leading or innovation
2.2 Critically and creatively reflect on complex relationships between theory and professional practice using highly developed analytical skills
6. Effective Communication
6.1 Apply strong communication and interpersonal skills to engage diverse audiences around complex professional practice issues
Teaching and learning strategies
Students are guided through a series of six online modules using a process of practice-based learning. Each module contains rich content that is organised around a series of topics and includes activities that help students actively engage with the content and undertake the practice–based tasks. Students engage interactively through online discussion boards, embedded comments, and concept-based activities and are scaffolded to observe and analyse professional practice.
This subject employs a practice-based learning approach, informed by ethical principles, in which students observe practice in their own professional context and then are scaffolded to use contemporary theories to analyse their observation notes and develop implications for practice and learning in their context. Learning partnerships and other collaborative activities are key strategies for sharing the observations from different professional contexts and encouraging collaborative learning. Synchronous online seminars provide an opportunity to revise key concepts, further develop connections with other students, and to prepare for assessments. Students receive formative feedback on assignment tasks both from their lecturers and peers, including early formative feedback.
To ensure practice-relevant and authentic outcomes, teaching and learning strategies for this subject involve students customising learning to suit their professional practice context. This occurs through the ‘Capability Wrap’ process. Students develop a ‘Subject Learning Plan’ for each subject, as a way of customising assessments and their learning in the subject to their professional context. As a first step in this process, students must complete their ‘Course Learning Plan’ and Portfolio (Part A – (if this is the student’s first subject in the course) and their ‘subject learning plan’ (Part B), which are compulsory (non-graded) tasks and constitute minimum requirements for this subject.
Students also complete a ‘subject wrap-up’ on conclusion of the subject by reflecting on their learning in relation to their course and subject learning plans. This also contributes to the ongoing ‘capability wrap’ process.
Content (topics)
This subject covers cutting edge approaches to understanding professional practice and learning being developed internationally. The subject commences with students observing professional practice and learning in the student’s own professional context. Students are then scaffolded to engage with contemporary perspectives on professional learning and practice in analysing their observations. Through an historical overview of different approaches to workplace and professional learning students appreciate the novelty of the new approaches explored and develop the implications of their findings for change in practice and learning in the professional context.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Observing professional practice
| Objective(s): | b and d | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 15% | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 650 words (excluding the observation notes) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Analyse practice
| Objective(s): | b and e | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 40% | ||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 1,500 words | ||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 3: Implications for change or learning in your professional practice
| Objective(s): | a, c, d and e | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 45% | ||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 1800 words | ||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Minimum requirements
The satisfactory completion of the Course Learning Plan (Part A) (if not previously completed) and the Subject Learning Plan (Part B) are minimum requirements for this subject as they are key components of the Capability Wrap process and a defining feature of this course. Failure to meet this requirement will result in the final assessment not being graded.
Required texts
There are no required texts for this subject. Recommended readings are available via UTS Library, in the Canvas modules and the Reading List on the Canvas Subject site.
References
Abrandt Dalgren. M., Rystedt, H., Felländer-Tsai, L., & Nyström, S. (Eds.). (2019). Interprofessional simulation in health care: Materiality, embodiment, interaction. Springer International Publishing.
Fenwick, T., & Nerland, M. (Eds.). (2014). Reconceptualising professional learning: Sociomaterial knowledges, practices and responsibilities. Routledge.
Francisco, S. (2020). What novice vocational education and training teachers learn in the teaching workplace. International Journal of Training Research, 18(1), 37-54. doi.org/ 10.1080/14480220.2020.1747785
Francisco, S. (2020). Developing a trellis of practices that support learning in the workplace. Studies in Continuing Education, 42(1), 102-117. doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2018.1562439
Francisco, S. (2022). Supporting the Workplace Learning of Vocational and Further Education Teachers. Mentoring and beyond. Springer.
Green, B. & Hopwood, N, (Eds). (2014). The body in professional practice, learning and education: body/practice. Springer International Publishing.
Gherardi, S. (2008). Situated Knowledge and Situated Action: What do Practice-Based Studies Promise? In D. Barry & H. Hansen (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of New Approaches in Management and Organization, 516-525, SAGE Publications.
Gherardi, S. (2012). Why do practices change and why do they persist? Models of explanations. In P. Hager, A. Lee, & A. Reich (Eds), Practice, learning and change: practice-theory perspectives on professional learning (pp. 217-231). Springer.
Gherardi, S. (2019). How to Conduct a Practice-based Study. (2nd ed.). Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
Grootenboer, P., Edwards-Groves, C, & Choy, S. (Eds.). (2017). Practice theory perspectives on pedagogy and education: Praxis, diversity and contestation. Springer.
Hager, P., Lee. A. & Reich, A. (Eds). (2012). Practice, learning and change: practice-theory perspectives on professional learning. Springer.
Hager, P. (2011) Theories of Workplace Learning. In M. Malloch, L. Cairns, K. Evans. and B.N. O'Connor. (Eds.). The SAGE Handbook of Workplace Learning (pp. 17-31). SAGE Publications.
Hager, P. & Beckett, D. (2019). The Emergence of Complexity: Perspectives on rethinking and reforming education. Springer.
Hager, P. & Beckett, D. (2020). We’re all in this together: New principles of co-present groups. UNESCO Background paper for Future of Education Initiative. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374089
Hopwood, N., Abrandt, Dahlgren M., & Siwe, K. (2014). Developing professional responsibility in medicine: a sociomaterial curriculum. In T. Fenwick, & M. Nerland (Eds). (2014). Reconceptualising professional learning: sociomaterial knowledges, practices, and responsibilities (pp. 171-183) Routledge.
Hopwood, N. (2014). Four essential dimensions of workplace learning. Journal of Workplace Learning. 26(6/7), 349-363. doi.org/10.1108/JWL-09-2013
Hopwood, N. (2016). Professional practice and learning: times, spaces, bodies, things. Springer Press.
Hopwood, N., Blomberg, M., Dahlberg, J. & Abrandt Dahlgren, M. (2020). Three Principles Informing Simulation-Based Continuing Education to Promote Effective Interprofessional Collaboration: Reorganizing, Reframing, and Recontextualizing. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 40 (2), 81-88. DOI: 10.1097/CEH.0000000000000292
Hopwood, N., Dadich, A., Elliot, C. & Moraby, K. (2021). How is brilliance enacted in professional practices? Insights from the theory of practice architectures. Professionals & Professionalism. 11 (2).
Kemmis, S. (2014). Changing Practices, Changing Education. Springer.
Kemmis, S. (2020). A practice theory perspective on learning: Beyond a ‘conventional’ view. Studies in Continuing Education.
Kemmis, S., Wilkinson,J., Edwards-Groves, C. Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P, & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing Practices, Changing Education. Springer.
Kemmis, S. (2019). A practice sensibilty: An invitation to the Theory of Practice Architectures. Springer.
Kemmis, S. (2022). Transforming practice: Changing the world with the Thoery of Practice Architectures. Springer.
Lave, J. (2019). Learning and everyday life: Access, participation and changing practice. Cambridge University Press.
Mahon, K., Francisco, S., & Kemmis, S. (Eds.). (2017). Exploring education and professional practice: Through the lens of practice architectures. Springer Press.
Nicolini, D. (2009). Zooming in and zooming out: Studying practices by switching theoretical lenses and trialing connections. Organization Studies, 30 (12), 1391-1418. https://doi-org.ezproxy/10.1177/0170840609349875.
Nicolini, D. (2013). Practice Theory, Work and Organizations: An introduction. Oxford University Press.
Parding, K., Bellini, A., & Maestripieri, L. (2021). Heterogeneity Among Professions and Professionals. Professions and Professionalism, 11 (1), 1-8. doi.org/10.7577/4398
Reich, A. & Hager, P. (2014). Problematising practice, learning and change: practice-theory perspectives on professional learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 26(6/7), 418-431. doi-org/10.1108/JWL-02-2014-0016
Reich, A., Rooney, D. & Boud, D. (2015). Dilemmas in Continuing Professional Learning: Learning inscribed in frameworks or elicited from practice. Studies in Continuing Education, 37(2), 131-141. DOI: 10.1080/0158037X.2015.1022717
Reich, A., Rooney, D., Gardner, A., Willey, K., Boud, D. & Fitzgerald, T. (2015). Engineers professional learning: A practice-theory perspective. European Journal of Engineering Education, 40(4), 366-379. DOI: 10.1080/03043797.2014.967181
Reich, A., Rooney, D. & Hopwood, N. (2016). 'Sociomaterial perspectives on work and learning: Sites of emergent learning', Journal of Workplace Learning. 29(6). DOI: 10.1108/JWL-05-2016-0034
Schatzki, T. R. (2012). A primer on practices. In J. Higgs, R. Barnett, S. Billett, M. Hutchings & F. Trede (Eds.), Practice-based education: perspectives and strategies. (pp.13-26). BRILL.
Schatzki, T. R. (2017). Practices and learning. In P. Grootenboer, C. Edwards- Groves, & S. Choy (Eds.), Practice theory perspectives on pedagogy and education: Praxis, diversity and contestation. Springer.
Sjølie, E., Francisco, S., Mahon, K., Kaukko, M. & Kemmis, S. (2020) Learning of academics in the time of the Coronavirus pandemic. Journal of Praxis in Higher Education, 2(1), 85-107. doi.org/10.47989/kpdc61
Wilkinson, J., & Kemmis, S. (2015). Practice Theory: Viewing leadership as leading. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47(4), 342-358. DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2014.976928