This article critically investigates the impact of a program of professional learning for education-focused academics (EFAs) in an Australian university, focused on developing their education research capability. The 'Higher Education Research' (HER) program employed a three-pronged strategy: skills development workshops; sustained small group…

This paper explores the complex problem of project sustainability, focusing on the leadership of three primary school mathematics leaders. Using cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), the leaders' efforts are reported, highlighting their contribution to project sustainability. The CHAT-informed research design supported the generation of…

Learning to teach out-of-field is a challenge that many teachers worldwide face at some time in their career. Whether they are motivated to seek formal professional development as additional qualifications in this area, however, depends on many factors. Alignment between the specific professional development needs of out-of-field teachers and the…

This handbook provides a global overview of the design, implementation and assessment of academic development centers within higher education institutions. The current nature of our complex, rapidly changing world makes it imperative that colleges and universities worldwide find ways to educate their students in new and better ways: this is…

In Australia, as is the case in other countries around the world, the Early Childhood workforce is in the process of 'skilling up' to meet government demands related to quality service provision. This paper sets out to identify what constitutes effective teacher professional learning through mentoring. Guided by critical realism and social…

Peer Review of Teaching (PRT) programmes have been implemented in the Higher Education context to ensure teaching is a collaborative, evolving and inspiring activity in an era of ever shrinking resources. These programmes are reported to have many benefits but are notoriously difficult to implement and even more difficult to sustain, with research…

There has been significant interest in developing academics through Teaching Scholar Development Programs across the USA, Canada, the UK, and more recently in Australia. At their core, such programs develop academics across teaching scholarship, leadership, promotion, and award opportunities, where universities reap the benefits of developing such…

This article presents an Australian perspective on the issue of standards-based education and the place of students of English as an additional language (EAL) who are working within mainstream schools. Beginning with an overview of the various standards documents that impact the lives of teachers and their students in mainstream Australian…

In this paper, we present the results from a study of the impact on students involved in a large-scale inquiry-based astronomical high school education intervention in Australia. Students in this intervention were led through an educational design allowing them to undertake an investigative approach to understanding the lifecycle of stars more…

In this article, I report on the first stage of a whole school literacy project," Embedding Literacies in the KLAs" (ELK), which aims to support multilingual learners to access the literacies they need for high stakes curriculum learning. As it is "quality teaching" that has been found to have the greatest impact on student…

This paper focuses on issues concerning in-service English as an additional language or dialect teachers' views on professional development (PD) in an online environment. On the basis of the data collected via a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews, this study finds that intrinsic and extrinsic incentives compel or impede teachers…

The staff development program at the University of New South Wales (Australia) differs from traditional university programs in that it integrates professional development activities for both general and academic staff. The Professional Development Centre operates as an academic unit and performs both teaching and research functions. (MSE)

A study investigated models of faculty instructional support offered in universities in Victoria (Australia), including support unit location, sources of funding, nature of the support offered (for example, discipline-specific workshops, materials development, accredited courses, and study skills course components), student population receiving…

Discusses the role of educational development units (EDUs), which support improvement of teaching in Australian universities, focusing on the tension between the individual faculty consultation function and the unit's role at an institutional level. Suggests these two levels of action should be considered complementary and necessary. Describes…

Australian society in the 1990s has been marked by the gradual disenfranchisement of rural communities due to the urban bias of political and economic decision-makers. In Victoria, curriculum changes based on strategic centralism, consumer capture, and educational accountability were accompanied by a more controlled, urban-biased approach to…