Preparing Professionals for Autonomy

Our 'new professionals' need to be able to act with initiative and responsibility if they are to become more than functionaries for social élites in the twenty-first century. Current degree-level courses tend to ignore the importance of active decision making and concentrate instead almost exclusively on theoretical knowledge. Using what she calls a 'responsive case study' into the teaching and management of a professional practice course for recruits in the criminal justice professions, Merrelyn Bates proposes a basis for what she calls action teaching. She analyses both the cognitive and affective dimensions of teaching strategies and interventions designed to challenge students to use action in the workplace as the fundamental base for their ongoing development of expertise. Drawing on a number of theorists from education, philosophy, psychology and education, she develops an epistemology of practice analysing in detail the students' responses to learning experiences that she, as an action teacher, offers. She also offers a number of principles of procedure which will assist practitioners and university policy makers to design and implement practical values-based programs.