Transferring Results of Professional Development into Practice: A Scoping Review
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Method
- Preliminary study: a team of eight researchers decided on inclusion/exclusion criteria, searching strategies and sources, and publications selected for analysis and identified relevant articles to answer the research questions (Levac et al., 2010).
- The main study: the authors analysed articles in detail to reveal the diversity and problematics of the perspectives reflected in the studies regarding the three research questions.
- Conceptualisation: the authors identified knowledge gaps and summarised knowledge for further analyses.
3. Results
3.1. RQ1: What Characterises Effective PD?
- Measurability and the problem of evidence;
- The incomparable effects of formal, informal, and workplace learning;
- The transformative potential of professional learning.
- Desimone’s conceptual framework (Desimone, 2009; so-called ‘consensus view’) for ‘high-quality’ teachers’ PD, which is characterised by ‘core features’: content focus, active learning, coherence (relevance), duration, and collective participation (Didion et al., 2020; Donath et al., 2023; Filderman et al., 2022; Parkhouse et al., 2019; Willems & Van den Bossche, 2019);
- Desimone’s revised framework (Desimone, 2023), emphasising individual PD processes and the role of leadership, and the expanded framework, which adds other relevant concepts—the process of teacher change (Guskey, 2002) and wider organisational contexts (Philipsen et al., 2019);
- Design elements of teachers’ PD programmes (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017)—content focus, use of models and modelling, active learning, collaboration, coaching and expert support, feedback, reflection, and sustained duration (Boz, 2023; Lo, 2021; Surahman & Wang, 2023);
- Teachers’ motivation, attitude, commitment, and self-efficacy (Johari et al., 2022);
- Content, process and structure, collective engagement, goal alignment, and ongoing and sustainable support (Huang et al., 2022);
- Kirkpatrick’s (1959) general and teacher-specific models, which evaluate PD programmes on four different levels: reaction, participant’s learning, changes in learner’s behaviour, and the programme’s impact on objectives (Ahadi et al., 2024; Ayeleke et al., 2019; Campbell et al., 2019; Firmstone et al., 2013; Hill et al., 2009; Pagnucci et al., 2023; Petersen et al., 2024; Phillips et al., 2019), and Guskey’s (2000) model, an adapted version for educational settings;
- Moore’s expanded outcomes framework (Moore et al., 2009)—participation, satisfaction, learning (declarative and procedural knowledge), competence, performance, patient health, and community health—for continuing medical education (Williams et al., 2023);
- The IMTP model—insight, motivation, techniques, and practice (Sims et al., 2021, 2023).
- Evaluate the impact of PD programmes based on participants’ performance, measuring the learning outcomes represented as improved practice.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of PD programmes, collecting participants’ personal reviews (subjective evaluation).
- Sport psychologists (Fogaça et al., 2024), using the perspective of counselling and supervision as a means for PD and identifying specific developmental characteristics related to a professional career;
- Librarians (Shahzad et al., 2023a, 2023b), focusing more on sustainable competence development needs and challenges than on effectiveness;
- Accountants (Pargmann et al., 2023), considering changing job profiles related to digital transformation and exploring new technologies rather than providing routine PD; and
- Engineers (Wong et al., 2018), exploring mentoring as a career development approach instead of PD.
- Learning results are applied in the workplace (Campbell et al., 2019);
- Learning results are transferred into practice (Filderman et al., 2022) or embedded in practice (Sims et al., 2023);
- It changes teachers’ attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and understanding (Ahmed et al., 2022; Didion et al., 2020);
- It is transformative and fosters professionalism (Boylan et al., 2023);
- It is practice-based, and developed skills are transferred from authentic professional learning situations to the classroom (Hirsch et al., 2021);
- It has a positive impact (Ahadi et al., 2024; Willemsen et al., 2023) or effect in terms of improved practice (for instance, student learning outcomes are improved);
- It demonstrates outcomes according to Moore’s framework: participation, satisfaction, declarative and procedural knowledge, competence, performance, patient health, and community health (Williams et al., 2023);
- It is provided in a balanced way by using different mechanisms (Sims et al., 2023);
- It is sustained and linked to students’ learning goals, is based on best practices and delivered by coaches/experts, includes collaborative participation among teachers, derives from student needs, and is implemented with school support, including solid leadership and reflective teaching practices (Basma & Savage, 2023).
3.2. RQ2: Which Theoretical Concepts in the Scientific Literature Represent the Transfer of Adult Professional Development into Practice?
3.3. RQ3: What Processes and Indicators Show Effective Ways of Transferring PD and Learning Outcomes into Practice?
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Aspect | Inclusion Criteria | Exclusion Criteria |
---|---|---|
Source | Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC, EBSCO, Sage Journals, SpringerLink Contemporary Journals, Wiley Online Library, Taylor & Francis Library, ScienceDirect, MDPI, Emerald eJournals Premier | other resources |
Language | English or German | other languages |
Publication year | 2004–2024 | before 2004 |
Publication type | journal articles, research reports | books, chapters, conference proceedings |
Research type | meta-analyses and various types of reviews (e.g., systematic review, integrative review, rapid synthesis review, scoping review, mapping review, etc.) | other |
Target group (field) | employed adults, professionals | unemployed adults |
Full-text paper available | yes | no |
Protocol | PRISMA or other relevant protocol is used | PRISMA or other relevant protocol is not used |
Answered RQ1–3 | yes | no |
What Has Been Researched? | Authors | Gap in Knowledge and Future Questions |
---|---|---|
Characteristics of effective teachers’ PD programmes and different aspects of PD design regarding its impact on teacher and/or student outcomes, four core features: intensity, relevance, active learning, and collective participation; specific subject focus, modelling, practising, ongoing reflection, and sustainable support. | (Boz, 2023) (Donath et al., 2023) (Didion et al., 2020) (Filderman et al., 2022) (Huang et al., 2022) (Kowalski et al., 2020) (Willems & Van den Bossche, 2019) | Methodological weaknesses, little empirical support, and controversial results are reported, suggesting that there is a need to use more experimental studies to test proposed features of effective PD and to distinguish what makes PD more or less effective in different contexts and how PD programmes introduce pedagogical strategies. |
The effectiveness of teacher PD transfer is linked to student outcomes, often to (easily measurable) results in tests. | (Ahmed et al., 2022) (Basma & Savage, 2023) (Boz, 2023) (Didion et al., 2020) (Jensen & Rasmussen, 2019) (Parkhouse et al., 2019) (Rogers et al., 2020) (Ryan et al., 2022) (Sims et al., 2021, 2023) (Ventista & Brown, 2023) (Yang et al., 2022) (Wißhak, 2022) | Research assessing how teacher PD results are transferred to affect diverse aspects of student performance—development of 21st-century skills, social-emotional development, behaviour, and well-being—is insufficiently identified. |
Processes and indicators showing effective ways of transferring professional learning outcomes into practice; factors that can predict the transfer have been identified. | (Blume et al., 2010) | Lack of empirical synthesis for processes and indicators. What are the personal, professional, and environmental (organisational) factors? |
Various evaluation models have been developed and used to assess the impact of PD in terms of different outcomes, generally indicating the positive effects of PD. | (Ahadi et al., 2024) (Ayeleke et al., 2019) (Didion et al., 2020) (Firmstone et al., 2013) (Hill et al., 2009) (Huang et al., 2022) (Kahmann et al., 2022) (Kowalski et al., 2020) (Pargmann et al., 2023) (Rogers et al., 2020) (Sims et al., 2021, 2023) (Zhou et al., 2022) (Willemsen et al., 2023) (Willems & Van den Bossche, 2019) | There are still questions about whether changes in professional training can be associated with improvements in student/client outcomes. The quality of measurements is questionable, with high degrees of heterogeneity between studies and a lack of standardised, theoretically grounded, evidence-based research that involves a broad range of outcomes (both process and performance indicators) to reveal the link between professional outcomes in PD and student/client outcomes/benefits. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies should be mixed. |
The IMTP model for teacher PD evaluation: develop insights, motivate change, develop techniques, and embed these in practice. Fourteen mechanisms in a PD programme are associated with PD’s greater impact on student test results, and balanced PD programmes have higher average effect sizes than imbalanced PD programmes. | (Sims et al., 2023) | Future research needs to apply the model in broader contexts and different professional fields. |
Usually, short-term results are measured and reported, even for PD aspects that require sustained use to be represented in outcomes. | (Donath et al., 2023) (Filderman et al., 2022) (Yang et al., 2022) | The lack of maintenance measures for PD effectiveness is identified in the long term. Future research that evaluates the long-term effects of PD on practice and performance is necessary. |
One of the achievable results of PD is a change in teacher attitudes and beliefs. | (Ahmed et al., 2022) (Basma & Savage, 2023) (Dignath et al., 2022) (Filderman et al., 2022) (Johari et al., 2022) | Incomparable measurements addressing teacher attitudes and belief systems limit exploring their relation to change in practice and student achievement. There is a need to evaluate more different dimensions of teacher change. |
Controversial results about the impact of increasingly used coaching and mentoring as a part of PD are reported, and formal and informal aspects of mentoring are also discussed. | (Basma & Savage, 2023) (Didion et al., 2020) (Filderman et al., 2022) (Main & Anderson, 2023) (Rogers et al., 2020) (Wang et al., 2022) (Wißhak, 2022) (Wong et al., 2018) (Yang et al., 2022) (Salmerón Aroca et al., 2023) | Coaching and feedback are often defined ambiguously and characterised as very different constructs, lacking consensus on the theoretical foundation related to coaching as an effective tool, not specifying coaching design, and not providing transparent data analysis. Future research is needed as there are many new contextual opportunities to use both mentoring and coaching at the organisational level to support PD transfer into practice. |
A potential shift from formally organised PD courses to teacher workplace learning is recognised. Informal learning is considered an important but hardly measurable part of PD. | (Kyndt et al., 2016) (Ventista & Brown, 2023) (Zhou et al., 2022) | Research on the impact of teachers’ self-organised learning and targeted workplace learning approaches on the teaching, student outcomes, and organisational factors of a school is limited and should be investigated. PD transfer is incorporated into these practices. |
There are rather controversial research results about what is more effective—mandatory/obligatory versus self-directed/voluntary participation in PD. | (Donath et al., 2023) (Main & Anderson, 2023) (Wißhak, 2022) | Objective, comparable measures to evaluate the role of voluntary versus mandatory participation of professionals in PD and the effectiveness of PD are lacking. |
Various environmental factors (the context—e.g., school, district, etc.) are essential in ensuring transfer at the organisational level. PD context plays an important role in the transfer of PD results. | (Boz, 2023) (Peleman et al., 2018) | There is a lack of research about the PD context, which plays an important role in PD practitioners/researchers’ successes and challenges in the field. However, it has been undervalued so far. |
Community of practice is recognised as an important aspect of practice-based PD (especially in early career stages). Virtual communities of practice are an effective way to share knowledge among professionals. | (Campbell et al., 2019) (Concina, 2023) (Hirsch et al., 2021) (Kyndt et al., 2016) (Mairs et al., 2013) (Surahman & Wang, 2023) (Ventista & Brown, 2023) | There is a need for experimental research based on underlying PD characteristics and related to the broader (virtual) communities of practice. |
Teacher PD duration has been analysed, with controversial conclusions. There is no consensus on the length of PD to improve teaching practice, and it could be concluded that there are other aspects than the duration of PD affecting the transfer of PD into practice and student results. | (Basma & Savage, 2023) (Boz, 2023) (Didion et al., 2020) (Dignath et al., 2022) (Donath et al., 2023) (Jensen & Rasmussen, 2019) (Kowalski et al., 2020) | Research should be carried out in the context of PD content and outcomes and whether the current indicator can be used as a PD effectiveness indicator. |
No unique mode (face-to-face, online, blended) of delivery of PD activities is recognised to be most effective; however, the practical nature of training programmes is related to educational effectiveness. Research based on experimental designs regarding various modes and formats provides differing results. | (Fernández-Batanero et al., 2022) (Pagnucci et al., 2023) (Williams et al., 2023) | More experimental design research targeting higher levels of educational outcomes (including community-level outcomes) is needed for a consensus regarding various PD modes and formats. |
The effectiveness of PD may be moderated by teachers’ experience/career stage. | (Didion et al., 2020) | Evidence-based studies of how teaching experience is related to the transfer of PD outcomes into practice are needed. |
PD is recognised as a way to transfer (translate) and disseminate findings of current research in medicine into practice, not just as the training and changing knowledge/skills/attitude of practitioners. | (Mairs et al., 2013) (Nexø et al., 2024) | The role of universities and researchers in providing PD focused on the translation/dissemination of actual research findings (evidence) into teaching practice is understudied. |
Understanding of theories and concepts. | (Basma & Savage, 2023) (Li et al., 2023) | The use of theoretical concepts should be critically evaluated in line with current theories, considering dynamic changes in systems, organisations, processes, individuals, and their contexts. |
PD as a learning process. | (Wißhak, 2022) | There is a need to see learning in PD as an individual and social phenomenon, as an autonomous process involving individual growth, not only as organisational development. |
Approach to the use of theories | (Surahman & Wang, 2023) (Williams et al., 2023) | A comprehensive meta-study of the theories used in the research on PD and its transfer into practice should be conducted. |
Transformative professional learning has been conceptualised but is not related to the effectiveness of PD. | (Boylan et al., 2023) | Transformative professional learning is insufficiently conceptualised theoretically. It should be conceptualised across a range of aspects important for understanding both professionalism and professional learning. |
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Nīmante, D.; Kokare, M.; Baranova, S.; Surikova, S. Transferring Results of Professional Development into Practice: A Scoping Review. Educ. Sci. 2025, 15, 95. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15010095
Nīmante D, Kokare M, Baranova S, Surikova S. Transferring Results of Professional Development into Practice: A Scoping Review. Education Sciences. 2025; 15(1):95. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15010095
Chicago/Turabian StyleNīmante, Dita, Maija Kokare, Sanita Baranova, and Svetlana Surikova. 2025. "Transferring Results of Professional Development into Practice: A Scoping Review" Education Sciences 15, no. 1: 95. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15010095
APA StyleNīmante, D., Kokare, M., Baranova, S., & Surikova, S. (2025). Transferring Results of Professional Development into Practice: A Scoping Review. Education Sciences, 15(1), 95. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15010095