Australian Journal of Teacher Education - Issue 7 - Article 6 - Co-Design for Curriculum Planning: A Model for Professional Development for High School Teachers

Oct 15, 2026

This paper describes a model for teacher professional development as co-design for curriculum planning, where facilitators with design and pedagogical expertise iteratively work with secondary school teachers, one school at a time, to plan whole terms of work. It reports preliminary results from design-based research that includes co-design with digital technologies teachers in two Australian secondary schools. Two design phases are detailed through workshops, strategies, and instruments to support effective co-design. The pilot results suggest the model enables high-quality professional development for 21st century learning.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages25

Reading Time1 h 3 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Teacher professional development and limitations of drive-by workshops

Need for quality professional development and computational thinking

Proposed model: co-design for curriculum planning

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 44 | Issue 7 | Article 6 | | --- | --- | | 2019
Co-design for Curriculum Planning: A Model for Professional Development for High School Teachers
Nick Kelly
Queensland University of Technology, [nick.kelly@qut.edu.au](nick.kelly@qut.edu.au)
Natalie Wright
Queensland University of Technology, [n.wright@qut.edu.au](n.wright@qut.edu.au)
Les Dawes
Queensland University of Technology, [l.dawes@qut.edu.au](l.dawes@qut.edu.au)
Jeremy Kerr
Queensland University of Technology, [jeremy.kerr@qut.edu.au](jeremy.kerr@qut.edu.au)
Amanda Robertson
Queensland University of Technology, [a28.robertson@qut.edu.au](a28.robertson@qut.edu.au) | | Recommended Citation Kelly, N., Wright, N., Dawes, L., Kerr, J., & Robertson, A. (2019). Co-design for Curriculum Planning: A Model for Professional Development for High School Teachers. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 44 (7). Retrieved from [https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol44/iss7/6](https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol44/iss7/6) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol44/iss7/6](https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol44/iss7/6) Australian Journal of Teacher Education Co-Design For Curriculum Planning: A Model For Professional Development For High School Teachers Nick Kelly Natalie Wright Les Dawes Jeremy Kerr Amanda Robertson Queensland University of Technology Abstract: This paper describes a model for teacher professional development as co-design for curriculum planning in which facilitators with design and pedagogical expertise iteratively work with groups of secondary school teachers, one school at a time, to plan whole terms of work, as a form of teacher professional development. It contains preliminary results from a design-based research study involving co-design with digital technologies teachers in two Australian secondary schools. It describes two phases of design involving workshops, strategies and instruments that work to facilitate effective co-design with teachers. Results from this pilot study suggest that the co-design for curriculum planning model leads to high quality teacher professional development for 21st century learning. Keywords: teacher professional development, co-design, design thinking, 21st century skills, teacher education, digital technologies, STEM teacher, rural teachers, design-based research, teacher support, secondary school education Introduction Teacher professional development (TPD)—elsewhere referred to as continuing professional development or formal professional learning—refers to the many different ways in which teachers are able to actively develop their skills throughout their professional life (Craft, 2002; M. M. Kennedy, 2016) . Yet despite research that defines and characterises quality teacher professional development (e.g., Avalos, 2011; Borko, 2004; Wayne, Yoon, Zhu, Cronen, & Garet, 2008) there remains frequent occurrence within Australia of what Darling-Hammond and Richardson (2009) refer to as “the drive-by workshop model of the past”(p. 46) 1 which is characterised by one-off workshops that: (a) are not tailored to teacher or school context; (b) do not maintain a relationship with teachers beyond the duration of the workshop; and (c) only superficially respect the experiences and knowledge that each teacher brings to the workshop. In contrast to such drive-by workshops are instances of professional 1 This claim is based upon anecdotal evidence due to a lack of research into Australian teacher professional development. Registers ofthe professional development available to Australian teachers can be found in each of the teaching jurisdictions, however a broad analysis of the quality of these programs has not been conducted. Vol 44, 7, July 2019 84 Australian Journal of Teacher Education development that respect teacher autonomy, help teachers to develop relationships wit

FAQs

What is the core purpose of the paper?

The paper investigates and tests a model for teacher professional development called co-design for curriculum planning, developed through partnership with secondary school teachers.

How does the model work in practice?

External facilitators collaborate with teachers to jointly design curriculum plans for an entire term of student work, using a design thinking framework to challenge existing practices.

What evidence does the paper provide about outcomes?

The paper presents preliminary results from a design-based research study involving co-design with digital technologies teachers across two Australian secondary schools, indicating high-quality professional development for 21st century learning.

Oct 15, 2026

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