Impact Of Continuing Professional Development Research Articles

Continuing professional development: does it make a difference?

Continuing professional development (CPD) is costly in terms of both organizational resources and personal time and effort. It forms an important part of the strategy for modernizing the health service and is an expectation of qualified nurses. There is little evidence to demonstrate the impact of CPD in terms of improved patient care and services. A small pilot study was undertaken. A group of intensive therapy unit (ITU) managers developed a goal attainment scale (GAS) to evaluate the impact of an ITU course. Results suggest that the ITU course did make a difference to the development of ITU nurses, but the nurses who did not take the course also developed. This has implications for service providers and educationalists in terms of expectations, timing and content of courses. The GAS was a useful tool as an approach to evaluating the impact of CPD but requires more rigorous testing before it can be described as reliable and valid.

Teachers' perceptions of the impact of CPD: an institutional case study ed

This research project investigated primary and secondary school teachers' perceptions of the impact of continuing professional development (CPD) at the individual, classroom and organisational levels. The perceptions of the head teachers of staff involved on these programmes were also elicited. Data were collected using questionnaire and interview instruments, and involved teachers who have been studying on MA and BA Education programmes in Anglia Polytechnic University's School of Education. Findings indicated that teachers perceive significant gains from accredited CPD in relation to professional reflection and knowledge, confidence, articulating practice at higher cognitive levels, improving classroom management and professional discourse. Teachers perceived significant impact on pupils' achievements in the longer term, but this raised the issue about providing evidence in support of this judgement. The impact of new learning from CPD at the organisational level appears to be less significant.