Evaluating the Impact of Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Table 8. Evaluation of different outcomes of CPD according to leaders (%).
Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always
Participant satisfaction 0.0 5.1 18.9 40.8 35.2
Participant learning 7.9 17.3 30.9 26.7 17.3
Support from the school 8.3 18.2 37.5 29.7 6.3
Participants’ use of new 6.7 15.4 40.0 31.8 6.2
knowledge and skills
Pupil learning outcomes 11.4 14.5 34.7 33.7 5.7
Changes in pupil behaviour 22.9 14.4 38.3 17.6 6.9
Value for money 13.4 15.5 19.6 33.5 18.0
From Table 8 it is clear that evaluation occurred at most of Guskey’s outcome
levels, with two thirds of respondents claiming each element was evaluated at
least sometimes. The most frequently evaluated component was participant
satisfaction, which was always evaluated in over 35% of schools according to
CPD leaders, and was usually evaluated in a further 40.8% of schools. Value for
money was the second most frequently evaluated element, with over 51% of
respondents claiming that this element was evaluated usually or always.
Changes in pupil attitude were usually or always evaluated by only 24% of
schools, making it the least frequently evaluated aspect. Examination of the
rarely or never responses, indicated again that participant satisfaction was the
most frequently evaluated outcome, and that changes in pupil behaviour was the
least. Interestingly, value for money, which was second most frequently
mentioned under always or usually evaluated, was also second most frequently
mentioned as being never or rarely evaluated, suggesting that there may be a
tendency for schools either to evaluate this element as a matter of course, or not
to do so at all.
5.2.a.a
Use of evaluation methodologies according to CPD leaders
CPD leaders were asked to indicate whether they used particular methods to
evaluate each of the seven outcomes in the Guskey model.
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