Theme: Beyond Your Comfort Zone
Host: Centre for Research into Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE), 
Charles Sturt University
Date: Friday 5 and Saturday 6 March 2004
Venue: University House, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT.

Conference participants will explore:

• How can Continuing Professional Education (CPE) use new learning approaches?  From e-learning to theatre, learning circles and workplace or organisational learning, what techniques and combinations are useful? 
• What are new research and evaluations telling us?  How successful are our education strategies, or don’t we know? 
• Does our CPE tell us who we are?  What impact does working in teams or new management practices have on us as professionals?  How are our changing clients redefining our practice and ourselves?

The conference will be opened by RIPPLE Director, Professor Gail Whiteford. Professor Whiteford, the founding Head of the School of Community Health on CSU’s Albury-Wodonga Campus, has nearly 20 years experience an international profile in occupational therapy and health education and researcher, particularly in regard to rural health provision.

The keynote address, titled Understanding and Researching Professional Practice, will be presented by Professor Bill Green from CSU’s Faculty Of of Education, based on the Bathurst Campus.

Papers that may be of particular interest include:

• Are the academic and policing professions compatible? Following the Wood Royal Commission, universities became involved in policing education in NSW, as shown in the relationship between Charles Sturt University and NSW Police. CSU social scientist Dr Leonora Ritter discusses the mixing of and challenges presented by this marriage of apparently different cultures. It also challenges some preconceptions about the supposed differences between the professions.
• The educational role of the Internet in Saudi Arabia: CSU’s Dr Yeslam Al-Saggaf outlines the new important role of Internet-based forums for professional development, and to share knowledge and ideas, in the traditional society of Saudi Arabia.
• Raising professional standards through certification: As part of her PhD studies, CSU researcher Dr Rosemary Black helped establish a national certification system that aims to improve the professional standards of Australian ecotourism guides and so the experience of tourists in the Australian wilderness.
• Increasing flexibility in nursing education in Thailand: Graduate nurses in Thailand are looking for higher degree education that is accessible convenient and relevant to their current work and situations. A team of nursing educators from CSU and Thailand have assessed the use of more flexible learning arrangements for the further education of Thai nurses.