Unit rationale, description and aim

Health professional education occurs in diverse and complex health settings, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and culturally diverse communities. It is a requirement of a health professional educator to understand the context of contemporary health professional education, foundational theories and models, and contemporary approaches to health professional education in order to provide rich learning experiences.  This unit helps students to learn about learner-centered approaches to facilitating health professional education in diverse settings. Students will explore ethical, moral and legal issues impacting on health professional education, and critically analyse the concept of inclusive education in relation to their practice. 

To that end, students will first explore teaching approaches and models and theories of learning in the context of contemporary health professional education. Students will then explore ethical, moral and legal issues as these relate to practice as an educator of health professionals. This will include a critical evaluation of teaching and learning practice. Scholarly evidence will be combined with practical community wisdom as important sources of students' learning. 

The overall aim is to provide students with a firm foundation of the theories, applications and priorities informing contemporary health professional education, and support to relate and apply knowledge to healthcare context. 

2026 10

Campus offering

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  • Term Mode
  • ACU Term 1Online Unscheduled
  • ACU Term 3Online Unscheduled

Prerequisites

Nil

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Describe the main features of and theoretical appr...

Learning Outcome 01

Describe the main features of and theoretical approaches to contemporary health professional education.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC3, GC4, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11

Identify and analyse the ethical, moral and legal ...

Learning Outcome 02

Identify and analyse the ethical, moral and legal aspects of health professional education towards the common good.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC3, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11

Identify and analyse cultural requirements for del...

Learning Outcome 03

Identify and analyse cultural requirements for delivering health education for culturally diverse and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC3, GC4, GC5

Critically evaluate one's own teaching and learnin...

Learning Outcome 04

Critically evaluate one's own teaching and learning practice, activities or programs in the context of contemporary health professional education.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC2, GC3, GC4, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Content

Topics will include: 

Context of contemporary health professional education 

  • Professional standards for practice 
  • Accreditation of health professionals 
  • Interprofessional practice 
  • Quality and safety in healthcare 
  • Promoting equity for the health education of culturally diverse and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities
  • Diverse teaching and learning environments (i.e., simulated, classroom, real practice environments) 

 Foundational theories and models of health professional education 

  • Adult learning theory 
  • Behaviourism 
  • Constructivism 
  • Reflective learning and reflective practice 
  • Experiential and experience-based learning 
  • Transformational learning 
  • Workplace learning theory 

 Contemporary approaches to health professional education 

  • Active learning 
  • Authentic learning and authentic assessment 
  • Teaching critical thinking, clinical reasoning and clinical decision-making (i.e., CPL, IPL, PBL) 
  • Competency-based training and assessment 
  • Interprofessional education 

Ethical, moral and legal issues in health professional education  

  • Ethical, moral and legal obligations of educating health professionals to work with community in ways that recognise the dignity of the human person and advance the common good.
  • Ethical, moral and legal issues in health professional education towards the common good
  • Exploring ethical, moral and legal aspects of health professional practice through education 

Becoming an inclusive educator 

  • Understanding the impact of difference on learning and teaching (i.e., culture, language, disability) 
  • Respecting different preferences for teaching and learning 
  • Designing engaging learning activities for inclusivity 

Assessment strategy and rationale

In order to successfully pass this unit, students must attempt and submit all assessment tasks, demonstrate achievement of every unit learning outcome and obtain a minimum mark of 50%.

The assessment strategy used aims to progressively develop knowledge and skills to enable students to meet the learning outcomes for this unit, in other words, it supports learning as well as providing a means to demonstrate learning. In order to develop the knowledge, comprehension and skills required to achieve the learning outcomes and graduate attributes, students will:

  • demonstrate knowledge of learning theories through participation in online discussion forums with peers, and consider the ethical, moral and legal issues relevant to different health professional education contexts in a written assessment; 
  • demonstrate further understanding by critically examining individual beliefs, behaviours and teaching practices, to ensure the provision of a safe and inclusive learning environment, as part of the final assessment task.  

Overview of assessments

Assessment Task 1: Written Assignment Requires s...

Assessment Task 1: Written Assignment

Requires students to demonstrate fundamental knowledge about learning theories relevant to health professional education contexts, while taking into consideration the ethical, moral and legal issues as they relate to their practice.

Weighting

40%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC3, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11

Assessment Task 2: Written Reflective Assignment ...

Assessment Task 2: Written Reflective Assignment

Requires students to critically examine their own beliefs, behaviours and teaching practices in the context of health professional education, to ensure they provide a safe and inclusive learning environment.

Weighting

60%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO3, LO4
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Delivered as fully online, asynchronous learning allows students to learn at their own pace within the parameters of the teaching term. Active learning and engagement are encouraged via student contribution to a weekly online discussion forum, weekly online drop-in sessions with online facilitators, and an online assessment session for each assessment task with the unit lecturer in charge. The weekly online discussion forum provides students with activities that encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding and application, and to engage constructively with their peers. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

Brookfield, S. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass. 

Jarvis, P. (2010). Adult education and lifelong learning (4th ed.). Routledge. 

Kerridge, I., Lowe, M., & Stewart, C. (2013). Ethics and law for the health professions (4th ed.). The Federation Press.

Merriam, S.B., & Bierema, L.L. (2014). Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice. Jossey-Bass. 

Sawyer, R. K. (2014). The Cambridge handbook of the learning science (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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