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People and their relationships formed within contexts are core to the cultures of educational organisations. The patterns of organisation and decision making within educational settings, along with the resultant expanding roles of individuals, and specifically individual leaders, highlight the importance of necessity and opportunity for ongoing professional development, presented and partaken of in many forms. Extensive published research indicates that leadership is key to organisational learning and improvement, but ultimately, it is the professional learning culture of a ‘learning organisation’ that enhances organisational success. Crucial to this success is the development of processes for continual professional learning to affect organisational change. However, perceived structural and conceptual overlap of communities of practice, professional learning communities, learning organisations and learning communities, to name a few constructs, contribute to a conceptual confusion about what it means to lead professional learning in an educational organisation.

This course invites a reflective and critically evaluative view of professional learning, particularly as it pertains to leadership of professional learning in educational organisations. Students will examine professional learning perspectives and processes within educational organisations and apply this understanding as it pertains to their context. The role of communities of practice, professional learning communities, learning organisations and learning communities will be analysed in relation to the individual and the collective outcomes of professional learning. Professional learning within an educational organisation will be evaluated from the perspectives of processes for leading learning and constructs of leadership roles. For successful completion of this course, access is required to an educational setting where professional learning processes may be explored and developed.

On successful completion of this course students should be able to:

1. discuss the principles of lifelong learning and adult learning theories in relation to professional learning and human resource management in educational organisations;
2. critique a variety of professional development opportunities and professional learning constructs, and evaluate their application to practice in a range of contexts;
3. examine the benefits of ongoing collaborative professional learning for changes in personal practice and workplace professional relationships;
4. analyse theory into practice for leading professional learning in an educational organisation with the possibilities of new structures, cultures and strategies to facilitate innovation;
5. design and apply a professional learning experience in an identified context.