Learning Trajectories, Innovation and Identity for Professional Development

Education in the professions has always had unique demands placed upon it. These include the need to: keep pace with rapidly evolving knowledge bases, developing skills and attitudes appropriate to practice, learning in the workplace and fostering public confidence. §Over the past twenty years, new demands have created additional educational imperatives. Public accountability has become more intensive and extensive. Practitioners practice in climates more subject to scrutiny and less forgiving of error. The contexts in which professionals practice and learn have changed and will continue to change, globally. §This book explores the pedagogic implications of these challenges internationally for a wide range of professions which include: accountants, military company commanders, surgeons, nurse practitioners, academics, managers, community physicians and dentists; examining learning across the professional lifespan. The established view of professional development being predominantly about what an individual needs to know and do, is widened to include the systemic and contextual factors which effect learning. §Authors, through their research, examine the unique particularities and requirements of diverse professional groups. The editors, in their introduction and conclusion identify learning that can be shared across professions, innovations in scholarship and pedagogic research which support new directions in learning and teaching across professions.