Professional Responsibility and Legal Ethics in Queensland

With the commencement of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) and the establishment of the Legal Services Commission, the legal profession and legal services market in Queensland has experienced significant changes to its regulatory environment. Professional Responsibility and Legal Ethics in Queensland provides a detailed explanation and analysis of these changes. The book will assist lawyers to plan for successful practice within this new environment by examining such topics as: • The scope and application of key provisions within the Legal Profession Act; • The role, functions and policies of the Legal Services Commission; • The ethical and regulatory implications of operating as an Incorporated Legal Practice or as a Multi-Disciplinary Partnership; • Developments affecting trust accounts and client money dealings more generally; • Recent case law, Tribunal decisions and Legal Services Commission guidelines in relation to the new conduct standards of Unsatisfactory Professional Conduct and Professional Misconduct; and • The impact of the new legislation and regulatory environment on a range of traditional ethical duty categories such as the duty to communicate, costs and billing practices, as well as the paramount duties to the court and to the administration of justice. An invaluable reference for legal professionals, this book is also an important resource for law students grappling with questions raised by legal ethics and their application to the workplace.

Potency in professional development for teachers

There has been significant research into the impact of professional development (PD) on professional organisation and behaviour. PD has emerged in a diversity of forms in schools. Programs range form one hit seminars provided by an external consultant, through to a broad range of programmed development plans that integrate seminars; school based planning groups, action research, collaborative projects across schools, clusters and with critical friends, and mentoring. PD has been delivered to prompt school and teacher professional transformation or to support an ongoing development plan. PD is not uni-lateral and exists to support a very wide range of school and teacher development needs. The relevance and effectiveness of PD design and delivery is tied to the nature of the PD need and the context of provision. This paper reports an investigation into efficacy of various approaches to PD in Queensland schools. The research drew on responses to an online survey tool, focus groups and semi-structured interviews with PD coordinators, teachers, and school and district administrators to develop a model for effective PD planning that considers strategies for addressing current and future PD need and amelioration of barriers to PD effectiveness.

Modelling sustainable and optimal solutions for building services integration in early architectural design : confronting the software and professional interoperability deficit

Decisions made in the earliest stage of architectural design have the greatest impact on the construction, lifecycle cost and environmental footprint of buildings. Yet the building services, one of the largest contributors to cost, complexity, and environmental impact, are rarely considered as an influence on the design at this crucial stage. In order for efficient and environmentally sensitive built environment outcomes to be achieved, a closer collaboration between architects and services engineers is required at the outset of projects. However, in practice, there are a variety of obstacles impeding this transition towards an integrated design approach. This paper firstly presents a critical review of the existing barriers to multidisciplinary design. It then examines current examples of best practice in the building industry to highlight the collaborative strategies being employed and their benefits to the design process. Finally, it discusses a case study project to identify directions for further research.

Destination brand positions of a competitive set of near-home destinations

Although the branding literature commenced during the 1940s, the first publications related to destination branding did not emerge until half a century later. A review of 74 destination branding publications by 102 authors from the first 10 years of destination branding literature (1998-2007) found at least nine potential research gaps warranting attention by researchers. In particular, there has been a lack of research examining the extent to which brand positioning campaigns have been successful in enhancing brand equity in the manner intended in the brand identity. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an investigation of brand equity tracking for a competitive set of destinations in Queensland, Australia between 2003 and 2007. A hierarchy of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) provided an effective means to monitor destination brand positions over time. A key implication of the results was the finding that there was no change in brand positions for any of the five destinations over the four year period. This leads to the proposition that destination position change within a competitive set will only occur slowly over a long period of time. The tabulation of 74 destination branding case studies, research papers, conceptual papers and web content analyses provides students and researchers with a useful resource on the current state of the field.

Teachers' attitudes towards the gifted : the importance of professional development and school culture

Given that teachers have one of the most significant influences on the educational development of gifted students, reports of negative attitudes and beliefs in popular myths about giftedness are cause for concern. It is important to understand teachers’ attitudes and beliefs to implement effective training and educational practices to improve education for gifted students. This study explored the attitudes of Australian primary school teachers (N = 126) towards intellectually gifted children and their education at eight schools. These schools could be categorised into four different classifications in regards to their involvement in gifted education. Key findings include significant associations between teachers’ attitudes and their school classifications (p < .001), and their participation in gifted and talented education inservice training (p < .001). Findings from this study suggest that further teacher training and school-wide involvement in gifted education may assist in improving attitudes towards intellectually gifted children and their education.

Book review : "Community engagement in contemporary legal education : Pro Bono, Clinical legal education and services learning"

The result of a forum on community engagement held in November 2008 at Bond University, Community Engagement in Contemporary Legal Education is a compilation of papers presented at the forum by academics and professionals throughout Australia. Although found initially to be a topic of legal interest, it was not until the reviewer came across the Council of Australian Law Deans (CALD) “Standards for Australian Law Schools” (adopted 17 November 20093) then the full importance and potential of this book was revealed. Clause 2.2.4 of the CALD Standards recognises the importance of “experiential learning opportunities” for law students and cites examples such as clinical programs, internships, practical experience and pro-bono work. Clause 2.3.3 acknowledges the need to develop professional ethics and again cites pro-bono obligations as an example. Clause 9.6.2 encourages interaction of law schools with the profession and the community and again, pro-bono community service is identified as one method of doing so. Yet nowhere in the document are there any uniform standards or binding obligations that law schools must commit to. In the current climate where the importance of practical experience is continually emphasised and student numbers exceed the number of available paid legal positions, there should be more focus on the details of how these commitments should be converted to be included in a law school’s curriculum.

Mentoring experiences as professional development for leaders in environmental education : the cascade of influence

Environmental education is a field which has only come of age since the late nineteen sixties. While its content and practice have been widely debated and researched, its leadership has been minimally studied and, therefore, is only partially understood. The role of mentoring in the development of leaders has been alluded to, but has attracted scant research. Therefore, this study explores the importance of mentoring during the personal and professional development of leaders in environmental education. Four major research questions were investigated. Firstly, have leaders been men to red during their involvement with environmental education? Secondly, when and how has that mentoring taken place? Thirdly, what was the personal and professional effectiveness of the mentoring relationship? Fourthly, is there any continuation of the mentoring process which might be appropriate for professional development within the field of environmental education? Leaders were solicited from a broad field of environmental educators including teachers, administrators, academics, natural resource personnel, business and community persons. They had to be recognized as active leaders across several environmental education networks. The research elicited qualitative and quantitative survey data from fifty seven persons in Queensland, Australia and Colorado, USA. Seventeen semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted with selected leaders who had nominated their mentors. This led to a further thirteen 'linked interviews' with some of the mentors' mentors and new mentorees. The interview data is presented as four cases reflecting pairs, triads, chains and webs of relationships- a major finding of the research process. The analysis of the data from the interviews and the surveys was conducted according to a grounded theory approach and was facilitated by NUD.IST, a computer program for non-numerical text analysis. The findings of the study revealed many variations on the classical mentoring patterns found in the literature. Gender and age were not seen as mportant factors, as there were examples of contemporaries in age, older men to younger women, older women to younger men, and women to women. Personal compatibility, professional respect and philosophical congruence were critical. Mentoring was initiated from early, mid and late career stages with the average length of the relationship being fourteen years. There was seldom an example of the mentoree using the mentor for hierarchical career climbing, although frequent career changes were made. However, leadership actions were found to increase after the intervention of a mentoring relationship. Three major categories of informal mentoring were revealed - perceived,acknowledged and deliberate. Further analysis led to the evolution of the core concept, a 'cascade of influence'. The major finding of this study was that this sample of leaders, mentors and new mentorees moved from the perception of having been mentored to the acknowledgment of these relationships and an affirmation of their efficacy for both personal and professional growth. Hence, the participants were more likely to continue future mentoring, not as a serendipitous happening, but through a deliberate choice. Heightened awareness and more frequent 'cascading' of mentoring have positive implications for the professional development of future leaders in environmental education in both formal and informal settings. Effective mentoring in environmental education does not seek to create 'clones' of the mentors, but rather to foster the development of autonomous mentorees who share a philosophical grounding. It is a deliberate invitation to 'join the clan'.