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Judicial Learning Portal
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Learning Portal

Application

How to use the Curriculum

Unit One The Judicial Function Unit Two The Law Unit Three Judicial Management in the Courtroom Unit Four Vulnerable People in the Courtroom Unit Five Judicial Reasoning and Decision Making Unit Six Sentencing Unit Seven Diversity and Inclusion Unit Eight Australia’s Indigenous People Unit Nine Intersection of Science, Technology and the Judicial Function Unit Ten Judicial Leadership Unit Eleven Judicial Self-care and longevity on the bench Unit Twelve Judicial Life and Quest for Enduring Purpose

Resource and reference point for providers of judicial education

  • All judicial education bodies have access to the Curriculum to enable them to identify areas for program development.
  • The Curriculum sets out the scope of judicial learning that should be available to all Australian judicial officers from the various providers of judicial professional development.
  • The curriculum is not intended to be restrictive and offerings that go beyond its scope may be offered. However, the Core Dimensions of Judicial Learning should be considered in any program developed for judicial education.

Flexibility

  • The Curriculum is designed to be used flexibly to meet the needs of judicial officers.
  • Various programs will not be appropriate or valuable for a particular judicial officer.
  • Providers may develop judicial education courses that encompass only some parts of the scope of a listed program or unit of judicial learning, or that may include content from more than one listed program and/or unit of judicial learning.

Guide for professional development goals

  • The Curriculum is also intended to be used to guide for individual judicial officers in identifying their own judicial education and training requirements.
  • The NJCA website allows judicial officers to build individual judicial learning plans.

Cross-jurisdictional

  • It is intended that the Curriculum be used as a guide to learning programs for judicial officers of both courts and tribunals in all jurisdictions.

Initial and ongoing judicial education and training

  • The curriculum applies equally to initial judicial training and ongoing judicial learning. The differentiating factor is the orientation of the program. For example, separate offerings on the same topic may be developed to address the needs of judicial officers at different stages of their career.
  • An orientation training program may also be broader in the topics it covers compared to more specialised offerings for later year judicial officers.

Method of program development

  • Any judicial education program developed under this Curriculum should include a program rationale and learning outcomes that have regard to the four core dimensions of judicial learning.
  • Programs should have a clearly identified scope and logical sequence.
  • Any program evaluation, in addition to collecting feedback on participant satisfaction, should consider how to evaluate the program against identified learning outcomes.

Method of delivery

  • The Curriculum does not prescribe any particular mode of delivery.
  • Principles of adult learning, experiential and transformative learning, should be considered in designing programs under this Curriculum.