Essential elements in a professional learning and development programme: A New Zealand case study of autism professional development to promote collaborative practices

Professional learning and development (PD) programmes play an important role in improving professionals' ability to teach and provide for the children and young people they work with. This article reviews literature relating to components considered important to successful general and autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-focused PD. It then describes the methodology and findings from an evaluation of 'tips for autism' - a New Zealand PD programme developed for teams of people who work or live with five-year-old to 12-year-old children with ASD. The evaluation methodology involved an examination of seven data sources to identify 57 merit criteria that could be used to evaluate ASD-focused PD programmes. Applying these merit criteria, 'tips' was judged to be a high-quality, valuable, cost-effective PD programme. An examination of the evaluation findings and literature identified seven specific components as being pivotal to successful PD. These are: team interaction; cultural relevancy; expert facilitation; integration of PD with the child's intervention; translation of theory into practice; provision of time for reflection, practice and action; and the application of learning to an authentic context. It is maintained that when a PD programme results in sustained benefits for children, the programme itself becomes part of the intervention.