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Continual professional development is essential to foster and enhance professionals’ abilities. A wide variety of methods have been adopted to support professional learning for healthcare professions but many still focus upon a need to update knowledge and the learning of isolated competencies for practice. The purpose of this paper is to report upon a collaborative partnership that enabled the reframing of a professional development course away from this objectivist epistemology to foster pedagogically appropriate approaches nurturing the development of the knowledge and skills required for extended practice in specimen dissection.

An action research approach informed this study which drew upon aspects of simulated learning, “creative play” and “hands-on” practice to nurture development of the knowledge and mastery of essential skills required for extended practice in dissection. A questionnaire allowed the gathering of quantitative and qualitative data from delegates. Open coding of delegate free-text responses enabled thematic analysis of the data.

Delegates reported upon a positive learning and teaching experience providing them with a unique opportunity to develop the essential skills and knowledge required to enhance their extended practice. Four key themes were identified from delegate feedback: legitimacy of learning experience; safe-space for learning; confidence as a practitioner; and professional and social interactions.

Research into skill development in this field is currently lacking. Findings highlight the value of a creative approach to professional development which enables individuals to master the skills required for practice. It also underlines the importance and value of collaborative partnerships. As allied health professionals advance and extend their roles professional development must move away from the didactic delivery of isolated topics and ensure that it offers legitimate learning experiences allowing skill development and technique mastery alongside knowledge enhancement.

Describe a methodology for analysing competence requirements and pinpointing competence enhancements, together with the appropriate training media, which is applicable to all management and technical specialist functions. Argues that the methodology may be integrated with corporate career planning for professionals, and provides a cost‐effective tool for corporate human resource management. Concludes that continual professional development needs to be incorporated in the human resource development policy in order for business organizations to face the challenge of business change successfully.

The author outlines those strengths of the third sector that will enable it to play a prominent role in not only leading the country towards economic recovery, but also stimulating the development of a more democratic society. He stresses the need for the sector as a whole, and particularly the CEOs, to embrace the challenge created by the economic slump, stressing that for this ‘challenge’ to be transformed into an opportunity, the sector must focus on areas of particular importance, such as continual professional development (CPD), extending global links and encouraging sector exchange.

Modernised health and social care services require that qualifying practitioners have the necessary skills for them to practise collaboratively. The nature of interprofessional working is, however, poorly understood. This article describes the development of learning outcomes regarding interprofessional working that are relevant to all professions.

The purpose of this paper is to communicate the findings of an empirical research project based on a real world problem that involved the development of a continuous professional development (CPD) framework for a children’s integrated service workforce. In addition, to give attention to the notion that children’s integrated services have not necessarily been viewed from the perspective of conflict management and that this has meant ensuing conflicts that characterise such organisations are more often than not ignored.

A case study approach involving a mixed methodology consisting of semi-structured interviews for senior managers and service leads; a quantitative survey for frontline practitioners and focus groups for service users, carers and children.

Rather than the service being fully integrated, services were aligned, and this was reflected in the conflict between professional cultures, reinforcing an “us and them” culture. This culture had seemingly permeated all aspects of the organisation including the senior management team. It was also noted that certain systems and processes, as well as bureaucracy, within the service were seen as hindering integrated working and was in effect a catalyst for conflict.

What has become evident during the course of this empirical study is the need to further explore the functioning of children’s integrated services using conflict management theories, tools and techniques so as to understand how best to manage conflict to an optimum where an environment of creativity and productiveness is created.

Therefore, when devising a CPD framework it can be argued that there is a need to address some of the types of conflict at the micro-frontline practitioner level of the organisation, as it is this level where there is opportunity through a variety of mechanisms, for example formal and non-formal learning, ring-fenced time, attendance at conferences, team away days and shadowing opportunities can be used to achieve a greater understanding of professional roles, improve working relationships and engage in the division of tasks in a fashion that will promote collaborative working.

The extent to which a children’s integrated service can be the harbinger of a range of multi-faceted conflicts that include the jarring of professional cultures, task conflict, inter-personal incompatibilities and competing value bases cannot be underestimated. Therefore, when devising a CPD framework it can be argued that there is a need to address some of the types of conflict at the micro-frontline practitioner level of the organisation.

Through the application of conflict management theory it will be illustrated how conflict could be used to effectively steer children integrated services towards creativity and productivity through an organisational wide framework that not only embraces dissonance, but also promotes a learning environment that takes advantage of such dissonance to incorporate a hybrid of professional practice and expertise.

The following is an introductory profile of the fastest growing firms over the three-year period of the study listed by corporate reputation ranking order. The business activities in which the firms are engaged are outlined to provide background information for the reader.

The purpose of this paper is to study the viability of implementing a protocol-guided model designed to provide structure and focus for teacher collaboration from Shanghai in today’s US public schools. The authors examine whether the new model, Teacher Peer Excellence Group (TPEG), fosters the desired key features of productive communities of practice where teachers can jointly construct, transform, preserve, and continuously deepen the meaning of effective teaching. The authors also explore the extent to which existing school conditions – principal instructional leadership, trust, teacher efficacy, and teachers’ sense of school-wide professional community – enable or moderate the desired outcomes.

Data for this paper are drawn from a series of surveys administered to teachers from 24 pilot schools in six school districts over two school years. Descriptive and multilevel modeling analyses are conducted.

The findings provide encouraging evidence that, given sufficient support and guidance, teachers report higher levels of engagement in deprivatized practice and instructional collaboration. These findings also hold after controlling for key enabling conditions and school characteristics.

The TPEG approach challenges school leaders to take on the responsibilities of helping teachers make their practice public, sharable, and better – three critical objectives in the shift to develop the profession of teaching.

The indication of TPEG model’s positive impact on strengthening the features of communities of practice in selected public schools provides the impetus for further efforts in understanding the transformational changes needed and challenges ahead at the classroom, school, and district levels.

Some of the most crucial current issues in educational management are related to governance, effective schooling and performance indicators, conditions of employment of teachers, and in‐service education. For example, what different types of policy and operational decisions should be made by central, regional, and school bodies? What are the most important indicators of school performance that can be reliably assessed? How can we assure that teacher‐evaluation practices are conducted fairly and appropriately so that the interests of both teachers and students are served? How can schools effectively integrate their teaching and continual professional development activities so that minimal disruption occurs with student learning? These issues were identified during study leave in 1988‐89. Interviews were conducted with staff in universities, colleges, schools, government departments, research institutes, and local education authorities in several countries. The crucial nature of the issues was assessed by frequent attention to the intensity with which interviewees spoke about an issue, and the author′s subjective assessment.