Learning for life

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Tags: discovery, industry collaborations, summer-2011, teaching and learning

UQ's Centre for Innovation in Professional Learning (CIPL) was established in 2009

Thousands of school teachers across the country have been empowered to lead curriculum change thanks to the expertise of a UQ team.

Earlier this year a UQ syndicate including the Centre for Innovation in Professional Learning (CIPL) and the School of Education won the tender for the Leading Curriculum Change project – an online community that will share best practice and involve 2000 participants.

Established in 2009, CIPL acts as a reference point for government and professional groups who wish to tap into UQ’s experience to develop a continuing professional development program – typically in the form of a short course. The centre also conducts important research into sector and workforce change.

CIPL Director Professor Robert Hendy said UQ was drawing on its expertise across schools, faculties and institutes to provide opportunities in areas as diverse as engineering, business and healthcare.

To better map these offerings, CIPL launched a new website during Teaching and Learning Week in October to bring together more than 300 separate courses offered by 20 UQ groups in the one place.

“More and more people will have two, three or four careers during their lifetimes, and so a formal, ongoing commitment to develop one’s ideas and skills is becomingly increasingly attractive,” Professor Hendy said.

“Continuing professional development is also a way of allowing people to stay in touch with further learning, and to provide pathways to a more substantial study commitment such as a masters program.”

One of CIPL’s strengths is adapting traditional face-to-face short courses and scaling them to be distributed to large numbers online – such as the Leading Curriculum Change project, which is funded by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).

Professor Hendy said ongoing research carried out by CIPL underpinned its operations and informed its strategies.

“Much of what we’re doing in the research domain is in fact changing the context within which individual sectors will operate,” he said.

“Therefore, we have a commitment to help those sectors evolve to acquire the skills and insights that they need.”

By Cameron Pegg

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