Working in Partnership

An authentic professional learning program to promote sustainable curriculum change

Abstract

This paper describes a program that reframes professional development through a partnership model underpinned by an authentic professional learning approach and incorporating elements of design-based research and communities of practice. A secondary underpinning of the program is the development of key skills by the educational design and development group in both project management and evaluation of learning and teaching projects as well as effective online learning design. The outcome sought from the partnership model is to promote sustainable curriculum change through the development of staff capabilities. Using curriculum design projects as the catalyst, the partnership program integrates faculty and centrally based approaches to design solutions to authentic teaching and learning problems. The collaborative nature of the program encourages scholarly dialogues between academic and professional support staff enabling increased output in scholarship of learning and teaching.