In-House PD Session - Contexualising Communities of Practice within a Landcape of Practice

Description

This is a reflection on the weekly Professional Development sessions in which the library and study support team discuss multi-disciplinary pedagogies and issues in learning and teaching that impact Study Centre students. This session was utilised to discuss the theories behind the practice of the Learning and Growing Sessions, understand why we were undertaking this commitment with the hope of encouraging further individual engagement in professional associations.

This learning session was impactful for its discussion and documentation of the role cross-functional teamwork in the delivery of the embedded (in-class) support sessions and Academic Skills Development Program conducted collaboratively between the library and study support teams. This discussion, based on the prescribed reading (https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1177/1350507619860854) created an awareness of the benefits of sharing practice, the need for buy-in from all members of the community, and how to move beyond 'islands of practice' to implementing the learnings from the professional development sessions into the academic support programs.

There were several takeaways from the session; firstly, each member of the community of practice was tasked with finding a broader 'network' of practice to ensure that they were up-to-date with the latest research and events in their field of interest. Secondly, the connection of the ongoing professional development sessions was connected to the practice currently undertaken. This saw an improved delivery of the orientation program in 202160 and regular more tangible links between learning sessions and practice in the classroom.

Period	16 Apr 2021
Held at	Study Group Australia, Australia