Conference 2010—Symposia Abstract

This symposia is based on an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Leadership project. A key outcome of the project is to design and implement an academic leadership development program for FCs that—through enhancing their leadership capabilities—strengthens peer and industry partnerships, enables a better fieldwork experience for students, reduces risk for all parties and ultimately improves the students’ learning experiences in higher education. Results of an online survey of FCs, based on the Learning and Teaching Leaders Survey (Scott et al 2008), will be verified with symposia participants. Key challenges of the FC role will be examined with participants to enable the refinement of the leadership development program. The leadership program will be developed from the survey and designed as a series of learning modules around three key themes of academic leadership: personal leadership development; conceptual understandings of academic leadership; and skill development. It is proposed to use a blended learning model to increase the program’s ability to involve FCs in a range of contexts (including regional and off-shore campuses). Workshop participants will be invited to provide feedback on the proposed program and methods of delivery to ensure that the final product meets the learning needs of the sector.