professional development research tools

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• v.15(Suppl 2); 2021

Taking ownership of your career: professional development through experiential learning

Verónica a. segarra.

1 Department of Biology, High Point University, High Point, NC 27268 USA

William A. Gentry

2 Career and Professional Development, High Point University, High Point, NC 27268 USA

Associated Data

Not a data-based article.

Experiential learning can facilitate the development of transferrable skills necessary for success in attaining tenure and promotion in academia. In this article, we discuss the benefits of designing and implementing an individualized professional development experience or practicum. By doing this, we describe the experiential learning component of the Accomplishing Career Transitions (ACT) Program of the American Society for Cell Biology. The ACT program aims to assist postdoctoral trainees and junior faculty from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM as they strive to transition into tenure-track positions and ultimately attain tenure at research-intensive or teaching-intensive academic institutions.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12919-021-00211-w.

Some of the transferrable skills that are key for success in the scientific workforce are acquired during academic training at the graduate level [ 1 , 2 ]. However, supplemental professional development opportunities are needed to sharpen additional competencies, including the ability to set a vision and goals, time management, the ability to work on a team, the ability to collaborate outside the organization, the ability to manage others, and skills in career planning and self-awareness [ 1 , 2 ]. Many of these additional skills are indispensable for success as a tenure-track faculty member and for the achievement of tenure. These gaps in academic training may be particularly applicable to scientists from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM, who generally have less access to mentoring resources than their peers from well-represented groups [ 3 ]. Recognition of this phenomenon is one of the motivations driving the creation and implementation of professional development programs that aim to close these gaps at the postdoctoral and junior faculty level [ 4 – 9 ]. The Accomplishing Career Transitions Program (ACT; https://www.ascb.org/career-development/2021-accomplishing-career-transitions-act-program/ ) and its summer workshop, in part chronicled in this BMC Proceedings Supplement, are examples of programming developed by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB).

The program aims to catalyze the successful transition of postdoctoral trainees and junior faculty from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM into tenure-track and ultimately tenured positions at research-intensive or teaching-intensive academic institutions. ASCB ACT is characterized by its longitudinal (two-year), cohort (sustained group interactions), and experiential (practicum) approaches to professional development. Experiential approaches to professional development provide trainees with opportunities to further develop transferrable skills and increase self-efficacy in contexts that simulate potential future work environments [ 10 ]. The experiential approach of ASCB’s ACT program works with trainees to develop a series of learning experiences that serve as an individualized professional development practicum. Prior to the development and implementation of this practicum, trainees attend an in-person summer kick-off event that uses case study-based activities, workshops, and panel discussions to introduce many of the basic skills needed to secure a tenure-track academic position and attain tenure (see Table  1 for list and examples of these skills). After integrating this knowledge, trainees are asked to design and implement a series of learning experiences that will help them fill gaps in their professional development.

Skills often needed to successfully transition into tenured faculty positions

In this article, we summarize and discuss the benefits of empowering individual trainees to take charge of their own professional development through experiential learning (practicum) design and implementation. We anchor this discussion in relevant literature focused on contemporary professional development perspectives, while also providing practical strategies and ideas to strengthen common skills that are key for successful transition into tenure-track positions and achievement of tenure. Our hope is that trainees exploring the rest of this supplement and its different articles will gain awareness of the opportunity to design a practicum or series of experiences to help refine and fine-tune those skills. At the conclusion of this article, we provide a guide and resources to design and implement an individualized practicum experience.

Effective active career management: placing the individual at the center of decision-making

Contemporary theories on career management, such as boundaryless and protean career perspectives, place the individual (rather than the university or organization) as the central figure in the management and trajectory of one’s own career [ 11 – 13 ]. It is the responsibility not of the institution but rather of the employee (i.e., postdoc or faculty member) to be proactive in setting individual career goals, whether they be acquiring relevant skills, promotions, higher salaries, or other desired subjective and objective career outcomes [ 14 , 15 ]. There is no one single approved or typical way to do this; the different pathways and trajectories and ways to manage one’s career are limitless and often highly individualized.

The following sections will discuss the literature supporting three steps that a postdoc or faculty member should pursue in being an active participant in their own career management: needs assessment; goal setting; and creating a development plan and putting the plan into action. This strategy is synergistic with individual development plan (IDP) resources developed by others, including the myIDP Science Careers resource [ 16 ]. IDPs and similar strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analyses have previously been reported as successful elements in the theoretical framework of professional development programs [ 17 ].

Needs assessment

The first step a postdoc or faculty member should take is a needs assessment, using their desired academic context and goals as references. For example, while research-intensive and teaching-intensive academic institutions exhibit similarities in the skills needed for success in faculty positions, they also have some key differences. Individuals who are in the process of choosing between a research-intensive or teaching-intensive context can use a combination of informational interviews and guest visits to help them define the academic context that would fit best with their interests as scholars and scientists.

Traditionally, organizations have used a needs assessment to identify training or development needs of their employees [ 18 ], with a primary focus on the relevance and perceived utility of the content to be learned [ 19 , 20 ]. Organizations generally perform this assessment by identifying the business need, performing a gap analysis (to better understand the gap by assessing the current skill or performance levels of employees and comparing them to desired levels) and then choosing the right option to fill that gap.

In modern-day workplaces where the responsibility for career management rests with individuals, the postdocs or faculty members should conduct their own needs analysis and ascertain what gap exactly they need to fill in order to transition successfully to a tenured faculty position. They should first self-assess what their strengths are and what developmental needs they have, whether those are technical in nature or in more person-focused areas such as interviewing, conflict management, or branding. After a self-assessment, the postdocs or faculty members should also solicit insights and opinions from others whom they know well. Having observers like family, friends, peers, and former or current mentors or supervisors will help the postdoc or faculty member get a more well-rounded view of strengths and shortcomings.

After perceiving several shortcomings or developmental needs, it is a best practice to focus on developing one area at a time in order to concentrate efforts on improvement in that area without spreading oneself too thin [ 21 ]. The ability to change and develop is maximized by clear focus on one goal that the postdoc or faculty member feels energetic and passionate about, with a clear vision that the change or development will positively benefit themselves and others [ 21 ]. The individual must also cultivate the mindset that although this process of development will be challenging and will require time and resources, it is not discouraging or insurmountable.

Goal setting

Once the postdoc or faculty member has identified the skill or competency that must be developed, the next step is to set a goal. The goal can be behavioral (changing the way one acts), competency-based (improving a specific skill), or outcome-based (focused on meeting a target) [ 21 ]. The contemporary model in which individuals rather than organizations set goals for career development [ 22 ] has been reinforced by recent research showing that self-set goals are associated with enthusiasm and lower emotional exhaustion, while organization-set goals are associated with anxiety and higher emotional exhaustion [ 23 ]. Other research suggests that self-set goals may also be perceived as more attainable due to individuals’ sense of control over the process of choosing their own goals rather than having the goals chosen or set for them [ 24 – 26 ].

Goal setting theory also indicates that the motivation to attain goals is maximized when a person sets both short-term and long-term goals [ 27 , 28 ]. A long-term goal should be broken down into several short-term goals that function as more achievable steps in pursuit of the longer-term goal [ 28 , 29 ]. In addition, to maximize one’s chances of goal achievement, the goal should be specific, beneficial to the person, challenging and difficult, yet attainable [ 30 , 31 ].

Creating a development plan and putting it into action

Goal-setting should be followed by creating a development plan to achieve it, including four key components: tactics, resources, tracking, and celebrating [ 21 ]. Tactics refer to the exact actions one must perform to accomplish a stated goal. Resources are the time and money necessary to attain that goal, as well as the people who will provide support and feedback, and act as accountability partners. These can include one’s boss or supervisor, mentors and peers within the university and colleagues outside of the university. Tracking refers to consistent and frequent checking on one’s progress toward goal attainment. Celebrating refers to ways in which the person will appropriately recognize progress toward goal attainment and commemorate that progress in a meaningful way that is appropriate for that individual.

Oftentimes, postdocs and pre-tenure faculty need certain skills to be developed or be considered strengths before they can be perceived as ready to successfully transition into tenured faculty positions or be considered for tenure. The following describes a scenario in which a postdoc takes ownership of her own career management, based on the previous steps mentioned. The steps could be applicable for a pre-tenure faculty who is going up for tenure as well. The postdoc received feedback from others that she needs to improve herself in order to be fully considered for tenured positions. However, this feedback was quite general and did not include a clear directive about what areas she needs to improve in specifically. She first performs a needs assessment, using Table  1 . Although this table is not an exhaustive list, it does provide several different skills, competencies, and behaviors needed for one to transition successfully into faculty positions and attain tenure. The postdoc sets aside time to perform an honest self-assessment of her perceived strengths and weaknesses, as well as gaps in skills, experience and knowledge. Thinking back on other positions she has applied for in the past, she feels she has been unprepared for interviews and lacks the poise and confidence that other more-seasoned interviewees and applicants seem to naturally possess. She then asks her current supervisor, friends from her time in graduate school, family members, and current peers what they think are her key areas for improvement. Their feedback also identifies interviewing skills as a potential area of improvement. Because of her life-long dream to be a professor, she has the energy and the passion to develop her interviewing skills and sees this as an opportunity that will positively benefit her future. She understands that this is a challenge that will take time and effort, yet is not so difficult that it will leave her frustrated, angry, and discouraged.

In order to set a specific goal and articulate its relevance to her career, she writes down; “Within the next 30 days, I will improve my interviewing skills which will enhance the perception that I am confident, thereby increasing my chances of attaining a faculty position.” With the long-term goal set, she now thinks about short-term goals that can build toward that long-term goal. These short-term goals include learning more about her nonverbal behaviors, particularly around the importance of eye contact, pace of speech, and posture. Another short-term goal is to solicit advice on how she can better her skills from others whom she feels have a commanding presence in a room during interviews or seminars.

Finally, she crafts and implements her plan, making a checklist that clearly lists the tactics she will perform over the next 30 days and enables her to easily keep track of progress. In the first week, she will read a book on how to improve interviewing skills. In the second week, she will take LinkedIn Learning courses on interviewing skills. In the third week, she will observe herself answering questions by talking into a mirror, and will ask a friend to play the role of an interviewer and video her answering questions with her smart phone. Both the postdoc and her friend will review the video and identify strengths and weaknesses, particularly around eye contact, pace of speech, and posture. In addition, she will ask advice on public speaking and how to command a room from her supervisor, who has received rave reviews from attendees in talks and lectures. In the final week, she will schedule “mock interviews” with members of the career services offices of both her current university and her undergraduate alma mater, as this service is free to her as a trainee at her current university and as an alum of her undergraduate university. Her friend, supervisor, and career services are valuable resources that will provide valuable feedback and hold her accountable. After the 30 days, she celebrates with her friends by having a small party in her home, and telling them what she has learned and how she will utilize her new-found skills in her next interview.

Developing an individualized practicum experience to address gaps in professional development

As part of the ASCB ACT program, we have developed tools that postdocs and junior faculty members can use to develop a customized experiential learning plan or practicum to strengthen gaps in professional development. These tools are designed for individuals who want to engineer their own professional development experience or who train at institutions that do not have professional development program offerings that are appropriate for their needs [ 32 ].

As a starting point, individuals can review common skills required for faculty positions (Table  1 ) and activities to develop them (Table  2 ). Individuals can then utilize the ACT Practicum Worksheet (Additional file 1 ) to articulate their own needs and goals for professional development and to identify activities that will help them further develop these areas and their timelines, as well as peers and mentors to assist in the implementation of practicum activities and serve as accountability partners. Once the individual has identified areas to focus on, it can be greatly beneficial to describe their planned practicum in the form of a short written proposal, in order to share it with relevant mentors and peers who can provide feedback. Additional file 2 describes the recommended sections for the practicum proposal. Once mentor and peer suggestions have been incorporated into the practicum plan, the individual can begin to implement it. Table  2 lists resources and tools such as feedback from mentors, mock interviews, informational interviews, networking, and program offerings at local Centers of Teaching and Learning, most of which are free of cost. If funds are needed for practicum implementation, individuals can use material generated for practicum proposal and funds received from the ASCB ACT program to advocate for the additional funds required from their home institution.

Resources and tools that are often available and can be leveraged to develop and refine skills needed to successfully transition into tenured faculty positions. Professional development courses or workshops, as mentioned in the table, are often available through a variety of sources, including home academic institutions, scientific societies, and/or research institutes

The ACT Check-in Template (Additional file 3 ) is a tool developed to facilitate the important step of establishing a system for regular feedback from others. Postdocs and junior faculty members can complete this form at regular intervals during the implementation of their practicum, then share it with mentors and accountability partners to ask for their feedback. Once the practicum has been completed, it is important to reflect on the career development experiences [ 10 ]. To facilitate this reflection, we provide an assessment rubric for individuals to use as a guide (Additional file 4 ).

Professional development during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, conferences and scientific events including professional development program offerings have been cancelled or shifted to online or remote formats, likely altering the benefits individuals receive from these experiences. While these shifts to online events have often allowed access without the need for travel and with reduced or waived registration fees, the transformational potential of these programs is likely reduced relative to in-person events. While remote formats can replicate passive modes of professional development programming such as traditional lectures, seminars, and career panels, the powerful experiential components of these events, such as opportunities to engage in peer- and near-peer mentoring relationships and networking, are more limited and less engaging. With institutions limited in the types of professional development programming they can offer to their trainees, the design of a professional development practicum by the individual to strategically strengthen a particular set of skills, as described above, might represent an ideal alternative way to facilitate engaging and impactful professional development opportunities in these challenging times.

Conclusions

The implementation of a professional development practicum, as described in this article, highlights the power of contemporary models of career management that place the individual as the driving force behind their own career trajectory [ 11 – 13 ]. As a result, there is no one single way to implement a practicum experience, rather the individual identifies areas of need such as writing and/or mentoring and chooses from a number or resources and tools to refine those. This article shares strategies and exercises that postdocs and junior faculty can use to assess needs and identify practicum components to address them.

Acknowledgements

We thank the first cohort of ACT Fellows for their participation in the program. We also thank Kate Winter Evaluation, LLC for assistance in the development of Additional files 1 , 3 , and 4 .

About this supplement

This article has been published as part of BMC Proceedings, Volume 15, Supplement 2, 2021: Accomplishing Career Transitions 2019: Professional Development for Postdocs and Tenure-track Junior Faculty in the Biomedical Sciences. The full contents of the supplement are available at https://bmcproceedings.biomedcentral.com/articles/supplements/volume-15-supplement-2 .

Abbreviations

Authors’ contributions.

VAS conceptualized the article with the assistance of WAG. Both VAS and WAG generated a first draft of the article by writing different sections. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Authors’ information

Verónica A. Segarra (ASCB IPERT Co-PI) is Assistant Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Biology at High Point University, NC. William A. Gentry is Assistant Vice President of Career and Professional Development at High Point University, NC.

The ACT program and the Article Processing Charge (APC) for this article is supported by an Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training (IPERT) grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) awarded to the American Society for Cell Biology (award number 2R25GM116707).

Availability of data and materials

Declarations.

Not applicable.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Verónica A. Segarra, Email: ude.tniophgih@arragesv .

William A. Gentry, Email: ude.tniophgih@yrtnegw .

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

To Become Your Best Self, Study Your Successes

• Laura Morgan Roberts,
• Emily D. Heaphy,
• Brianna Barker Caza

Keep a record of positive feedback.

Nearly fifteen years ago, in 2005, the authors’ Harvard Business Review article  introduced a new approach to personal and professional development: the idea that receiving affirmation is a powerful way for us to grow, particularly when it comes in the form of stories describing moments when we are at our best. Their tool is now used by thousands of people globally in corporate trainings, team building, executive leadership programs, and in graduate and undergraduate courses in a variety of disciplines. But there are organic ways that you can learn about and activate your best self at work every day as well. There are five practices for noticing and capitalizing on everyday opportunities for development based on your best self: noticing positive feedback, asking the right questions, studying your successes, enacting your best self, and paying it forward.

Nearly fifteen years ago, in 2005, we published a Harvard Business Review article with our colleagues which introduced a new approach to personal and professional development: the idea that receiving affirmation is a powerful way for us to grow, particularly when it comes in the form of stories describing moments when we are at our best. In this article we introduced the Reflected Best Self Exercise (RBSE), a tool based on our academic research which is now used by thousands of people globally in corporate trainings, team building, executive leadership programs, and in graduate and undergraduate courses in a variety of disciplines.

• Laura Morgan Roberts is a Frank M. Sands Sr. Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. She is an organizational psychologist and the coeditor of Race, Work and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019).
• EH Emily Heaphy   is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Isenberg School of Management at University of Massachusetts Amherst.
• Brianna Barker Caza is an associate professor of management in the Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She received her PhD in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan. Her research examines identity processes, interpersonal relationships, power dynamics, and resilience at work. Her research has been widely published, and in 2019 she was recognized as a Thinkers50 Radar thought leader.

Partner Center

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content

Research Collaboration

Designing High-Quality Professional Development

The Observation Checklist for High-Quality Professional Development—Version 3.2 ( HQPD Checklist ; Gaumer Erickson et al., 2023) outlines 21 key indicators of quality professional development. Since 2015, the instrument has been used to evaluate more than 5,000 hours of professional development across numerous states. To learn more about the research informing the HQPD Checklist , read the article published in Professional Development in Education (Gaumer Erickson et al., 2017) or watch the webinar sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE; Noonan, 2019).

The HQPD Checklist supports professional development providers in designing, implementing, and refining professional development practices. The checklist was purposefully designed to be applicable for in-person, virtual, synchronous, and asynchronous professional learning. This webpage supplements the HQPD Checklist to support professional development providers to design high-quality professional learning experiences. If you’d like to use the checklist as an evaluation measure, email us at [email protected] to learn about our observer training.

Professional development for educators represents a significant investment of time and energy. If done without applying the principles of adult learning, the outcomes are minimal, whereas the results of high-quality professional development can be expansive (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; Gaumer Erickson et al., 2017).

Numerous adult-learning methods and professional development practices are associated with positive outcomes for participant learning and implementation (Trivette et al., 2009). Strategies to support successful implementation include relating new content to participants’ existing contexts, practicing with feedback, dialoguing about the content, self-assessing and reflecting on learning, and participating in sustained implementation coaching and collaboration (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; Gaumer Erickson et al., 2017; Guskey & Yoon, 2009; Learning Forward, 2011; Trivette et al., 2009).

Well-designed and implemented professional development should be considered an essential component of a comprehensive system of teaching and learning that supports students to develop the knowledge, skills, and competencies they need to thrive in the 21st century.

—Darling-Hammond, Hyler, & Gardner (2017, p. vii)

Ongoing monitoring of the quality of professional development influences planning, implementation, and refinement. The HQPD Checklist outlines 21 indicators across five domains. Within each domain, we provide recommendations for presenters. In many instances, presenters are experts in the content, but they are not experts in the local context of participants. For this reason, we also provide recommendations to local providers for coordinating with the presenter.

Preparing for Learning

Contextualizing the Content

Engaging in Learning

Reflecting on Learning

Transferring Learning to Practice

Begin With the End in Mind

The first step in designing professional development is to identify the anticipated outcomes. What will the learners be able to do? How will they know they are successful?

These outcomes are typically documented as learning targets or objectives (Hattie & Zierer, 2018; Marzano, 2013; Moss & Brookhart, 2012). In his analysis of meta-analyses, John Hattie found strong impacts on student learning when educators intentionally designed learning outcomes (see cognitive task analysis ) and determined success criteria . Within professional development, learning targets might look similar to these examples:

• I will draft an IEP annual goal that meets the SMARTIE criteria .
• I will design a unit plan integrating an academic concept with an interpersonal skill addressing each of the six instructional criteria .

Well-developed outcomes guide the design of professional development and help determine the use of presentation time, activities, practice, reflection, and assessment of outcomes (Wiggins et al., 2005). As identified in the HQPD Checklist , the participants benefit from an opportunity to see several examples across different contexts, practice the new skill or knowledge with constructive feedback, evaluate their performance based on criteria, and reflect on how this new learning will impact their current practice.

The goal of professional development is for the participants not only to know about the content but also to become skilled in its application. Engaging participants in complex or higher-order thinking has them go beyond the basic levels of comprehension to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and interpret the content. Complex thinking about the content allows participants to process and make judgments, connect the content into their contexts, and apply the content in complex situations (Mainali, 2013; Moore, 2010).

Learning targets that address higher-order skills include verbs such as apply , analyze , evaluate , or create . This graphic of Bloom’s Taxonomy provides examples of action verbs to engage participants in complex thinking. This summary of Webb’s Depth of Knowledge also organizes action verbs into levels of complexity and cognitive engagement.

During professional development, engaging participants in complex thinking requires structured activities—these activities often involve processing and discussion time. The agenda should be purposefully planned to ensure time for this complex thinking.

It is critical to ensure that the considerable resources and effort devoted by the organizers, presenters, and participants lead to improved outcomes. The HQPD Checklist provides evidence-based indicators following implementation science that address best practices for adult learning. Through quality professional development, participants acquire knowledge and skills, integrate the skills into their professional practice, and observe improved outcomes for their students. Resources, provided in the box above, support professional learning design, including the High-Quality Professional Development (HQPD) Checklist Examples and the HQPD Webinar & Workbook .

Recommended citation: Gaumer Erickson, A. S., Noonan, P. M., Ault, M., Oakes, K., & Monroe, K. (2023). Designing high-quality professional development . Research Collaboration. https://www.researchcollaboration.org/hqpd/

• HQPD Checklist
• HQPD Examples
• HQPD Webinar & Workbook

How it works

Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.

Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.

We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.

Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.

Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.

Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.

Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.

Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.

Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.

Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.

See how innovative organizations use BetterUp to build a thriving workforce.

Discover how BetterUp measurably impacts key business outcomes for organizations like yours.

A demo is the first step to transforming your business. Meet with us to develop a plan for attaining your goals.

• What is coaching?

Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.

Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.

Types of Coaching

Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.

Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.

Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.

Discover your perfect match : Take our 5-minute assessment and let us pair you with one of our top Coaches tailored just for you.

Research, expert insights, and resources to develop courageous leaders within your organization.

Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.

View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.

The latest insights and ideas for building a high-performing workplace.

• BetterUp Briefing

The online magazine that helps you understand tomorrow's workforce trends, today.

Innovative research featured in peer-reviewed journals, press, and more.

Founded in 2022 to deepen the understanding of the intersection of well-being, purpose, and performance

We're on a mission to help everyone live with clarity, purpose, and passion.

Join us and create impactful change.

Read the buzz about BetterUp.

Meet the leadership that's passionate about empowering your workforce.

For Business

For Individuals

Professional development is for everyone (We’re looking at you)

Jump to section

The importance of professional development

5 benefits of professional development.

How can someone improve their professional development?

5 critical components of an effective professional development plan

6 examples of professional development

Getting started with professional development.

Whether you’ve been in your field for two years or 20, professional development is one of the best habits you can adopt. In fact, the continuous learning and endless curiosity that come with professional development can help you thrive in your career. 

You might be stuck in a fixed mindset if you think you know everything about your job or industry. This can keep you from reaching your full potential. In contrast, a growth mindset pushes you to develop new skills, which makes you more valuable to your team. Plus, it will keep you current as your industry and career path evolves .

Let’s take a look at the importance of professional development, how you can develop professionally, and some useful examples to help you get started.

What is professional development?

The definition of professional development is the act of doing any activity you can to get better at your job, outside of your normal day-to-day tasks. It’s similar to continuing education, but not exactly the same. Taking classes or reading the latest research can be professional development. So can volunteering for new projects in your current role.

It can also include on-the-job training or improving soft skills like becoming a better listener . Regardless of the method, committing to professional development puts you on a path toward growth and well-being at work .

Some jobs actually require professional development for employees. For example, teachers and other educators are required to know about the latest advancements in their field. That way, instructors are prevented from passing on outdated information.

Most states also require doctors and nurses to incorporate new medical knowledge into their treatments. This starts early with the training they receive as residents.

Some industries don’t mandate professional development but move so quickly that it’s basically required anyway. Software engineering is a good example of this, with new approaches and libraries cropping up weekly.

No matter what industry you work in, high-quality professional development has huge advantages. It makes you a more valuable employee and helps you advance along your career path .

That said, professional development doesn’t just have to be a career move . It can be fun too. If you’re stuck in a rut, learning new skills can remind you why you chose your job in the first place.

Let’s unpack some of the benefits of career and professional development in more detail.

1. Expand the range of challenges you can handle

Some people have one method they use to solve every problem they encounter at work. But that can be a risky approach. Sooner or later, they’ll run into a problem that the approach can’t handle. The right professional development opportunity makes you more versatile. It adds high-quality tools to your toolbox so that you’re able to problem-solve with ease .

2. Renew your excitement for your job

Many people have been working the same job, or at least in the same industry, since they left school. That can lead to boredom, stress, and a dangerous lack of engagement . Through professional learning programs, you can learn new approaches that make you excited to come to work each day.

3. Become more attractive for promotions

If you take part in continuing professional education, you’ll show your manager that you care about performing well in your job. As a result, you’re likely to show up in their mind when they’re considering who to promote .

Suppose two candidates apply for an engineering management position. One thinks they know everything, and the other understands that there’s always more to learn. The hiring managers will likely pick the second candidate based on how they approach both work and management.

4. Stay on top of industry trends

Software is now part of practically every industry. And with the rapid pace of scientific development in the 21st century, everybody’s job is changing quickly. Taking time for professional development can do wonders to help you keep up.

5. Network with people in your field

When you commit to professional development, you come into contact with other people who are on a similar path to you. That expands your network , accelerates your professional growth, and encourages the cross-pollination of ideas. 

How professional development benefits employers 

If you’re an employer, providing professional development opportunities for employees can pay dividends. Employees who take part in continuing education are more likely to be engaged with their work — and that’s good for business. Not to mention, employee retention rates are shown to increase when workers are engaged .

In today’s competitive job market, this is more important than ever — workers are still quitting in huge numbers. The good news? Professional development can help. In fact, according to one study, 94% of employees said they would stay with their current employer if they invested in their career development .

5 steps to an effective professional development plan

Now that you know why professional development matters, you need to know where to begin. Here’s your guide to creating the best professional development plan for your needs. 

1. Assess where you stand

Your first step is to take stock of what your current job duties are and what skill sets you use to carry them out. List as many tasks as you can think of. What are some areas where you feel you could improve? Why do you feel that way?

2. Decide on your goals

Next, figure out what success will look like in your professional development plan. When will you consider yourself to have measurably improved in one of your problem areas? What benefit do you hope to get from that improvement?

Try to create a specific goal with a measurable accomplishment threshold. “Get good at JavaScript” isn’t a useful goal. “Create a presentable website using original JavaScript code” is much better.

3. Identify resources

Determine what type of professional development programs or resources will get you to your goals. You could identify the leading professional development organization for your field. Or, you could see what professional development initiatives and partnerships are available to you already through your company.

4. Build a support system

Now it’s time to seek out some mentors who can support you and hold you accountable. You’re far more likely to achieve your goals if other people in your office and your field are backing you up. Like-minded colleagues and coworkers can also provide career advice along the way.

5. Revise your plan regularly

The plan you start with might not be the one that gets you across the finish line. At specific intervals, ask yourself if your plan is working for you. Do you feel closer to your goal? Are you retaining the new information you learn? If not, you may need to re-evaluate your goals or methods.

Get the most out of professional development

Investing in professional development is only worth your time if you do it right. Here are four ways to maximize your learning experiences. 

1. Know what you want to accomplish

Before trying to develop professionally, you should be able to state exactly what you want to do and why you’re doing it. Your roadmap for career development and your reasons why you’re pursuing it will determine what materials you engage with and how.

2. Explore different kinds of training

You might be comfortable with developing your skills via self-directed learning or online training. But it’s also a good idea to try out group classes and one-on-one coaching if you have the opportunity. Getting out of your comfort zone is an excellent way to work on your professional and personal development . 

3. Pay attention and take notes

The more effort you apply to your professional development, the more you’ll learn. When you take notes, you listening more actively to class material . Plus, you can maximize the value of your training programs if you take notes that you can refer to later.

4. Build a learning community

Seek out people in professional development courses similar to yours. Forming groups can keep you accountable for meeting milestones. Peer discussions can help you understand concepts you might otherwise miss. And ultimately, professional development programs can be a great place to build your network.

Professional development by industry 

If you know what certifications and resources are available for your specific industry, it can help you set your professional development goals. Looking for industry organizations relevant to you can help you find these specific resources. That said, here are a few examples to get you started. 

• If you’re a medical practitioner, you can seek guidance from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) .
• The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) can help guide professional development for educators who teach early childhood through high school.
• If you’re in the marketing industry, you can find professional development opportunities, certifications, and events via the American Marketing Association (AMA) .  
• If you’re a freelance writer or editor, you could take part in trainings and events through the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE) .

If you work in the finance industry, you should definitely consider the Financial Management Association , which has tons of professional development resources. 

Let’s take a look at six professional development examples to help inspire you on your own career development journey.

1. Volunteering for more projects

Stretch your comfort zone. Ask your colleagues to see if you can help with projects you aren’t normally involved with. Let’s say you write website copy but want to learn more about design. You can ask one of your company’s web designers to pair-work with you for an hour. You can contribute your own competencies while learning from them. 

2. Asking for feedback

One of the simplest methods of professional development is to ask people you work with to help you improve — not just your superiors, but your colleagues and any subordinates as well. Feedback is a fast, cost-effective way to stay on course toward your goals.

If you’re trying to develop as a manager , for example, you could regularly ask your team members, “What’s the biggest mistake I’m making right now?”

3. Take an online course

Plenty of institutions offer continuing education classes you can take from the comfort of your home. These online learning opportunities can help you expand your competencies and perform better in your current role. To get started, try checking the course catalogs at LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Masterclass, and Udemy. 

4. Do research and present your findings

Research doesn’t have to be confined to academics and educators. Find something in your industry that you’re curious about, research it or test it, and then present your findings to your peers.

5. Read books

Good books are like cheat codes for professional development. If you find the right one at the right time, it’s amazing how much good it can do. For example, Fred Brooks’s “The Mythical Man-Month” was published in 1975, and it’s still widely read by software project managers. Here are a few other leadership books we love .

6. Get coached

In the end, there’s no substitute for person-to-person coaching. A business coach , for example, can help you create an effective plan to surmount work obstacles. BetterUp coaching works with your unique situation to help you reach your full potential while prioritizing your mental health .

To put it all together: professional development is about building your skills and getting better at your job. It’s about understanding that there’s more to knowing your job than simply doing it. If approached wisely, professional learning opportunities can pay dividends.

We created BetterUp to make those opportunities more accessible. Whether you’re looking for individual coaching or seeking to make development a fundamental part of your business, we’ve got a solution for you. Request a custom demo today.

Invest in your career

Get your promotion. Make your career change. Build the future you dream about. And do it faster with a world-class BetterUp Coach by your side.

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

What to do if you’re getting promoted too quickly

Are you being passed over for a promotion here’s what to do, discover how professional coaching can boost your career growth, 20 marketing skills professionals should have in 2023, not seeing a promotion is it a problem here’s what to do, how to make yourself indispensable at work: pro tips, ace your first day on the job with 15 confidence-building tips, getting passed over for a promotion is tough. here's how to handle it, 20 examples of development opportunities that can level up your career, similar articles, the power of professional learning communities, a roadmap for career development: how to set your course, what’s a vocation 8 tips for finding yours, what’s a teacher career coach, and do you need one, understanding the differences between of apprentices versus interns, are you reaching your full potential a guide to personal development, 8 examples for setting professional development goals at work, vocational skills: what they are and how to develop them, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

3100 E 5th Street, Suite 350 Austin, TX 78702

• Platform Overview
• Integrations
• Powered by AI
• BetterUp Lead™
• BetterUp Manage™
• BetterUp Care®
• Sales Performance
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Case Studies
• Why BetterUp?
• About Coaching
• Find your Coach
• Career Coaching
• Communication Coaching
• Life Coaching
• News and Press
• Leadership Team
• Become a BetterUp Coach
• BetterUp Labs
• Center for Purpose & Performance
• Leadership Training
• Business Coaching
• Contact Support
• Contact Sales
• Privacy Policy
• Acceptable Use Policy
• Trust & Security
• Cookie Preferences

Self Assessment Tools for Professional Development: Best Practices

Most professionals would agree that effectively assessing one's skills and abilities is critical for career development and growth.

Luckily, with the right approach to self-assessment tools and best practices, both employees and managers can maximize professional development.

In this article, we'll explore the fundamentals of self-assessment for professional growth, best practices for implementation, how to integrate self-assessment into career development programs, and key takeaways for getting the most out of self-evaluation.

Introduction to Self-Assessment Tools for Professional Development

Self-assessment tools are questionnaires, surveys, or inventories that help individuals evaluate their skills, abilities, interests, values, and personality traits. They play an important role in professional development by promoting self-awareness and informing career planning .

Defining Self-Assessments and Professional Growth

Self-assessments for professional growth involve individuals reflecting on their strengths, weaknesses, preferences, and motivations. By completing questionnaires and analyzing the results, people gain insights about themselves. These insights allow them to set intentional goals for developing skills, exploring career options aligned with their interests, and recognizing blindspots that may inhibit their advancement.

Assessments transform self-reflection into usable data that fuels actionable steps for professional growth. They move beyond vague notions of wanting to improve to concrete plans tailored to one's unique abilities and aspirations.

Benefits of Self-Assessment in Career Development

Self-assessments deliver numerous advantages for career development :

Enhanced self-awareness about one's talents, gaps, working styles, and ideal work environments. This allows more informed decision making.

Data-driven insights to shape professional goals and development plans. Quantifiable results help employees address specific skills needing improvement.

Finding best-fit roles that align with personality traits and motivations, reducing frustration.

Identification of skills gaps within teams, allowing organizations to provide targeted training.

Increased engagement, satisfaction, and retention from employees actively developing.

Common Self-Assessment Tools

Popular self-assessments used in professional development initiatives include:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): Evaluates personality across 4 dichotomies like introversion/extroversion. Illuminates communication styles and work preferences.

StrengthsQuest: Identifies top 5 talent themes such as achiever, adaptability, connectedness. Used to select roles utilizing natural strengths.

Strong Interest Inventory: Assesses interests across 6 categories like creative arts and business systems. Matches interests to career options.

Interpersonal Leadership Styles: Analyzes a leader's directness and openness during interactions. Provides communication style insights.

Aligning Self-Assessment with Career Beliefs and Values

The most effective professional development occurs when the growth goals set after self-assessment align with one's innate beliefs, motivations and values about career success. This creates internal resonance rather than forcing unsuitable targets.

For example, if an assessment shows a gap in public speaking skills but the individual highly values collaborative teamwork over presentations, then addressing other skills deficits may better fit their career beliefs.

What is self-assessment in professional development?

Self-assessment in professional development refers to the practice of individuals evaluating their own skills, values, interests, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and preferences to determine suitable career paths, positions, and development opportunities that would be a good fit.

There are many benefits to incorporating self-assessment into professional development initiatives:

It encourages self-awareness and reflection to deeply understand one's talents, motivations, working styles, etc. This builds self-knowledge to make informed career decisions.

It aligns employee goals and development plans to their unique needs and aspirations rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

It facilitates better job-person match by determining good role fits during recruiting and internal mobility.

It enables setting meaningful development goals based on self-identified gaps or desires for growth.

It empowers employees to take ownership of their professional journeys.

To conduct effective self-assessments, there are many validated tools that provide frameworks, surveys, questionnaires, card sorts, and other self-evaluation mediums. Some popular examples include:

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for personality types
• StrengthsFinder for natural talents
• Work Personality Index for working styles
• Career Anchors for motivational drivers
• Emotional Intelligence assessments
• Values assessments
• Skills assessments
• Interest assessments like the Strong Interest Inventory

HR managers should educate employees on these self-assessment tools and make them easily accessible. The results should then inform talent management initiatives like recruitment, development planning, mentoring, job rotation, etc.

How to do self evaluation for personal development?

Doing regular self-evaluations is a key part of professional development and career growth. Here are some best practices for completing effective self-assessments:

Track Your Work and Accomplishments

Keep an ongoing list of your responsibilities, projects, and achievements. This makes it easier to accurately evaluate your performance and progress when it comes time for formal self-evaluations.

Answer Honestly

Be truthful about your strengths and weaknesses. Self-evaluations are most effective when they provide an accurate picture of where you excel and where you need to improve.

Highlight Achievements

Emphasize your biggest accomplishments over the review period. Provide concrete examples that demonstrate how you successfully completed projects or went above and beyond your regular duties.

Admit Weaknesses and Areas for Growth

Everyone has room for improvement. Outline specific skills or knowledge gaps you aim to develop in the future through training, mentorship opportunities, or other growth initiatives.

Set Clear Goals

Use self-evaluations to establish SMART goals for your continued professional development. Outline the tangible steps you will take over the next review cycle to build upon your existing skills.

Completing routine self-assessments enables you to benchmark your abilities, proactively strengthen competencies, and further your career. Following these best practices helps maximize their impact.

How do you assess yourself as a professional?

Performing self-assessments is a critical component of professional development. As HR managers develop programs to support employee growth, incorporating self-evaluation tools can provide personalized insights to guide career planning.

When using self-assessments for professional development, follow these best practices:

Ensure alignment with development goals

Choose assessment tools that map to the core competencies and skills employees need to develop. For example, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) helps determine working styles and preferences. The Strong Interest Inventory reveals connections between interests and career options. Align tools to the actual growth needs.

Allow self-reflection

Self-assessments encourage self-awareness by highlighting individual strengths, weaknesses, aptitudes and preferences. Provide adequate time for people to deeply reflect on assessment findings before creating personalized development plans . Reflection builds self-knowledge critical for growth.

Offer guidance

Simply taking assessments is not enough - the real value comes from applying insights. Offer coaches or mentors to help employees interpret results and shape development plans. Guidance enricures people can translate insights into measurable goals.

Maintain confidentiality

Protect privacy and build trust by keeping self-assessment results confidential. Employees will provide honest inputs if assured data remains private. Handle data ethically and reassure people that insights will benefit their career journeys.

Re-evaluate over time

Check back on progress after 3, 6 and 12 months. Schedule follow-up assessments to gauge growth and realign development plans. Professional development is an ongoing process so consistently revisiting assessments provides updated guidance.

In summary, self-assessments offer personalized insights that power professional growth. With thoughtful implementation guided by individual developmental needs and goals, these tools provide the self-knowledge for people to steer their own career journeys.

sbb-itb-34a8e9f

What is a self-assessment tool for personal growth.

Self-assessment tools are questionnaires, surveys, or assessments that help individuals evaluate their own skills, values, personality traits, and interests. They provide insights that can guide personal growth and development.

Some examples of popular self-assessment tools include:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): Evaluates personality traits and how people perceive the world and make decisions. Identifying your MBTI profile can provide useful insights for improving communication, leadership, and teamwork.

StrengthsFinder: Helps uncover natural talents and strengths based on a series of questions. Understanding strengths allows people to better apply them.

360 Degree Feedback: Collects confidential feedback from peers, managers, and direct reports on performance and behaviors. This multi-rater process highlights strengths and areas for improvement.

Emotional Intelligence Tests: Assesses the ability to understand, use, and manage emotions effectively. This can positively impact relationships and performance.

The most effective self-assessments provide personalized recommendations on how to apply the insights. For example, learning about strengths is only useful if people are given guidance on how to build upon them.

HR managers can leverage self-assessment tools by integrating them into professional development initiatives. However, it's important to choose validated tools that provide practical value for employees. The insights should lead to tangible actions for growth.

Best Practices for HR Managers Implementing Self-Assessment Tools

This section covers concrete recommendations for HR managers on successfully rolling out and applying self-assessment tools within an organization for effective career path planning.

Gaining Buy-In from Employees and Leadership

To generate enthusiasm and adoption from key stakeholders when launching new self-assessment offerings:

Communicate the benefits of career development and how self-assessments lead to growth opportunities. Highlight success stories of employees who have progressed thanks to self-reflection.

Involve team leaders early and have them share positive experiences with direct reports. Leadership buy-in is crucial.

Make participation voluntary initially. As interest builds, consider integrating self-assessments into performance management.

Emphasize how insights from self-assessments help managers support their teams more effectively.

Incentivization Models for Professional Development Engagement

Methods for motivating participation include:

Connecting self-assessment activities to personalized development plans.

Establishing rewards programs where points earned for completing assessments translate into career coaching sessions, special assignments, leadership workshops or tuition reimbursement.

Featuring professionals who actively participate in self-assessment and development programs in company newsletters or intranet sites.

Customizing Assessments to Reflect Career Path Planning

To tailor self-assessments:

Evaluate existing tools to determine which competencies they measure and how these map to career paths. Identify any gaps.

Work with vendors to add or modify questions and reports tied to company values and culture.

Allow employees to retake assessments periodically and track changes over time.

Facilitating Self-Discovery for Career Exploration

Tips for coaching talent in self-assessment:

Provide guides on interpreting reports and summaries without judgment.

Encourage two-way dialogue about aspirations and developmental areas uncovered.

Have employees reflect on how personal qualities link to potential career directions.

Guide creation of plans leveraging strengths and overcoming challenges through mentors, courses, job rotations.

Integrating Career Support Teams with Self-Assessment

Leverage career support teams:

Assessors help decipher self-reflection reports from an unbiased perspective.

Mentors who have taken similar career paths relate their experiential insights.

Coaches facilitate exploratory discussions and brainstorming activities.

Program managers connect employees to relevant learning opportunities and resources for plan implementation.

Integrating Self-Assessment Tools into Career Development Programs

Self-assessment tools provide invaluable insights that can enhance career development programs. By integrating self-assessment activities into existing frameworks, professionals can gain a deeper understanding of their strengths, values, interests and leadership styles. This self-awareness empowers them to make informed decisions about their career paths.

Linking Self-Assessment Outcomes to Professional Skills Building

Translate self-assessment findings into specific skills to develop. For example, if a leadership style assessment indicates an opportunity to improve delegation abilities, create goals around delegating more tasks to team members.

Use self-assessment results to identify strengths to leverage in growing professionally. If an individual's top strength is developing strategic perspective, aim to take on projects that utilize this strength.

Create an action plan that ties development areas from self-assessments to training programs or learning opportunities. Enroll in courses, job shadow colleagues, seek mentors, or take on new projects.

Career Journey Mapping through Self-Assessment Insights

Look at self-assessments holistically to determine industries, jobs or companies that align to one's values, interests and attributes. This can help outline a career journey.

Set short and long-term career goals based on self-assessment findings. For example, gain expertise in a new technology over 2 years to transition into a senior developer role.

Build a career support network of mentors and advocates that can provide guidance based on self-assessment outcomes. Lean on this team when making career decisions.

Enhancing Networking and Job-Searching with Self-Knowledge

Identify companies to target for networking or job searching based on an understanding of your strengths and interests from self-assessments.

Tailor resumes and cover letters to highlight relevant strengths, leadership capabilities and values that match a potential employer's needs.

Prepare for interviews by practicing responses using self-knowledge around motivations, work styles and examples that demonstrate strengths.

Self-Assessment in Resume Development and Interviewing

Incorporate commonly assessed attributes like leadership style, values and skills into resumes and interview responses. Draw clear connections between these and the role.

Develop stories that showcase times when your strengths contributed to achievements. Use self-assessment tools like StrengthsQuest to determine top strengths.

Be prepared to speak to growth areas identified through self-assessments. Demonstrate self-awareness and discuss development plans.

Preparing for Career Fairs and Employer Expectations

Research companies beforehand using self-knowledge, then identify and engage recruiters that match your attributes and interests.

Review commonly asked interview questions around leadership, culture fit and strengths. Prepare responses ahead of time that incorporate your self-assessment findings.

Understand your values and priorities from self-assessments as they relate to company culture and work environments. Seek out aligned opportunities.

Maximizing Impact for Professional Growth through Self-Assessment

Self-assessments can provide invaluable insights into one's strengths, development areas, values, and interests. However, to fully realize their potential, organizations must have the proper support systems and processes in place.

Support Resources for Career Skills Enhancement

Self-guided learning modules: Provide online courses, videos, templates, and toolkits that align to assessment findings, empowering self-driven development.

Mentors: Match employees to internal mentors who can provide guidance on skill-building priorities based on assessment results.

Internal experts: Maintain a searchable database where employees can identify subject matter experts to consult on enhancing capabilities within their development areas.

Development Planning Post-Assessment

Goal setting session: Schedule a dedicated session for employees to review assessment findings and co-create S.M.A.R.T. development goals with their manager.

Documented action plan: Formalize tactical next steps for achieving goals, including timelines, milestones, resources required, and success metrics to track progress.

Skill-building ideas: Provide employees with personalized recommendations of training programs, job rotations, special projects, and other opportunities to target desired competencies.

Ongoing Utilization of Self-Assessment for Continuous Improvement

Annual reassessments: Schedule annual re-takes of assessments to benchmark progress and recalibrate development priorities.

Pulse checks: Conduct regular check-ins on goal progression, unblocking roadblocks, and modifying plans as needed.

Reflection prompts: Share periodic reflection questions that encourage employees to revisit learnings and apply them.

Tracking the Impact of Self-Assessment on Career Development

Pre/post assessment data: Compare competency levels before and after focused development initiatives driven by assessments.

Productivity metrics: Connect development actions to performance data like quality, output, engagement scores to showcase ROI.

Employee perception surveys: Survey those who completed assessments on the value derived and influence on their growth.

Leveraging Internships and Co-ops for Professional Skills Application

Internships and co-ops enable professionals to put insights from self-assessments into practice through real-world application of knowledge and skills. Organizations should facilitate matching employees to roles aligned with their development goals and provide mentors to reinforce key learnings throughout. Conducting assessments before, during, and after these experiences captures their tangible impact on competency growth.

Conclusion and Key Takeaways for HR Managers and Professionals

Self-assessments can be a valuable tool for professional development when implemented strategically. Assessing employees' strengths, values, interests and leadership styles provides insights to guide career planning and align roles.

To maximize impact, assessments should:

• Relate to concrete development areas tied to business goals
• Be voluntary while encouraged by managers
• Have clear explanations of purpose and value
• Offer confidential feedback/coaching sessions
• Lead to tangible action plans

Critical Success Factors in Self-Assessment Implementation

Executive buy-in. Leaders must communicate the importance of self-development to participation rates.

User-friendly assessments. Accessible language and platforms drive completion rates.

Integrated data. Tie insights to performance systems to inform development plans.

Ongoing support. Provide coaching and resources to turn insights into growth.

Central Benefits of Self-Assessment for Career Path Planning

Self-assessments:

• Reveal strengths/growth areas to optimize role fit
• Uncover diverse perspectives to improve team collaboration
• Support data-driven succession planning
• Allow employees to steer their own development

Final Thoughts on Self-Assessment for Personal and Professional Development

Approaching career growth with self-awareness and intention leads to engagement and advancement. Self-assessments are a compass - when paired with guidance, they empower individuals to navigate their own fulfilling paths aligned to organizational success.

Related posts

• Performance Management Assessment Best Practices
• CPD Personal Development Plan Best Practices

AI Workforce Planning for HR Managers

Evaluating HR Talent Management Systems

HR Challenges and Opportunities: Navigating Change

Submission successful.

Please check your email. 

Get in Touch

Our excellent customer support team is ready to help.

Don't Get Left Behind! Take the First Step Towards AI Dominance

Discover the AERO Matrix, a powerful AI risk and opportunity assessment framework that will give you the edge you need to stay ahead of the competition. Try it for free today and start making informed decisions about AI adoption.

Shifting the focus of research on effective professional development: Insights from a case study of implementation

• Open access
• Published: 29 October 2021
• Volume 24 , pages 345–363, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

• Sally Patfield   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9591-7676 1 ,
• Jennifer Gore   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7309-5405 1 &
• Jess Harris   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4584-6993 1  

10k Accesses

7 Citations

8 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

Globally, teacher professional development is heralded as a key mechanism for educational reform. With governments investing heavily in PD programs, the aim of these interventions is not only enhanced teacher knowledge and practice but, ultimately, improved student outcomes. A substantial body of research has attempted to identify characteristics of effective PD, generating a growing list of features that ostensibly ‘work’. As such, program design has become the dominant analytic focus. In this paper, we shift attention squarely to program implementation as necessary in conceptualising and evaluating effective PD. We apply the lens of implementation science to a case study of how one regional secondary school in NSW, Australia, implemented a robust PD program called Quality Teaching Rounds that has strong evidence of effectiveness. Despite the school’s attempts to remain true to the spirit of the PD, a combination of remoteness, lack of casual relief teachers, high teacher turnover, and negative perceptions of peer observation result in a form of QTR that is almost unrecognisable from its intended design. We argue greater attention must be given to understanding and supporting successful implementation within and across diverse school contexts in order to take effective forms of PD to scale.

Similar content being viewed by others

The Role of Professional Learning Communities in Successful Response to Intervention Implementation

Taking Change to Scale: Lessons from the Jika iMfundo Campaign for Overcoming Inequalities in Schools

The school-wide pedagogical framework at an Australian primary school: experiences and perspectives of teachers

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Globally, policymakers and governments have set ambitious targets for educational reform. While improvement agendas vary widely across nations and jurisdictions, two key commonalities are embedded within most large-scale reform efforts. First, improving student outcomes is positioned as an important goal, spurred on by both large-scale international assessments that underpin global comparisons of performance and social justice imperatives to alleviate disparities in achievement (Meissel et al., 2016 ). Second, teachers are unequivocally positioned as fundamental to—even inseparable from—reform. Teachers are crucial ‘enactors’ of educational policy (Ball et al., 2012 ) and, ultimately, the facilitators of any changes to classroom practice (Borko, 2004 ; OECD, 2019 ).

Accordingly, we have seen significant investment in teacher professional development (PD), heralded as a key catalyst for improving student outcomes. PD is now ‘big business’ (Hill, 2009 ), with governments and educational jurisdictions investing heavily in a host of initiatives and interventions, varying in scope and content (OECD, 2019 ). While a wide range of learning experiences fall under the umbrella of ‘PD’ (Hill et al., 2013 ; OECD, 2019 ; Wei et al., 2009 ), scholarly attention has increasingly been directed at ‘effective PD’—“structured professional learning that results in changes in teacher practices and improvements in student learning outcomes” (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017 , p. v). As such, it is now commonplace for the ‘final test’ of PD to be whether or not an intervention leads to better academic outcomes for students—not just teachers’ knowledge, skills or pedagogy (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017 ; Desimone, 2011 ).

In this paper, our focus is ‘effective PD’, as distinct from the broader spectrum of activity conceptualised as ‘teacher PD’ or ‘professional learning’ (PL). In light of the current climate of reform and desire for strong return on investment by governments (Gore et al., in press), research on effective PD has flourished over the past decade, triggering a methodological shift from small-scale studies using teacher self-reports of satisfaction and change, to experimental designs measuring student outcomes (Hill et al., 2013 ). Despite this agenda, however, effective PD—as measured by student achievement—remains somewhat elusive, with many studies failing to demonstrate positive gains in academic outcomes and/or criticised for lacking scientific rigour (Borko et al., 2010 ; Yoon et al., 2007 ).

In order to better understand effective PD, the dominant line of enquiry focuses on program design (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017 ; Hill et al., 2013 ). Such studies seek to identify the features of PD initiatives associated with positive gains in teacher knowledge and practice and, most importantly, student outcomes. These features include: a focus on discipline-specific content knowledge and pedagogy; sustained duration; coaching; collaboration; opportunities for feedback and reflection; and active learning (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017 ; Desimone, 2009 , 2011 ; Garet et al., 2001 ). This area of research has risen in prominence to such an extent that some scholars refer to an informal consensus on the core characteristics of PD that ‘work’ (Desimone, 2009 , 2011 ), or what others describe as a ‘new orthodoxy’ grounded in the view that for PD to be effective, these specific features must be included (Gore et al., in press).

We contend, however, that this consensus is problematic for a variety of reasons, not least because of the weak evidence—often based more on conjecture than empirical evidence—underpinning its claims (Gore et al., in press; Sims & Fletcher-Wood, 2021 ). Indeed, even when studies have used rigorous randomised controlled trial (RCT) designs, PD encompassing many of these features has rarely shown success in improving student outcomes (Gore et al., 2021 ; Hill et al., 2013 ; Yoon et al., 2007 ). Effective PD also often works as a ‘package,’ such that it is difficult to isolate which specific design features are important when an intervention is successful, or how particular features work together to engender positive outcomes (Hill et al., 2013 ; Opfer & Pedder, 2011 ).

Furthermore, the so-called consensus has not attended carefully to context, instead bringing together characteristics of interventions that have worked ‘somewhere’ for ‘someone’ (Bryk, 2015 ). This kind of generality does little to illuminate how effective forms of PD will translate into outcomes across diverse school communities and student populations, and contexts with different political, social, cultural and material elements (Ball et al., 2012 ). The importance of context is already well-established in many comparable fields of research, including policy enactment (Ball et al., 2012 ), school reform (Datnow et al., 2002 ) and the use of professional learning communities for improvement (Wenger, 1998 ). It is surprising, then, that research on effective PD has largely ignored the context of implementation, giving much greater credence to program design. As a result, little analytic attention has been paid to examining how effective PD can be implemented across diverse settings (Borko, 2004 ; Borko et al., 2010 ) and how, therefore, implementation might be conceptualised and evaluated across sites.

This paper offers precisely this kind of analysis through a case study of the implementation of one form of rigorously-tested, effective PD called Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR). Under RCT conditions, QTR has already produced significant positive effects for both teachers and students, including notable increases in teacher morale, teaching quality, and student academic achievement (Gore et al., 2017 ; Gore et al., 2021 ). However, less is known about how to support high-quality implementation in diverse contexts outside of research settings or how to support different kinds of school communities to successfully implement QTR.

With a focus on depth and particularity rather than breadth, we adopt a case study approach to examine the implementation of QTR in one school community—Olsen Valley High School (pseudonym)—located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The analysis is anchored in ‘implementation science’, an approach that is embedded in clinical, health and community-based research (Moir, 2018 ) but a relatively recent phenomenon in education (Centre for Evidence & Implementation, 2017 ). Specifically, we draw on Proctor et al.′s ( 2011 ) heuristic of eight implementation outcomes—acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility, fidelity, cost, penetration, and sustainability—to conceptualise how QTR was implemented at Olsen Valley High and consider the merits of drawing on implementation science to evaluate the implementation of effective PD more broadly. We begin with a brief discussion of implementation science, its value to the study of effective PD and the specifics of Proctor’s heuristic. Next, we present an overview of QTR, the intervention that forms the basis of the paper.

Implementation science and effective PD

Implementation science has been defined as the “scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of research findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice” (Eccles & Mittman, 2006 , para 2). It draws attention to the temporal gap between research and practice, with its focus on how evidence-based interventions are adopted and sustained in real-world contexts (Bauer et al., 2015 ; Thomas et al., 2017 ). Applied to the field of effective PD, we can ask how are evidence-based PD interventions implemented within schools and systems and, thus, how can they be implemented to increase their effectiveness and maximise outcomes (Kelly, 2012 )?

In contrast to research that synthesises and generalises core program features of effective PD, implementation science is fundamentally concerned with the specificity of context. That is, the implementation of an intervention is seen to be entwined with the unique set of circumstances associated with where—and even when—it takes place (Damschroder et al., 2009 ; Kelly, 2012 ). In this way, context is positioned as active in shaping both program implementation and program outcomes; it is much more than just a passive backdrop for an intervention (Datnow et al., 2002 ). Although context is defined in varying ways within implementation science theories and frameworks, the ideas of ‘outer’ and ‘inner’ setting (Damschroder et al., 2009 ) are particularly applicable to school contexts. The outer setting encompasses the economic, political, social, and cultural climate in which a school is situated while the inner setting focuses attention on the characteristics of the school itself (Damschroder et al., 2009 ). The distinction between these two layers is somewhat arbitrary, however, as their interaction is often dynamic, permeable, and reciprocal.

In this light, the implementation of any intervention can be thought of as the “product of the context in which it is implemented” (The Design-Based Research Collective, 2003 , p. 5). Consideration of context is not new in education (see, for example, Ball et al., 2012 ; Datnow et al., 2002 ). However, the systematic application of principles of implementation science to the investigation of implementation quality is in its infancy. The potential value of applying such a lens in studies of effective PD lies in the notion that positive gains in student outcomes are related to both the quality of an intervention and the quality of its implementation (Centre for Evidence & Implementation, 2017 ). Increasing pressure on schools to evaluate PD drawing on sophisticated standards of evidence (Desimone, 2011 ) makes such analysis timely.

Proctor et al.′s ( 2011 ) heuristic of eight implementation outcomes, derived from a major synthesis of implementation literature, is useful in conceptualising and evaluating implementation efforts. Table 1 sets out these outcomes as an overarching framework and set of concepts to guide implementation science research. While the heuristic is derived primarily from health and behavioural sciences research, we find it to be a valuable starting point for studying the implementation of effective PD, especially in the absence of a robust field of implementation science research in education more generally (Centre for Evidence & Implementation, 2017 ) and the lack of attention given to implementation within effective PD specifically (Hill et al., 2013 ).

By and large, Proctor et al. ( 2011 ) argue that these implementation outcomes represent the effects of deliberate and purposive actions to implement an intervention. In this way, they can be thought of as ‘preconditions’ for attaining the desired changes brought about by a specific intervention, such as positive gains in student achievement in the case of effective PD. As such, implementation outcomes can be seen as impacting other kinds of outcomes, although they are not interchangeable.

While Proctor et al. ( 2011 ) suggest that the eight implementation outcomes are discrete conceptual categories, we note a degree of overlap and correspondence between many of them. For example, the perceived acceptability of an intervention among stakeholders is closely related to its perceived appropriateness for the setting. Likewise, penetration and sustainability both relate to the integration of an intervention in a particular setting, although sustainability is generally observed further along—or even after—the implementation process.

Implementation must therefore be viewed as a process (Proctor et al., 2011 ), one that involves a sequence of interrelated activities over time. Indeed, in practice, each outcome is interconnected in complex and dynamic ways, such that one aspect can influence most, if not all, of the other outcomes. In our paper, we use Proctor et al.′s ( 2011 ) heuristic to examine the different phases of QTR implementation, from the initial decision to implement QTR, through to ongoing implementation efforts within the school and attempts to incorporate QTR as part of normal routine.

When an intervention is unsuccessful in practice, policy actors often move to the next idea, the next ‘fad’ or the next reform initiative that can be transplanted from ‘somewhere else’ (Bryk, 2015 ; Datnow et al., 2002 ). Instead, we take the view that developing a more robust understanding of effective PD necessitates a dual focus on both program features and program implementation.

The intervention: Quality Teaching Rounds

Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR) is a rigorously researched approach to PD that has been widely used in New South Wales, Australia, and increasingly adopted in other state educational jurisdictions. At its core, QTR is underpinned by four interrelated components. First, it is collaborative, with teachers working in professional learning communities (PLCs) to observe, analyse, and discuss one another’s practice. Teachers in a PLC can come from any Year level, teaching specialisation, or career stage (Gore & Rickards, 2020a ; Gore & Rosser, 2020b ). Second, it is an approach to teaching rounds (City et al., 2009 ; Elmore, 2007 )—similar to the idea of medical rounds—which supports teachers to discuss and develop a shared understanding of ‘good teaching’. The goal is instructional improvement guided by teachers, rather than an external facilitator. Third, it uses a pedagogical framework, the Quality Teaching (QT) Model, which scaffolds the Rounds process. The QT Model provides a comprehensive set of concepts and associated language for deep, professional conversations about teaching practice (Bowe & Gore, 2017 ; Gore et al., 2017 ; Gore et al., 2021 ). And fourth, it is underpinned by a set of protocols that have been designed to address power relations among teachers (Gore et al., 2021 ), encouraging full participation, turn-taking and confidentiality by members of the PLC.

Logistically, QTR usually consists of four ‘Rounds’, with each Round taking place over a single day. Each Round begins with discussion of a chosen professional reading. The aim of this initial session is to support teachers to engage in professional conversation and build a sense of community within their PLC. Next, a full lesson is taught by one member of the PLC and observed by all others. Each member is required to be fully present throughout the Rounds process, and have a lesson observed on a rotational basis over the course of the Rounds. After each observation, lesson coding occurs. Each teacher in the PLC (including the ‘host’ teacher) codes the lesson individually using the QT Model, which consists of three overarching dimensions and 18 elements (see Table 2 ). To conclude the day, the PLC members discuss the observed lesson, and pedagogy more broadly, drawing on the language, concepts, and structure of the QT Model. The purpose of this final session is to support meaningful analysis of practice, which is achieved through a process whereby teachers discuss their codes and associated evidence, and try to come to agreement as a group about the appropriate code for each element of the QT Model. These codes remain confidential within the PLC and are less important than the rich conversation generated about practice.

Research design

Before commencing QTR in their schools, at least two teachers from each school attend a two-day workshop designed to support implementation. In 2019, 687 teachers who participated in a QTR workshop between July 2014 and May 2018 were sent an email by the project team which included a link to a short, online questionnaire, administered via SurveyMonkey. The questionnaire included a series of questions designed to ascertain if, and how, QTR was implemented in their schools after attending the workshop.

Overall, 177 survey responses were received from teachers at 81 schools. From this pool of responses, schools were categorised into three implementation categories: ‘QTR embedded’, where QTR was embedded throughout school processes after attendance at a workshop; ‘QTR introduced’, where QTR was implemented for some or many staff at a school, but was not yet embedded in school planning and processes; and ‘QTR discontinued’, where QTR had been implemented but discontinued at a school. Principals from each school were subsequently sent an email inviting them to participate in a study examining the implementation and sustainability of QTR, with the aim of recruiting schools from each of these three implementation categories. Six schools were recruited (two from each category), however, the two schools where QTR had been discontinued withdrew after providing organisational consent. While there are lessons to be learned from termination or suspension of an intervention and we remain interested in studying such schools as part of our broader research agenda, for this analysis, our primary interest was schools that adopted QTR.

Data collection and analysis were informed by case study methodology, aiming for richness and depth rather than breadth (Yin, 2013 ). Given the nature of the research, the unit of analysis was the school, with data collected from multiple participants at each site for the purposes of triangulation (Yin, 2013 ). All teachers within a school were invited to participate, with written consent provided by participants at the time of interview. Two researchers visited each school in late 2019 and conducted interviews with the principal and a sub-sample of volunteer teachers available on the scheduled interview dates. Interviews were semi-structured and focused on: experiences of QTR; enablers and barriers to implementation; adaptations (if any); overall impressions; and perceived impact. Interviews were audio-recorded and lasted approximately 60 minutes. Schools and participants were allocated pseudonyms to protect anonymity. Transcripts were coded using the NVivo 12 software program, drawing on a two-step case-oriented approach to analysis (Yin, 2013 ): (1) open coding, where a line-by-line reading of each transcript was undertaken to define and develop categories or ‘nodes’; and (2) abstraction and interpretation, where nodes were grouped, and subsequently reduced, at higher levels of meaning.

This paper focuses on one school community only, Olsen Valley High School, where interviews were conducted with the Principal and eight teachers from a wide array of subject specialisations. Olsen Valley High represents an example of ‘QTR embedded’, highlighting a degree of sustainability. We selected it for this analysis, however, because it represents an ‘extreme case’ (Jahnukainen, 2009 ) as a school that has substantially modified aspects of QTR against recommended implementation, providing a powerful opportunity to consider the implementation of effective PD more broadly. Our case study explores potential benefits of using implementation science for evaluating and subsequently enhancing implementation, taking into account the nuances and complexities of context.

Adopting QTR: Perceptions of acceptability and appropriateness

Olsen Valley High School is a comprehensive, co-educational secondary school situated in the inland community of Olsen Valley, a regional township in NSW. Located a vast distance from major metropolitan centres, the community is geographically isolated and predominantly surrounded by desert. According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the median weekly family income is far less than the state’s average, similarly reflected in the relative socio-educational advantage of the school which is below the national mean. These characteristics are echoed in the responses of the teachers we interviewed, who describe the community as ‘remote’ and depict the student population as primarily from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Aligning with Departmental priorities, Olsen Valley High School currently has three strategic directions centred around quality teaching, learning, and distributed instructional leadership. These goals are clearly stated in the recent school plan, which explicitly references QTR as a core whole-of-school mechanism to enhance both the quality of teaching and student outcomes. Although QTR is a relatively new practice in the school, peer observation has been a part of the school’s culture for many years, initially driven by an aim to deprivatise classroom practice:

Our current Deputy Principal, he led a team that we called the ‘lesson observation team’ and the aim of that team was to try and open the doors of classrooms because it kind of felt that teachers pretty much kept to themselves in their classrooms. And teaching being such a complex practice that nobody really went and watched anyone else teach, it was just you were teaching or you were madly preparing your stuff—you know—flat out, there was no time to go and watch someone else or take anything else in. (Rick)

Although geographically isolated, Rick emphasises the school’s attempt to overcome the professional isolation that can characterise any teaching context. The deliberate aim has been to interrupt teaching as a ‘private act’ (Cochran-Smith, 2015 )— teachers pretty much kept to themselves in their classrooms— by making teaching more public and open. This constitutes a shift in both culture and practice—the literal opening of classroom doors— by creating time and space for teachers to participate in peer observation, primarily driven at this point in time by the lesson observation team.

This effort began at Olsen Valley High with proformas to guide observation. After attending a QTR workshop, however, the leadership team became convinced that QTR would take them to a new level:

We started the lesson observation team purely with the intention to get teachers comfortable with being observed. So we had a few tools that we used that were more tick-box proformas, that they could say ‘yes that’s happening in the classroom’. It was all around rules and routines, praise and consequence and things like that. Then myself and another staff member went and did the training for QTR and came back to the school and sort of said ‘this is where we need to go. This is such a good model, we can really dive into this.’ (Jerry)

Jerry’s description of the original tick-box and yes/no observation tools used at Olsen Valley suggests a process underpinned by appraisal and judgement. Indeed, the original observations were about rules, routines, praise, and consequence , signalling how easily the deprivatisation of teaching can become a means of surveillance and accountability when executed without a broad understanding of the culture and ecology of a school (Charteris & Smardon, 2018 ; Cochran-Smith, 2015 ). By contrast, Jerry exalts QTR as offering greater depth— we can really dive into this —indicating a level of acceptability and appropriateness needed for this new approach to be adopted.

More specifically, QTR was perceived as offering the school community an explicit focus on teaching and learning. In discussing the impetus for initially adopting QTR at Olsen Valley High, Rick identifies two interrelated characteristics of QTR which he believes make it a powerful form of professional learning:

Well, it focused on teaching [and] it was a model that everybody could use that focused on improving teaching. So regardless of what level of experience… like I see the value in it and I’ve been teaching for 30 years. (Rick)

What stands out in Rick’s account is a strong belief that QTR focuses on the core business of schools and, therefore, is for everybody , thus adding to its acceptability and appropriateness. Observational frameworks are often subject-specific, as in mathematics, English/language arts, or science (Gore & Rosser, 2020b ; Kane et al., 2013 ), thus narrowing the pool of teachers able to work with, and learn from, their colleagues. However, QTR’s focus on pedagogy makes it appropriate for whole-of-school implementation. Furthermore, as Rick notes, it is relevant for both beginning and experienced teachers (Gore & Bowe, 2015 ; Gore & Rickards, 2020a ), providing an important foundation for garnering teacher buy-in to this form of PD.

Struggles with feasibility and fidelity

While QTR was perceived to be the right fit for Olsen Valley High, the school community immediately faced structural constraints that affected its feasibility and the degree to which it could be implemented with fidelity. Interestingly, several teachers used the phrase Rolls Royce to signal the logistical impossibilities of implementation created by the school’s context, particularly in terms of geographic isolation and the subsequent lack of casual relief teachers (CRTs) in the area:

The nature of being out here, with casual cover being non-existent, is that it’s very difficult to get the scale of what we wanted with that sort of ‘Rolls Royce’ model. So we were lucky enough that we already had scheduled, within our teaching load, one ‘professional learning’ period a cycle. So we were able to use that as a sort of trade-off with QTR, in that one of those periods was designated for you to go and observe a teacher and another one of those periods was designated for you to code that lesson and then on a Tuesday afternoon staff meeting was when we would come together to do that group coding. (Jerry)

The use of the term Rolls Royce positions QTR as a luxury; one that is elusive, unattainable, even an impossibility. By contrast, Jerry’s description of the Olsen Valley community emphasises a poverty of resources due to the tyranny of distance— being out here— especially the lack of CRTs ( non-existent ) which profoundly impacts implementation. Thus a compromise— trade-off —is made to balance the requirements of the PD with contextual limitations. Each Round is now conducted over a number of days (instead of during a single day), separating out the observation, individual coding, and group coding/discussion components of QTR, and removing the initial reading discussion altogether.

This substantial modification to QTR generated further implications for fidelity. To keep costs down and manage logistics, PLCs are formed based on practicality and convenience, with one teacher in each PLC being the ‘host’ (the observed teacher) of a given Round and the other teachers designated observers due to their professional development period (or ‘free period’) being timetabled at the same time. Unfortunately, this means that only one Round occurs per term and that a PLC only functions for this single Round:

[After completing one Round] our groups changed. And I didn’t realise the groups would change. Thinking the Executive went first—“Oh, that’s really good”. And then [thinking that] one of us will be next… But after [the Round] we were talking and they’re like, “Oh, you won’t get to see us, because we’ll be in a different group”… Personally, I like staying [in the PLC]. I just think it would be nice to see that Head Teacher that we watched. The purpose [is meant to be that] they went first. But then they didn’t see us in return….like you watch a lesson, and you come in, and you do your coding, and you do [the] group code, but then that’s it. (Holly)

Having participated in QTR at her previous school, Holly was very surprised to find PLCs at Olsen Valley High would not be sustained or reciprocal ( they didn’t see us in return ). Thus, the very basis of QTR—teaching rounds within PLCs—is interrupted (Gore et al., 2017 ); observation is not mutual, there is no time to develop a group identity ( …then that’s it ) and commitment to the PLC is limited ( because we’re in a different group ). These core elements of QTR, typically involving PLC members engaging in mutual observation and ongoing collaboration, were designed to flatten power hierarchies in observation and build a sense of community (Bowe & Gore, 2017 ). However, at Olsen Valley, Holly describes a QTR experience that is reduced to a simple, single lesson observation—just with a different conceptual lens from the proformas used previously at the school.

Another major adaptation has been the separation of the lesson observation from the individual coding; two components of QTR that are usually undertaken on the same day. Most teachers at Olsen Valley High have to return to their own classrooms straight after conducting an observation, creating a substantial time lag in the process:

It's recommended obviously to do it [the coding] straight away so it's fresh in the mind. At the same time we can't control everyone's free periods and give them two periods off or something to do it… [But] you don't want to leave it too long. And I've found that personally I have done that before and either forgotten about doing it or had a lesson straight after and then didn't have a free period until the next day or something like that. Then I found that quite difficult trying to remember what the lesson was about and code it properly. (Arnold)

Unlike more superficial forms of observation, QTR requires teachers to assign codes to elements of an observed lesson and note associated evidence as a means to collaboratively analyse and discuss practice. As such, being given the time to individually code a lesson is particularly important to facilitating QTR discussions. Importantly, the coding process is conceptualised as a means to an end; a scaffold to generate analytical dialogue (Bowe & Gore, 2017 ; Bowe, 2016 ) rather than a quantitative measure of teaching performance (Kane et al., 2013 ). The time gap between the observation and coding at Olsen Valley, however, is an imposed structural constraint ( we can’t control… ) which leads to teachers like Arnold forgetting to do the coding or finding it difficult to remember what the lesson was about , despite taking notes during the observation.

Similarly, the value of the group coding and discussion—the final component of QTR—also appears to be diminished. This process has been adapted and compressed into a regularly scheduled staff meeting at the end of each term:

They want it to be the hour length, but they were finding that you could never do all dimensions in that amount of time, or the 50-minutes length sorry, because that's the period, for 52 minutes. So yeah, they reduce the amount [of elements] that you do. They went through the school—“What's the most important ones? Well, the top row [see Table 1 ] is the most important for the school.” Then it's, "What do you want to benefit the most from?" And you're meant to pick the ones that you go, "Okay, this one I want to up the most." So, you'd never pick the one that you're going to score a ‘one’ that wasn't a part of the lesson. So, you're meant to pick the ones that you want to improve the most and the observers are then picking the ones that they think are interesting. (Pat)

The Quality Teaching Model that underpins QTR represents a holistic and comprehensive framework that is designed to honour the complexity of teaching (Gore, 2021 ; Gore et al., 2017 ). Yet Pat’s description of the modifications adopted at Olsen Valley High turns the elements comprising the Model into a set of choices, as emphasised by Pat’s repeated reference to picking the ones that will be discussed. Here the complex practice of teaching is reduced to a number of elements, rather than the sum of its parts. Although selection is based on teachers’ perceptions of importance , benefit, and needed improvement , they are unlikely to explore the multi-dimensional nature of teaching to the extent they do when all 18 elements of the Quality Teaching Model are addressed, again raising issues of implementation fidelity.

Moving forward: Penetration and sustainability

Unsurprisingly, it has been difficult for Olsen Valley High to build momentum integrating QTR into the school’s PD program. The school experiences very high levels of teacher turnover, and is seen by some long-term staff as a momentary stopover in a career:

The majority of our teachers are early career teachers in the first or second year of teaching… Because of the nature of the incentive transfer system people will come to Olsen Valley to get a permanent job—they will do their three years, and then they’ll transfer back to family on the coast… Unfortunately we kind of see ourselves as a bit of a factory for teachers in that we put lots into them, we produce teachers that go out to other areas of the State and they’re just really hitting their straps by the time they leave us. So yeah, but if that’s what we’re doing, that’s what we’re doing I suppose and then the next batch comes in. (Rick)

Rick’s factory metaphor highlights the extent of teacher attrition at Olsen Valley High: teachers usually arrive early in their careers, are shaped and fashioned through PD and other opportunities at the school, and then leave. The cycle continues as the next batch comes in . In NSW, graduates often wait years for a permanent teaching appointment, especially in coastal regions. Because of the government’s incentive transfer system that allots higher ‘transfer point ratings’ to harder-to-staff schools—usually in rural and remote areas, like Olsen Valley—these schools can represent an attractive stepping stone in securing a permanent job.

In some years, almost half of the school’s teaching staff have left at the end of the year to work elsewhere. This has meant an unrelenting process of inducting new staff, including almost having to start from scratch every year with QTR:

You can't create a small community because a small community is constantly changing. It might last for a year but every year there might be 17 teachers leaving. So, you can't get the strong group to stick together… Then it's just the whole re-educating people all the time on what you need to do because you've constantly got large numbers of new teachers all the time. So, every single year, it's like, "Okay, we're going to have to do training to refresh, but also we've got all these new teachers we've got to induct." (Pat)

In speaking about the staff culture at Olsen Valley High, most teachers raised the challenges posed by high attrition. Pat’s comments illustrate just how taxing it can be for a relatively small teaching community to lose staff—it is not only constantly changing but large numbers of teachers are leaving all the time— thus inhibiting the development of an ongoing community of practice around the experience of QTR. These circumstances signal an underlying difficulty in sustaining QTR in a school where it is hard to build a community of teachers who are invested, support each other and stick together .

While the school has mechanisms in place to induct new staff into QTR, the high turnover also brings the related challenge of overcoming pre-existing negative attitudes about lesson observation:

Mainly with new staff there is still that stigma about ‘is this performance-based?’ And that’s probably the first thing that we do every year is to try and break down those stigmas that “hey, this is not a performance-based thing. There’s no one judging you as a teacher” because everyone has their own opinions about what a quality teacher is. But this gives us a really good framework to look at what quality teaching is. So there’s so much more to being a teacher than just being in front of a class and what’s going on in the classroom. So by no means are we saying “this is you as a teacher”. It’s all about the teach ing . (Jerry)

Lesson observation has increasingly been embraced in Australian classrooms as a means to improve practice. Globally, however, observation is used for both ‘low-stakes’ purposes—such as self-reflection and formative feedback— and high-stakes purposes—namely, decisions about remuneration, tenure, and dismissal (Cohen & Goldhaber, 2016 ). In an era of accountability, where teachers are often positioned as ‘performance workers’ (Ball, 2003 ), it is not surprising that some are wary of observation. However, as Jerry eloquently explains, QTR is the antithesis of this view—it focuses on teaching , not teachers —which is why it was initially viewed as having a high level of appropriateness for the school. Indeed, in this light, Jerry makes an important distinction between teaching as a practice ( it’s all about the teaching ) and the traits of individual teachers ( by no means we are saying… this is you as a teacher ). But with such high turnover rates, there is an added layer of effort to constantly have to remove the stigma attached to lesson observation more broadly.

More recently, the sustainability of QTR has also been hindered by the current political environment in the local community, when the union intervened at another local school where teachers made complaints about observation more generally. Ultimately, this set of circumstances has triggered further adaptations to how QTR is implemented at Olsen Valley:

This year it’s been really different because we’ve had the same teachers observed twice. Because there hasn’t been as many people put their hand up. I’m not sure if that’s representative of—we’ve got a lot of new teachers who are sort of like, “we don’t want to be observed yet, we don’t really understand the process”. Particularly that’s what happened in our KLA [Key Learning Area]. I sort of said to our new staff member, “do you want to get observed?” and he’s like “not yet because I don’t understand what this is”. (Racquel)

Unfortunately, that’s where I’m not happy with it because, at the moment, we have the same sort of ten to fifteen staff members volunteering each term. And in my point of view, that’s not how it should be run. Everyone should be having a turn at hosting… To me that’s not the ideology of the process. You should be hosting a Round if you’re going and watching other people. You should be comfortable enough to have them come and watch you as well. (Jerry)

With the same group of teachers now repeatedly observed by their colleagues, there is an imbalance in the way QTR operates at Olsen Valley, affecting both feasibility and fidelity. This disparity revolves around a new opt-in process, where teachers must now come forward and put their hand up to be observed, rather than everyone taking a turn within a four-person PLC. Jerry understands that this approach conflicts with a key premise of QTR, which is the need to build reciprocity and trust (Bowe & Gore, 2017 ; Gore et al., 2017 ); you should be hosting a Round if you’re going and watching other people . However, when coupled with high teacher turnover, and hence fewer teachers to pass on their positive experience, new teachers are understandably hesitant to volunteer to host a Round. They are unfamiliar with QTR ( we don’t really understand the process ) and cautious about being observed by strangers soon after starting at the school. Although the school leadership team is unhappy with this imposed adaptation, they are doing what they can to keep QTR running, given their perception of its value as a form of professional development.

This paper sought to go beyond broad generalisations about effective PD by shifting the focus to program implementation. In the current climate of educational reform, the key measure of an intervention’s success is increasingly the oft-elusive goal of academic achievement; that is, positively influencing student outcomes (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017 ; Gore et al., in press; Hill et al., 2013 ). To date, however, the long list of program features advocated as central planks to ‘best practice’ (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017 ; Desimone, 2011 ) has largely overshadowed an analytic focus on what happens at the point of PD implementation. As the case study presented in this paper illustrates, even effective and robust forms of PD will not necessarily translate into effective implementation.

Appying the lens of implementation science—specifically Proctor et al.'s ( 2011 ) heuristic of implementation outcomes—highlights both the possibilites and constraints of translating effective PD like QTR across diverse contexts. The initial adoption of QTR at Olsen Valley High was underpinned by the best of intentions—to deprivatise classroom practice using a rigorous observational framework. Indeed, QTR was perceived to be both acceptable and appropriate among staff and leaders at the school, particularly when compared to the observational tools previously used. However, the combination of remoteness, lack of CRTs in the area, high teacher turnover, and negative perceptions of lesson observation (both locally and more broadly within the teaching profession) had major repercussions for all other implementation outcomes (Proctor et al., 2011 )—feasibility, fidelity, cost, penetration, and sustainability—ultimately resulting in a form of QTR that is almost unrecognisable from its intended design.

Adaptation to create a better fit between an intervention and local conditions is a widely acknowledged need of educational reform at scale (Borko, 2004 ; Datnow et al., 2002 ; Quinn & Kim, 2017 ). However, extreme variation in implementation, such as occurred at Olsen Valley, highlights how program integrity can be lost through modifications to, and removal of, core components. First, the reading discussion was removed, thus limiting the building of community through shared engagement in professional discussion of ideas. Second, each Round took place over a number of days—often weeks—rather than a single day, losing coherence in the process of observing, coding, and discussing a lesson. Third, PLCs were not sustained for a set of Rounds (typically four days spread over a period of weeks), instead operating fleetingly based on teaching schedules and availability, thereby limiting the building of trust among participants and reciprocity that comes from observing and analysing each other’s teaching. Finally, the coding discussion was both compressed in terms of time allocated and reductionist in the selection of elements, losing adherence to the protocol of addressing all dimensions and elements in the Quality Teaching Model. This adaptation limits the deep professional learning that comes from comprehensive analysis and discussion of teaching practice.

While it might therefore be easy to characterise this case study as an ‘implementation failure’ (Thomson, 2014 ), we argue that the lens of implementation science helps to understand the situation differently. Thomson ( 2014 ) argues that ‘failure’ in educational reform is too often attributed to those involved in the implementation—teachers, leaders, schools—or to the context itself, which is blamed for posing too many difficulties. It is certainly true that the structural limitations faced by Olsen Valley have had serious consequences for the uptake and sustainability of QTR. However, we neither see the environment as ‘too difficult’ for implementation nor do we criticise the people involved. Instead, implementation science offers a framework to systematically assess the outcomes of implementation and identify what is needed to enhance the effectiveness of PD.

When implemented with fidelity, QTR has wide-ranging benefits for both teachers and students (Bowe & Gore, 2017 ; Gore et al., 2017 ; Gore et al., 2021 ; Gore & Rickards., 2020a ; Gore & Rosser., 2020b ). We ask, therefore, how can these benefits be realised in school communities like Olsen Valley? One possibility is ‘QTR Digital’, a modified version of QTR recently trialled specifically for regional and remote contexts, utilising digital technologies to support implementation. This form of QTR is comprised of the same core features, but with a few critical changes to support uptake and sustainability. In particular, teachers digitally video record a lesson to be observed by the other members of their PLC—rather than the observation occurring face-to-face—supporting implementation in schools that face issues with securing CRTs and/or facilitating teacher release. Teachers can also form PLCs either within or across schools, which further supports small schools and schools situated in remote areas that struggle to release four teachers for a full set of Rounds.

At a policy level, the recent announcement by the NSW Department of Education of a trial to permanently employ CRTs to ‘cover’ classes in regional and remote areas of the state (NSW Department of Education, 2020 ) is a critical step to support the implementation of effective PD. Such a strategy provides not only a means for teachers to engage in effective PD, like QTR, but creates an incentive for casual teachers to teach in hard-to-staff areas by appointing them to a permanent position. Given that this trial just commenced at the time of writing, future research into how it might impact the implementation of effective PD in regional and remote areas of Australia is an important area for further investigation.

In sum, many of these implementation challenges are not new in the field of PD or in educational reform more broadly (Ball et al., 2012 ; Datnow et al., 2002 ; Hill et al., 2013 ). However, implementation science offers a new mechanism for conceptualising, evaluating and enhancing implementation through a systematic focus on context. It is insufficient to examine changes in teachers’ knowledge and practice or even student achievement associated with different program features. Instead, for PD to be effective, both the design of a program and the quality of its implementation are critical (Centre for Evidence & Implementation, 2017 ). When ‘effective PD’ fails to improve student outcomes, it may well be because implementation has deviated from best practice (Hill et al., 2013 ). Heuristics such as Proctor et al.'s ( 2011 ) can be highly beneficial by providing evidence with which to support implementation at scale. We argue that a dual focus on program features and program implementation is critical in the ongoing quest for effective PD.

Empirically and conceptually, this case study has significant implications for the study of effective PD. Rather than continuing to showcase interventions that ‘work’ and pinpoint their key design features, there is clearly an unmet and critical need to understand how programs are—and can be—implemented across diverse school contexts and how, in turn, implementation can be evaluated and enhanced. As Bryk ( 2015 ) argues, “the latter is what practitioners typically want to know—what will it take to make it work for me , for my students, and in my circumstances?” (p. 469; emphasis added). The money invested in PD—estimated to be billions of dollars annually (Kraft et al., 2018 )—demands that, in going forward, understandings of effective PD must be accompanied by knowledge of effective implementation.

Ball, S. J. (2003). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18 (2), 215–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093022000043065

Article   Google Scholar  

Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2012). How schools do policy: Policy enactments in secondary schools . Taylor & Francis.

Google Scholar  

Bauer, M. S., Damschroder, L., Hagedorn, H., Smith, J., & Kilbourne, A. M. (2015). An introduction to implementation science for the non-specialist. BMC Psychology . https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-015-0089-9

Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33 (8), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x033008003

Borko, H., Jacobs, J., & Koellner, K. (2010). Contemporary approaches to teacher professional development. In P. Peterson, E. Baker, & B. McGaw (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (Vol. 7, pp. 548–556). Elsevier.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Bowe, J. (2016). Quality Teaching Rounds: Strengthening the knowledge base and collaborative processes for teacher professional development [dissertation]. The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia. Retrieved from https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/

Bowe, J., & Gore, J. (2017). Reassembling teacher professional development: The case for Quality Teaching Rounds. Teachers and Teaching, 23 (3), 352–366. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2016.1206522

Bryk, A. S. (2015). 2014 AERA distinguished lecture: Accelerating how we learn to improve. Educational Researcher, 44 , 467–477. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x15621543

Centre for Evidence and Implementation. (2017). Implementation in education: Findings from a scoping review . Centre for Evidence and Implementation. Retrieved from https://evidenceforlearning.org.au/

Charteris, J., & Smardon, D. (2018). "Professional learning on steroids”: Implications for teacher learning through spatialised practice in new generation learning environments. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 43 (12), 12–29. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2018v43n12.2

City, E., Elmore, R., Fiarman, S., & Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional rounds in education . Harvard Education Press.

Cochran-Smith, M. (2015). A tale of two teachers: Learning to teach over time. Learning Landscapes, 8 (2), 111–134. https://doi.org/10.36510/learnland.v8i2.699

Cohen, J., & Goldhaber, D. (2016). Building a more complete understanding of teacher evaluation using classroom observations. Educational Researcher, 45 (6), 378–387. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x16659442

Damschroder, L. J., Aron, D. C., Keith, R. E., Kirsh, S. R., Alexander, J. A., & Lowery, J. C. (2009). Fostering implementation of health services research findings into practice: A consolidated framework for advancing implementation science. Implementation Science . https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-4-50

Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development . Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/

Datnow, A., Hubbard, L., & Mehan, H. (2002). Extending educational reform: From one school to many . RoutledgeFalmer.

Desimone, L. M. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational Researcher, 38 (3), 181–199. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x08331140

Desimone, L. M. (2011). A primer on effective professional development. The Phi Delta Kappan, 92 (6), 68–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172171109200616

Eccles, M. P., & Mittman, B. S. (2006). Welcome to implementation science. Implementation Science . https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-1-1

Elmore, R. (2007). Professional networks and school improvement. The School Administrator, 64 (4), 20–24. Retrieved from https://www.aasa.org/

Garet, M. S., Porter, A. C., Desimone, L., Birman, B. F., & Yoon, K. S. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 38 (4), 915–945. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312038004915

Gore, J. (2021). The quest for better teaching. Oxford Review of Education, 47 (1), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2020.1842182

Gore, J., & Bowe, J. (2015). Interrupting attrition? Re-shaping the transition from preservice to inservice teaching through Quality Teaching Rounds. International Journal of Educational Research, 73 , 77–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2015.05.006

Gore, J., & Rickards, B. (2020a). Rejuvenating experienced teachers through Quality Teaching Rounds professional development. Journal of Educational Change , Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-020-09386-z

Gore, J., & Rosser, B. (2020b). Beyond content-focused professional development: Powerful professional learning through genuine learning communities across grades and subjects. Professional Development in Education , Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2020.1725904

Gore, J., Lloyd, A., Smith, M., Bowe, J., Ellis, H., & Lubans, D. (2017). Effects of professional development on the quality of teaching: Results from a randomised controlled trial of Quality Teaching Rounds. Teaching and Teacher Education, 68 , 99–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.08.007

Gore, J., Miller, A., Fray, L., Harris, J., & Prieto, E. (2021). Improving student achievement through professional development: Results from a randomised controlled trial of Quality Teaching Rounds. Teaching and Teacher Education, 101 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103297

Gore, J., Patfield, S., & Fray, L. (in press). Questioning the consensus on effective professional development. In R. Tierney, F. Rizvi, G. Smith, & K. Gutierrez (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education (4th ed.). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.

Hill, H. C. (2009). Fixing teacher professional development. Phi Delta Kappan, 90 (7), 470–476. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172170909000705

Hill, H. C., Beisiegel, M., & Jacob, R. (2013). Professional development research: Consensus, crossroads, and challenges. Educational Researcher, 42 (9), 476–487. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x13512674

Jahnukainen, M. (2009). Extreme cases. In A. J. Mills, G. Durepos, & E. Wiebe (Eds.), Encyclopedia of case study research (online). SAGE Publications.

Kane, T. J., McCaffrey, D. F., Miller, T., & Staiger, D. O. (2013). Have we identified effective teachers? Validating measures of effective teaching using random assignment . Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved from https://usprogram.gatesfoundation.org/

Kelly, B. (2012). Implementation science for psychology in education. In B. Kelly & D. Perkins (Eds.), Handbook of implementation science for psychology in education (pp. 3–12). Cambridge University Press.

Kraft, M. A., Blazar, D., & Hogan, D. (2018). The effect of teacher coaching on instruction and achievement: A meta-analysis of the causal evidence. Review of Educational Research, 88 (4), 547–588. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654318759268

Meissel, K., Parr, J. M., & Timperley, H. S. (2016). Can professional development of teachers reduce disparity in student achievement? Teaching and Teacher Education, 58 , 163–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.05.013

Moir, T. (2018). Why Is implementation science important for intervention design and evaluation within educational settings? Frontiers in Education, 3 , 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2018.00061

NSW Department of Education. (2020). More casual teachers for regional schools . NSW Department of Education. Retrieved from https://www.nsw.gov.au/news/more-casual-teachers-for-regional-schools

OECD. (2019). TALIS 2018 results (volume 1): Teachers and school leaders as lifelong learners. OECD Publishing. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/education/

Opfer, D., & Pedder, D. (2011). Conceptualizing teacher professional learning. Review of Educational Research, 81 (3), 376–407. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311413609

Proctor, E., Silmere, H., Raghavan, R., Hovmand, P., Aarons, G., Bunger, A., Griffey, R., & Hensley, M. (2011). Outcomes for implementation research: Conceptual distinctions, measurement challenges, and research agenda. Administration and Policy in Mental Health, 38 (2), 65–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-010-0319-7

Quinn, D. M., & Kim, J. S. (2017). Scaffolding fidelity and adaptation in educational program implementation: Experimental evidence from a literacy intervention. American Educational Research Journal, 54 (6), 1187–1220. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831217717692

Sims, S., & Fletcher-Wood, H. (2021). Identifying the characteristics of effective teacher professional development: A critical review. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 32 (1), 47–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2020.1772841

The Design-Based Research Collective. (2003). Design-based research: An emerging paradigm for educational inquiry. Educational Researcher, 32 (1), 5–8. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x032001005

Thomas, D. C., Berry, A., Djuricich, A. M., Kitto, S., Kreutzer, K. O. K., Van Hoof, T. J., Carney, P. A., Kalishman, S., & Davis, D. (2017). What is implementation science and what forces are driving a change in medical education? American Journal of Medical Quality, 32 (4), 438–444. https://doi.org/10.1177/1062860616662523

Thomson, P. (2014). ‘Scaling up’ educational change: Some musings on misrecognition and doxic challenges. Critical Studies in Education, 55 (2), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2014.863221

Wei, R. C., Andree, A., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2009). How nations invest in teachers: High-achieving nations treat their teachers as professionals. Educational Leadership , 66(5), 28–33. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity . Cambridge University Press.

Book   Google Scholar  

Yin, R. (2013). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Yoon, K. S., Duncan, T., Lee, S. W. Y., Scarloss, B., & Shapley, K. (2007). Reviewing the evidence on how teacher professional development affects student achievement . U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/

Download references

This research was funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation and the NSW Department of Education. We wish to thank the schools and teachers involved in the research, as well as the project staff involved in data collection. We particularly wish to thank Claire Wallington for her oversight in project management.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, School of Education, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

Sally Patfield, Jennifer Gore & Jess Harris

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sally Patfield .

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Patfield, S., Gore, J. & Harris, J. Shifting the focus of research on effective professional development: Insights from a case study of implementation. J Educ Change 24 , 345–363 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-021-09446-y

Download citation

Accepted : 13 October 2021

Published : 29 October 2021

Issue Date : June 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-021-09446-y

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Teacher professional development
• Implementation
• Effective professional development
• Implementation science
• Quality Teaching Rounds
• Educational reform
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Professional/Career Development Tools & Resources

Though this by no means covers all possible topics, we encourage you to explore this page for a sample of professional/career development tools and resources. We hope that the information presented is a good starting point to access resources, tools, and opportunities that are designed to improve the knowledge and skills important to your short- and long-term career goals. Please note: Information presented from external organizations and scientific societies is not endorsed by—and does not necessarily represent the views of—NIH.

Professional/Career Development Resources

Networking opportunities.

These represent a select number of organizations that may have searchable databases for publications on topics related to women’s health issues and the advancement of women in biomedical research careers. Feel free to explore below and click on the dropdown button next to the organization to see an example resource on a specific topic.

• Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) Toolkit : This contains a series of presentations designed to provide practical guidance on a variety of topics relevant to women faculty in academic medicine.
• Power Reimagined - Advancing Women into Emerging Leadership Positions : This webinar compares and contrasts emerging trends with traditional leadership roles, identified systemic barriers that impede women who strive for these roles, and institutional and individual efforts necessary to overcome these barriers, including the part that mentorship and sponsorship play.
• Identity-based Harassment: A Workshop on Emerging Research Themes . (Report) Herbers, J. M., Metcalf, H. E., & Williams, R. L. 2019.
• AAAS Resource Center
• Leadership Tips for Women . (Article) Pain, Elisabeth. Science , 17 Sep. 2013.
• Solving the Equation: The Variables for Women’s Success in Engineering and Computing : This report asks why there are  still  so few women in the critical fields of engineering and computing—and explains what we can do to make these fields open to and desirable for  all .
• AAUW Work Smart salary negotiation workshop : This online course gives you the tools you need to successfully negotiate a salary and help close the pay gap for women everywhere.
• Five in Fifteen Webinar Series : This focuses on work–life integration, professional leadership, and career development.
• FASEB offers resources such as recurring webinars to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences.
• 6 Things Successful Women in STEM Have in Common . (Article) Sherbin, Laura. Harvard Business Review , 27 Apr. 2018.
• What Managers Can Do to Keep Women in Engineering . (Article) Dulini Fernando, Laurie Cohen, Joanne Duberley. Harvard Business Review , 12 June 2018.
• Entering Mentoring: A Seminar to Train a New Generation of Scientists
• Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty
• Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering . (Report) National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. 2007. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
• The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM . (Report) National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
• Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine: A National Academies Symposium Highlighting Evidence-Based Interventions (Webcast)
• Intersectionality in Tech 101 : “Provides a background and overview of the concept, in addition to key readings and resources related to women and girls of color in STEM and computing.”
• Developing a Research Program : “Resources ... are designed to give you information and advice on building on or moving beyond your graduate research and on starting up a new lab.”
• Postdocs Resource Library : Contains “documents, publications, and materials that are beneficial to postdocs.”
• Advancing Postdoc Women Guidebook : “This project examined promising practices found in professional societies and associations to advance postdoc women careers.”
• How to nurture brilliant women in STEM : “Inspiring talks from women who have pushed the boundaries in their field and are paving the way for the next generation of girls to earn their place in traditionally male-dominated professions. (Curated in partnership with the National Security Agency.)”
• The urgency of intersectionality : “Kimberlé Crenshaw uses the term ‘intersectionality’ to describe this phenomenon; as she says, if you’re standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you’re likely to get hit by both.”
• Enabling Courage: Agentic Strategies of Women of Color in Computing : TERC researchers “present findings from ... interviews with women computing students and professionals of color, who describe their approaches, often inspired by those who teach, mentor and even challenge them.” (Paper) Hodari, Apriel K., et al. Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing and Technology (RESPECT) , 2015.
• ASEE MIND: How to Write a Winning Best Paper (PowerPoint presentation from a webinar hosted by the Women in Engineering ProActive Network [WEPAN]): WEPAN’s webinars aim “to significantly increase knowledge of key issues and to encourage all participants to lead implementation of best and promising practices that will advance diverse communities of women in engineering in academic and workplace settings.”
• Google Scholar
• Sex and gender analysis improves science and engineering . (Paper) Tannenbaum, C., Ellis, R. P., Eyssel, F., et al.  Nature  575, 137–146 (2019).
• Women in Science : “This special issue of Nature takes a hard look at the gender gap—from bench to boardroom—and at what is being done to close it.”
• PubMed : “Comprises more than 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.”
• Women in academic leadership: A chance to shape the future . (Paper) Gallagher, Jennifer E., and Morison, Susan. Journal of Dentistry , vol. 87, 2019, pp. 45–48., doi:10.1016/j.jdent.2019.05.011.
• Detailed Findings from RTI’s Study of L’Oréal USA’s For Women in Science Program : “To celebrate 15 years of the program and to further contribute to the dialogue around strategies for increasing the representation of women in STEM fields, L’Oréal USA partnered with the Heising-Simons Foundation to commission a study of its 75 fellows and explore how their experiences and recommendations can help more women succeed in science during this critical postdoctoral career stage.” 2019.
• A Gender Divide on Microaggressions in Medicine . (Article) Periyakoil, VJ. The New York Times , 31 Oct. 2019.
• Increasing gender diversity in the STEM research workforce . Greider, Carol W., et al. Science , 8 Nov. 2019.
• Proven Strategies for Addressing Unconscious Bias in the Workplace . Sponsored by Cook Ross.
• Reaching the Full Potential of STEM for Women and the U.S. Economy . (Report) Pham, Nam D., and Triantis, Alex J. Center for Women in Business, 2015.
• Study Finds Significant Gender Disparity in the Number of Women Physicians Publishing Papers in Biomedical Journals . Dillard, Robert. DocWire , 15 Jan. 2020.
• A Summary Report From the Research Partnership on Women in Science Careers . (Paper) Carr P. L., Helitzer, D., Freund, K., et al.  Journal of General Internal Medicine . 2019;34(3):356–362.
• Transforming mentorship in STEM by training scientists to be better leaders . (Paper) Hund, Amanda K., et al. Ecology and Evolution, 2 Oct. 2018.
• Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation: Inspiration and Strategies for Women . (Book) McCauley Bush, Pamela. Academic Press, 2013.
• Turning Chutes Into Ladders for Women Faculty: A Review and Roadmap for Equity in Academia . (Paper) Cardel, M. I., Dhurandhar, E., Yarar-Fisher C., et al. Published online ahead of print, 2020 Feb. 11.  Journal of Women’s Health . 2020;10.1089/jwh.2019.8027. doi:10.1089/jwh.2019.8027.
• Women of color in STEM face greater risks of gender, racial harassment at work . (Article) Greene, Sydney C. USA Today , 14 July 2017.
• Women of Color Research Network Discusses: “The Leaky Pipeline” (YouTube video).

As you think about your career trajectory and how to grow professionally, below are links that represent a few examples of tools that are available to help with time management, self-assessment, project management, and more. An online web search for the topic you are interested in can give you more information.

• edX : “Supporting learners at every stage, whether entering the job market, changing fields, seeking a promotion or exploring new interests, edX delivers free courses for curious minds on topics ranging from data and computer science to leadership and communications.”
• Harvard University’s Implicit Association Test (IAT) : “Measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. The IAT may be especially interesting if it shows that you have an implicit attitude that you did not know about.”
• How to make a Gantt chart in Excel : “This ... step-by-step tutorial will show you how to make professional Gantt charts using Excel and PowerPoint.”
• myIDP : Comprehensive self-assessment tool from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• NIH Individual Development Plan (IDP) Consulting and Workshops : NIH offers IDP consulting to NIH employees to help them support, plan, and track their career development and learning opportunities. “An experienced consultant, versed in mentoring and coaching  Management Interns  and  Presidential Management Fellows , will work with you from a holistic perspective.” Only open to NIH employees.
• Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) Women in Science Mentoring Program : “Cohorts of female scientists, consisting of one senior faculty member as the mentor, and 2-4 junior faculty with complementary research focus from the same university, (are invited) to apply for this mentorship program.”
• SpiderScribe : “Online mind mapping and brainstorming tool (that) lets you organize your ideas by connecting notes, files, and calendar events, etc. in free-form maps.”

There are a variety of professional societies and organizations that work to champion the advancement of women across all scientific disciplines. Below are a few that have networks designed to support women in many aspects, including professional/career development and leadership growth. The information presented below is not meant to be all-inclusive and may not include information specific to your discipline.

Page last updated on June 01, 2023

Our Web site has links to many other federal agencies, and in a few cases we link to private organizations. You are subject to that site's privacy policy when you leave our site. We proudly comply with 508 accessibility regulations, but we cannot be responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private Web sites.

Reference in this Web site to any specific commercial products, process, service, manufacturer, or company does not constitute its endorsement or recommendation by the U.S. Government or National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH is not responsible for the contents of any "off-site" Web page referenced from this server.

Assessment of Professional Development Activities Toolkit

Integrating assessment and evaluation into professional development activities creates better learning and data for evaluation and reporting. The resources and tools below, developed by the FAS4ATE project, are intended for anyone who is involved in conducting and evaluating professional development activities, including PIs, co-PIs, and evaluators.

Learning about Evaluation for Professional Development

Introduction to the Professional Development Formative Assessment System

An overview of the Professional Development Formative Assessment System’s history, rationale, ideas and principles.

Professional Development Evaluation Checklist (full version)

Use this full checklist (12 pages) to discover all the things you could do to integrate assessment and evaluation into a Professional Development (PD) program.

Professional Development Evaluation Checklist (short version)

Use this quick checklist (1.5 pages) to check that you’ve covered the basics to integrate assessment and evaluation into your PD program.

Pre-Assessments: Effective Design and Use

Use this guide to learn about pre-assessments, reflect on the quality of any you already have and design good ones for your PD program.

Professional Development Application Template

Use this template to set up your PD registration or application process to collect data for evaluation and assessment.

A Guide for Developing Learning Objectives

Use this guide to review/refine or develop the learning objectives for your PD program.

A Guide for Learning Objectives to Analyze Deep and Surface Learning

Use this guide to learn about the difference between surface and deep learning and how to ensure your PD learning objectives scaffold from one to the other.

A Summary of Pedagogies Suited to Types of Learning

Use this summary to identify and apply appropriate pedagogical (teaching) strategies for surface and deep learning

A Guide to Rethinking Quizzes

Use this guide to explore the difference between quizzes used for summative and formative assessment.

A Guide to Test Development

Use this document to think through your assessment tasks and ensure the learning objectives are adequately addressed.

Guides for Integrating Assessment and Evaluation throughout Professional Development

Use these guides to explore the difference between formative and summative assessments and strategies to integrate formative assessment into your PD or classroom teaching.

Participant Follow-up Template

Use this template to prepare your PD participants to report back to you after the PD program, and to structure that follow up survey.

A Guide on Gathering Student Level Data

Use this guide to consider the student level data you could collect related to your PD program.

A Guide to Stakeholders involved in the Evaluation

Use this guide to decide who should be involved and how in the evaluation of your PD program.

Why is Professional Development Important?

Learn the role of professional development in advancing your career.

Lian Parsons

Professional development is an important aspect of continuing your career growth and striving to reach your goals.

This blog post will explain what professional development is, its benefits to both employers and their employees, and how to seek different opportunities out to reach your full potential.

What is Professional Development?

Professional development is gaining new skills through continuing education and career training after entering the workforce. It can include taking classes or workshops, attending professional or industry conferences, or earning a certificate to expand your knowledge in your chosen field.

Some companies offer in-house opportunities for professional development, such as training sessions or mentoring programs, but many professional development programs are done independently. 

Professional development is important because it has the potential to open opportunities for career advancement, such as promotions. It can assist you in honing existing skills and in learning new ones. 

It can also help you stand out in a pool of applicants; showing that you have completed professional development programs or additional industry certifications on your resume can go a long way in showing your expertise in your field.

Employees who show initiative in independent learning can signal to employers that you are open to new experiences and are enthusiastic about continuing to grow. 

Benefits of Professional Development for Employers

Professional development can be instrumental in growing a stronger team.

Employers who encourage their employees to seek out professional development opportunities are in turn encouraging higher productivity and job satisfaction. 

Higher Retention Rates

According to a Business News Daily article, businesses should offer professional development opportunities to their employees to improve potential turnover.

Professional development can help to bolster employees’ confidence in their work. Greater confidence can, in turn, translate into higher overall job satisfaction, employee performance, productivity, and overall morale. 

Investing in professional development training programs also shows employees that their company is invested in their success and interested in cultivating their advancement.

Attract Better Talent

It can be challenging to find — and retain — talented employees. Offering professional development opportunities can help employers fill open positions by attracting and retaining skilled employees.

According to talent management platform Clear Company, 74 percent of employees say that a lack of professional development opportunities are preventing them from reaching their full potential. Additionally, 94 percent of employees would stay longer at a company if it invested in staff development.

Employers offering these benefits are more likely to attract potential employees who are interested in striving for excellence and pursuing advancement. 

Investing in professional development for employees can grow an existing team’s skills and entice new talent to join with the incentive of a clear learning and development plan. 

Help Employees Stay Up to Date With Industry Trends to Keep Skills Sharp

Industry trends move rapidly, and it’s important for companies to keep pace with the times. Ongoing professional development can prevent potential stagnation by maintaining — and improving — employee skills. 

Look for programs that will help you stay up to date, such as those for agile leadership for hybrid work, or for innovation strategy .

Employees engaged in professional development are also more likely to stay engaged in their work and to be enthusiastic about pursuing their goals. 

Get started on your professional development journey today.

Benefits of Professional Development for Employees

From gaining confidence in your abilities to building potential for advancement, professional development offers employees many benefits for not only your career, but your personal goals as well. 

Learn new skills

Through professional development, you may hone both hard and soft skills in your work. Hard skills pertain to job-specific knowledge you can obtain through formal training or education. Soft skills are personal competencies, such as effective communication or the skills that contribute to emotional intelligence . 

Developing both types of skills is important to reaching your professional goals — and even some of your personal ones.

Boost Confidence and Credibility

Adding additional skills or certification from a professional development program to your resume is one way to boost your confidence in your skills and show your credibility to employers.

Professional development opportunities can expose both new and experienced professionals to new ideas and expertise. Seeking out these opportunities shows ambition and the space to practice those new competencies. 

Develop Leadership Skills

A confident employee is also likely an enthusiastic employee. If you take the step to grow and develop your skills, the incentive to seek out additional opportunities can continue to expand along with it. 

If you are an employee who wants to advance your career but isn’t sure how to do so, professional development can encourage you to put your hand up for leadership opportunities you may not have sought out otherwise. 

This blog post offers helpful tips on how to choose a leadership development program.

Build Your Network

Professional development can provide many opportunities for networking. Workshops, conferences, classes, and webinars are all spaces in which professionals can meet new people within their industry and make new connections.

These connections can lead to new opportunities, mentorship, and support which may provide the next stepping stone in your career. 

Advance in your career

A well-qualified employee attracts employer attention. Employees who are invested in professional development display commitment to their work and an interest in continuing to improve.

Professional development can also boost your earning potential by increasing your value through obtaining credentials, certifications, and designations. 

Where to Take Professional Development Courses

There are a broad range of professional development opportunities. 

Harvard Division of Continuing Education’s Professional & Executive Development offers dozens of courses spanning multiple industries. Your employer may even help you pay for these opportunities if you effectively show their worth.  

There are both in-person and online options available, so choose what works best for your goals and lifestyle.

Seek out programs, workshops, seminars, mentorship programs, and more within your industry. Investing in yourself is just the first step.

Take the next step to advance your career. Find the program that’s right for you.

Browse all Professional & Executive Development programs.

About the Author

Lian Parsons is a Boston-based writer and journalist. She is currently a digital content producer at Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education. Her bylines can be found at the Harvard Gazette, Boston Art Review, Radcliffe Magazine, Experience Magazine, and iPondr.

Strategic Leadership

Senior level managers must tackle complex problems using creative problem-solving and a portfolio of skills and styles. Here’s a look at how being a strategic leader can move an organization—and your career—forward.

Harvard Division of Continuing Education

The Division of Continuing Education (DCE) at Harvard University is dedicated to bringing rigorous academics and innovative teaching capabilities to those seeking to improve their lives through education. We make Harvard education accessible to lifelong learners from high school to retirement.

• Top Courses
• Online Degrees
• Find your New Career
• Join for Free

What Are Professional Development Goals? 10 Examples + How to Set Them

Professional development goals can help you achieve your short- and long-term objectives in your career.

Professional development goals are objectives you can set for yourself to help further your career. These might include taking steps to learn relevant skills, expand your professional network, or find more satisfaction at work.

Why set professional development goals?

Setting professional development goals can have many benefits. They can help you stay up-to-date on industry trends, increase engagement and job satisfaction, and align you with what you want out of your career and life.

Setting goals that are SMART—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound —can clarify what you need to achieve in the short-term to arrive at your long-term goals. Read more about setting SMART goals below.

10 examples of professional development goals

Here are ten examples of professional development goals to inspire your own:

1. Develop a new skill set.

Growing professionally often means expanding the arsenal of things you’re able to do. What skill you choose to develop can depend on your industry, job, and personal preferences. In-demand skills across the job sector in 2022 included cloud computing, data analysis skills like artificial intelligence and SQL, management, and UX design [ 1 ].

Don’t know where to start? Approach your manager and see if they have suggestions. You can also browse job descriptions of positions you’d be interested in pursuing; the common skills listed will help you get a sense of what’s in-demand in your field. Do some research to get a sense of what you want to learn and what will be useful to your work.

Develop skills by taking online or in-person courses, shadowing a coworker, or going back to school, among other ways. Think about what fits your schedule and the level of expertise you’re aiming for to see what works best for you.

2. Develop your workplace skills.

Workplace skills are the tools and practices that help people in a workplace connect and interact smoothly with one another. Sometimes referred to as human or soft skills, workplace skills can be crucial for advancing to higher-level positions. Workplace skills include verbal and nonverbal communication, empathy, self-awareness, and leadership.

Specific goals might include:

Complete an online course on communication, negotiation, or psychology

Join a social public speaking club, such as a local Toastmasters chapter

Read more: Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills: What’s the Difference?

3. Take up leadership responsibilities.

Actively seeking out leadership opportunities will allow you to develop leadership skills , and show others that you are striving to grow. Approach your manager to see how you might be able to put your leadership skills into practice. Have a few suggestions at the ready. Here are some examples to get your started:

Lead two team meetings this quarter

Plan and lead a team initiative to collectively learn a new tool or skill

Plan the next team offsite or activity

4. Expand your professional network.

Expanding your professional network can expose you to new ideas, build your profile, keep you informed of new job opportunities, and help you learn continuously. 

Sign up for events to attend in your field, join professional groups in person or through social media platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn, or find opportunities to volunteer your skills through volunteer databases like VolunteerMatch . 

Some concrete goals you can set include:

Attend five in-person or virtual professional events

Find and join three professional groups on LinkedIn

Read more: 9 Networking Tips to Expand and Strengthen Your Network

5. Level-up your credentials.

Beefing up your credentials can open up new career opportunities or clear a path to a promotion. Credentials can include certifications, professional certificates , and degrees. See what makes the most sense for both your short- and long-term career goals . Once you get your credential, don’t forget to inform your manager and list it in relevant places like your resume and LinkedIn profile .

Relevant goals might look like the following:

Earn a certification in your field in the next quarter or year

Complete a professional certificate

Find five degree programs to begin applying to

Read more: Upskilling: What It Means and How It Can Help Your Career

Build job-ready skills with a Coursera Plus subscription

• Get access to 7,000+ learning programs from world-class universities and companies, including Google, Yale, Salesforce, and more
• Try different courses and find your best fit at no additional cost
• Earn certificates for learning programs you complete
• A subscription price of $59/month, cancel anytime

6. Consume media in your field.

Learning more about your field through various media—like books, podcasts, and news publications, to name a few—can enrich your understanding of the context around your work and inform you of ways to improve. Plus, as passive ways of absorbing information, you’ll be able to learn as you, say, go on a walk or wait for the bus.

Ask coworkers or professionals in your network about recommendations. Otherwise, a quick online search should yield plenty of ideas, whether you’re looking for marketing podcasts , books on project management , or something else.

Here are some concrete goals you might aspire to:

Read two books in your field in a quarter

Listen to one podcast on a relevant topic a week

Find 10 experts in your field on Twitter to follow

7. Find other ways to deepen job satisfaction.

Being satisfied as a professional doesn’t necessarily mean striving for constant achievement and earning promotions. Job satisfaction is tied to many factors besides enjoying the work itself—including forming fulfilling relationships with coworkers, achieving work-life balance , and keeping your mental and physical health in check. Plus, there’s evidence that links job satisfaction to higher productivity and less turnover in workplaces—being a happy worker is likely going to benefit your company too [ 2 ].

Here are some goals you might set to improve your workday:

Schedule lunch or coffee chats with coworkers 

Join or start a workplace interest group

Create a plan to prepare healthy meals for lunch

Set reminders to take intermittent breaks throughout the day

Clarify boundaries on work expectations outside of working hours

8. Take a relevant course.

Courses can help you develop skills, learn about issues relevant to your work, and flex new parts of your brain. Courses can be directly related to your work responsibilities, but this might be an opportunity to challenge yourself to develop in new ways. Data analysis , project management , or UX design courses may give you the skills you need—but consider other fields like creative writing, public speaking, or foreign languages that can deepen your work in more unexpected ways.

Specific goals for coursework might look like the following:

Complete a course on XYZ topic in a quarter 

Map out a plan for coursework you’ll take throughout the year

Did you know?

You can start enrolling in hundreds of free courses after you sign up for Coursera. Join our global community and start learning today .

9. Shadow another department.

Shadowing another department can have myriad positives: it can encourage communication and cooperation across siloed teams, inspire ways to improve your own team, and leave you with a better understanding of how your organization works. 

You can set goals such as:

Ask three people from different departments to lunch

Create a program in your workplace to encourage cross-team shadowing

10. Find a mentor.

A mentor can help you navigate challenges in the workplace and help you progress in your career. 

Finding a mentor might sound like a daunting task, but be assured that many have done it before. Some workplaces have mentoring programs in place that make it easy for people to connect with a more experienced professional. You might also find that your professional network will come in handy here. You can start by finding people who have had careers you find close to your aspirations in professional groups or alumni communities. Or if it makes sense, reach out to somebody in your workplace that you think you’ll be able to learn from.

Goals that will help you land a mentor include:

Create a pitch that you can use to contact potential mentors

Arrange a meeting with potential mentors to see if they’re a fit

Map out your short- or long-term goals (or both) of having a mentor

How to set professional development goals

1. know what you’re working towards..

Start by taking some time to consider what you want out of your career, now or in the future. Goal-setting is a useful exercise because it can clarify what you really want out of your career, and identify tangible steps to achieve it.

Don’t know what you want to do in five or 10 years yet? Start smaller, and identify your interests. If you’ve always admired your manager who can speak eloquently in front of others, consider a public speaking course. If you find yourself fascinated by your coworker’s ability to analyze data sets, try learning Python or another programming language.

2. Set SMART goals.

SMART goals are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Here’s what each of those components mean:

Specific: Goals should be well-defined and unambiguous so that you know exactly what you’re aspiring to.

Measurable: Goals should have a clear way of identifying whether you’ve achieved them, or if not, how close you came to them. For example, saying Finish three modules of my online course is more measurable than a goal like Work on my online course.

Achievable: Setting a goal that you can realistically achieve is key to actually achieving them. Plus, thinking in the back of your mind that a goal is impossible may be demotivating. Keep yourself motivated by setting reasonable goals.

Relevant: Your goals should be relevant to you—that is, they should align with your long-term aspirations and values. Think of this as the “why” of your goal.

Time-bound: Set a deadline for your goals so you can stay on track and motivated. 

Getting started on professional development goals

Professional development goals can help identify what you want your career to look like in the short and long term, and what steps you need to take to get where you want to be. Ready to get started? Learn from world-class institutions with over 7,000 courses, certificates, and degrees on Coursera .

Article sources

1. Coursera. " Global Skills Report , https://pages.coursera-for-business.org/rs/748-MIV-116/images/Coursera-Global-Skills-Report-2022.pdf." Accessed May 18, 2023.

2. Harvard Business Review. " Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive , https://hbr.org/2015/12/proof-that-positive-work-cultures-are-more-productive." Accessed May 18, 2023.

Keep reading

Coursera staff.

Editorial Team

Coursera’s editorial team is comprised of highly experienced professional editors, writers, and fact...

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

• Product overview
• All features
• App integrations

CAPABILITIES

• project icon Project management
• Project views
• Custom fields
• Status updates
• goal icon Goals and reporting
• Reporting dashboards
• workflow icon Workflows and automation
• portfolio icon Resource management
• Time tracking
• my-task icon Admin and security
• Admin console
• asana-intelligence icon Asana AI
• list icon Personal
• premium icon Starter
• briefcase icon Advanced
• Goal management
• Organizational planning
• Campaign management
• Creative production
• Content calendars
• Marketing strategic planning
• Resource planning
• Project intake
• Product launches
• Employee onboarding
• View all uses arrow-right icon
• Project plans
• Team goals & objectives
• Team continuity
• Meeting agenda
• View all templates arrow-right icon
• Work management resources Discover best practices, watch webinars, get insights
• What's new Learn about the latest and greatest from Asana
• Customer stories See how the world's best organizations drive work innovation with Asana
• Help Center Get lots of tips, tricks, and advice to get the most from Asana
• Asana Academy Sign up for interactive courses and webinars to learn Asana
• Developers Learn more about building apps on the Asana platform
• Community programs Connect with and learn from Asana customers around the world
• Events Find out about upcoming events near you
• Partners Learn more about our partner programs
• Support Need help? Contact the Asana support team
• Asana for nonprofits Get more information on our nonprofit discount program, and apply.

Featured Reads

• Inspire & Impact Collection |
• What is a professional development plan ...

What is a professional development plan (PDP)? 6 steps to create one

A professional development plan is an ever-changing document that assesses your current skill set, helps you set career goals, create strategies, and uncover resources that will help you reach them. Read on for examples of professional development goals and plans, and discover tools to help track your progress.

Times have changed. While our parents and grandparents typically picked one job and stuck with it until retirement, following a very straightforward career path, the modern knowledge worker is presented with a variety of new industries, jobs, and ways to prove ourselves.

This abundance of opportunities is amazing but can also be overwhelming. If you’re looking to streamline your career goals, a professional development plan, or PDP, is the tool you need.

A professional development plan is a document that outlines your current skills and knowledge, your goals, and the steps you need to take to achieve these goals.

We’re going to cover the six steps your PDP should include, examples of professional development goals and plans, and tools that will help you track your career development.

How to create a professional development plan in 6 steps

Your professional development plan is not a one-time project. Rather, it’s an ever-changing document that you update as your goals, surroundings, and priorities change. 

The visual below illustrates the lifecycle of your professional development plan.

So let’s dive into the six steps you need to take to create your own professional development plan (PDP).

Step 1: Assess yourself

You have to first identify where you stand with your current skills and knowledge of relevant topics so you can figure out what you need to improve or change to progress in your career.

Assessing yourself isn’t always easy. To jump-start this process, try using an assessment tool or personality test. Here are a few popular ones to try:

The Big Five

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

DISC personality

These tests can help you get a better understanding of who you are and what you want out of your life and career.

Step 2: Set your goals

Now that you’ve evaluated your current position and skills, it’s time to set your goals. To break up your main goals, you’ll want to set long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals . 

Long-term goals can be months or even years into the future.

Mid-term goals should range from a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

Short-term goals should range from a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

Generally speaking, aim to set one long-term goal and then break the mid- and short-term goals up into manageable chunks. The number of short- and mid-term goals you set depends on how far into the future you’re planning and how many steps you need to complete to reach the finish line.

Setting more than one long-term goal only makes sense if they’re on different tracks. For example, you could set a long-term goal for your career, another one for your fitness, and a last one for your finances. While the progress you’re making in each of these aspects of your life may influence one another, these goals are different enough to require unique mid- and short-term goals. 

If you do set more than one long-term goal, consider the mental, emotional, and physical strain that multiple goals can have on you and adjust your schedule accordingly so you don’t burn out .

Whether you’re setting long-, mid-, or short-term goals, use the SMART goal technique to ensure that your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timebound. We’ll cover some examples later on.

Step 3: Develop strategies

To reach your goals you need an action plan. To create one, ask yourself how you can advance your competencies, learn new skills, or get that promotion you’ve been eyeing. 

Take a look at your current skill set or position, as well as your goals, and write down what you need to do to reach them. Whether that’s going to a conference to broaden your knowledge, finding a mentor who can help you build meaningful connections within the organization, or signing up for a workshop to hone your skills—write down your action plan so you know which steps you’ll have to take to reach your goals. 

Step 4: Gather your resources

Once you’ve developed an action plan, think through the professional growth you need to succeed. Here are a few examples of resources that can be relevant to your professional development:

Seminars, webinars, or workshops that elevate your skill set

Learning and development resources that can advance your knowledge

Professional networks that connect you with new peers or mentors

Continuing education institutions that provide you with the degree you need for your promotion.

Social media platforms, like LinkedIn, where you can connect with your virtual team outside of work

List all the resources you can think of and then narrow them down to the ones that align best with your strategies and goals.

Step 5: Create a timeline

Creating a timeline and deadlines for your goals can be extremely helpful in sticking to them. It’s also the “T” of any SMART goal (time-bound). 

Depending on the type of goals you set for yourself, you may want to think in weekly, monthly, or quarterly increments. Try to find a happy balance between giving yourself enough time to achieve your goals but also challenging yourself.

If your main goal is tied to a specific date (for example, a new position that you want which needs to be filled by the beginning of the next year), your timeline will hold you accountable to your short- and mid-term goals so you don’t miss this career opportunity.

Step 6: Track your progress

With your timeline at hand and your SMART goals defined, it should be easy for you to track your progress and assess where you are. This brings us back to the beginning because your PDP isn’t a linear plan—it’s a lifecycle. 

Remember to keep your PDP alive by updating and adjusting it as you go. That’s the only way it can help you to continually improve yourself and grow in your career. You should also add your goals to a goal-setting software that allows you to track your progress and connect with others.

Professional development goal examples

We already have an entire article on advancing your career with professional goals but let’s sum up some of the most important information regarding professional development goals.

Professional development goals are concrete objectives that you want to achieve during your career. They’re a combination of short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals. Setting these goals should keep you motivated and ensure that you don’t get stuck on your career path.

Here are a few examples of what these goals can look like:

Objective: Start a new job

Long-term: Get a good offer and quit your current job.

Mid-term: Apply for at least five positions that you’re really interested in.

Short-term: Find five job opportunities by the end of the week.

Objective: Get more involved in company activities

Long-term: Participate in and help organize at least one event by the end of the year.

Mid-term: Join a group or committee that sparks your interest.

Short-term: Find three opportunities that you’re interested in (e.g., a networking group, a charity committee, etc.) and contact them about getting involved by the end of the month.

Breaking your main objective up into manageable chunks will take some of the pressure off and allow you to approach your goal step by step. Plus, it’ll give you reasons to celebrate your smaller achievements along the way.

Professional development plan examples

Everyone’s professional development plan is going to look different. To give you a quick overview of what it can entail, here are a few brief examples of what you can write in your professional development plan:

Self assessment

Joined the company only six weeks ago

I feel welcomed by my team but I’m holding back on social interactions because I am intimidated by their closeness

Create a network of at least three people that I connect with outside of work by the end of the year.

Speak up and get involved in meetings

Attend conferences, workshops, and after-work activities

Find a mentor

Connect with colleagues on LinkedIn

Company networks and after-work activities

Mentor 1:1 meetings

By next week: Add colleagues on LinkedIn and participate in at least one after-work activity

By next month: Secure a mentor and schedule bi-weekly meetings

By next quarter: Attend a conference or workshop with a colleague

By the end of the year: Have three or more colleagues that I feel comfortable hanging out with after or outside of work

When tracking these goals, you may realize that they were easier or harder to reach than you thought. That’s no problem! Simply adjust your goals or timeline and keep going. 

In this case, you may realize that making these connections doesn’t just help you feel more welcome and comfortable in the team but that your team considers you a natural leader. That could lead to a whole new development plan you can create to ensure you keep growing as a person.

Professional development plan vs. leadership development plan

Technically, a professional development plan doesn’t differ too much from a leadership development plan. Both require you to assess your current situation, set realistic goals, and track your progress.

However, if your goals are focused on improving your leadership skills or advancing into a leadership role at your organization, creating a leadership development plan will help you focus on the exact skills you’ll need to turn that plan into action. 

The first two steps remain the same: assess where you stand professionally and set your goals. After that, step three is to engage in leadership training and hone your leadership skills. During this step, you’ll also meet other leaders who can become your mentors and eventually your peers.

Step four of your leadership development plan is to build and interact with your network. To become a respected and successful leader, you’ll have to connect with like-minded people and seek out feedback whenever possible.

The last step is to learn or improve soft skills like effective communication , your emotional intelligence , and conflict resolution . All of these are critical to succeed in a leadership role and will distinguish a mediocre leader from a great one.

Help your team set trackable professional goals

Whether you’re working on your own PDP or helping out a teammate, the most important thing is that whatever goals you set are measurable and precise. This will allow you to track your progress and celebrate milestones.

With Asana’s goal tracking software, you can align your personal goals with those of your team or organization and always stay on top of your latest achievements.

Related resources

Unmasking impostor syndrome: 15 ways to overcome it at work

How to accomplish big things with long-term goals

Fix these common onboarding challenges to boost productivity

30-60-90 day plan: How to onboard new hires with ease

Self-Assessment

The starting point in the career development process is identifying your skills, values, interests, and preferences to determine what types of positions are of interest and would be a good fit.

There are many self-assessment tools that can be used to help with this process. Some of these can be self-administered – for free or for a fee – and others must be administered by a counselor who is trained and can assist you with interpreting the results.

These tools will NOT tell you what career or position is the perfect match but they will help you gain insight about yourself so that you can articulate what is important to you, focus your job search, and assist you in evaluating options.

How can taking a self-assessment help you?

Some Self-Assessment Tools:

• Myers-Briggs Test : a questionnaire that describes your preferred way of interacting; one of many free online tests can be found at HumanMetrics and www.16personalities.com
• Strong Interest Inventory : another personality test that compares your interests with those of individuals successfully working in a range of jobs; the analysis usually incurs a fee but you can find free versions online (keep in mind that you often get what you pay for)
• Career Beliefs Inventory : a career counseling tool that can help identify and overcome attitudes that interfere with choosing a career
• Values Assessment (free) – The Values Test can help you learn more about your underlying work needs and motivations, and can help you decide what is important to you in a job.
• Kiersey Temperament Sorter – there is a free mini-report that provides you with a detailed summary of your personality type and core characteristics, including what types of roles and workplaces may be a good fit. There is a fee for a more detailed career occupation report.

• NLN Certification
• Assessment Services
• CNEA Accreditation
• NLN Foundation
• Mission & Core Values
• History & Archives
• Board of Governors
• Senior Management
• Consultants & Speakers Bureau
• NLN Elections
• NLN Nominations
• Career Center

Tools and Instruments

The NLN is pleased to share four tools and instruments for use in nursing education.

Description of Available Instruments

Educational practices questionnaire-curriculum (epq-c).

Educational Practices Questionnaire-Curriculum (EPQ-C) is a 22-item instrument using a five-point scale and designed to measure 1) whether learners agree or disagree that the seven educational practices (student-faculty interaction, collaborative learning, active learning, feedback, time on task, high expectations, and diverse learning) are present in instructor-developed educational experiences; and 2) the importance of each of the seven educational practices to the learner in the educational experience. The educational practices were derived from the work of Chickering and Gamson (1987).

Reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha. Presence of specific practices = 0.94; importance of specific practices = 0.87. The EPQ-C has a content validity index (CVI) of .90 and aligns with the seven principles of best practices in undergraduate education (Chickering and Gamson, 1987).

• Download a copy of the Educational Practices Questionnaire for nursing education research  (PDF).
• Instrument authors: Bette Mariani, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN; Cynthia Sherraden Bradley, PhD, RN, CNE, CHSE; Amy L. Daniels, PhD, RN, CHSE; Susan Gross Forneris, PhD, RN, CNE, CHSE-A
• Instrument reference citation: National League for Nursing. (2021).  Educational Practices Questionnaire-Curriculum © .   

The Simulation Design Scale (Student Version)

The Simulation Design Scale (student version), a 20-item instrument using a five-point scale, was designed to evaluate the five design features of the instructor-developed simulations used in the NLN/Laerdal study. The five design features include: 1) objectives/information; 2) support; 3) problem solving; 4) feedback; 5) fidelity. The instrument has two parts: one asks about the presence of specific features in the simulation, the other asks about the importance of those features to the learner.

Content validity was established by ten content experts in simulation development and testing. The instrument's reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha, which was found to be 0.92 for presence of features, and 0.96 for the importance of features.

• Download a copy of the Simulation Design Scale for nursing education research  (PDF).
• Instrument authors: Pamela R. Jeffries, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH ;  Mary Anne Rizzolo, EdD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH
• Instrument reference citation: National League for Nursing. (2005).  Simulation Design Scale ©  (Student Version) . 
• View a note about the NLN/Laerdal simulation research study .

Educational Practices Questionnaire (Student Version) for use in simulation

Educational Practices Questionnaire (student version), a 16-item instrument using a five-point scale, was designed to measure whether four educational practices (active learning, collaboration, diverse ways of learning, and high expectations) are present in the instructor-developed simulation, and the importance of each practice to the learner.

The educational practices were derived from the work of Chickering and Gamson (1987). Reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha. Presence of specific practices = 0.86; importance of specific practices = 0.91

• Instrument reference citation: National League for Nursing. (2005).  E ducational Practices Questionnaire ©  (Student Version) .  

Student Satisfaction and Self-Confidence in Learning

Student Satisfaction and Self-Confidence in Learning, a 13-item instrument designed to measure student satisfaction (five items) with the simulation activity and self-confidence in learning (eight items) using a five-point scale. Reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha: satisfaction = 0.94; self-confidence = 0.87

• Download a copy of the Student Satisfaction and Self-Confidence in Learning for nursing education research  (PDF).
• Instrument reference citation:  National League for Nursing. (2005). Student Satisfaction and Self-confidence in Learning © . 

View Copyright and Permissions information for these instruments

For questions about the use of these instruments, please contact [email protected]    

Please note: The Simulation Design Scale, Educational Practices Questionnaire, and Student Satisfaction and Self Confidence in Learning Scale were all developed as part of the 2003 NLN/Laerdal simulation research study. These instruments are all student self-reports of their perceptions and reactions to the simulation. Since that time, many other instruments have been developed that more objectively evaluate learners in simulation-based experiences. With the growing body of research in simulation, it is clear that student reactions and self-confidence are concepts that have been well studied. Use of these instruments at this time should be limited to use within simulation programs that are just being established.

• Download the NLN/Laerdal Project Summary Report  (PDF)
• Kardong-Edgren, S., Adamson, K., Fitzgerald, C. (2010).  A Review of Currently Published Evaluation Instruments for Human Patient Simulation.  Clinical Simulation in Nursing , 6(1), e25-e35.
• Adamson, K.A., Kardong-Edgren, S., & Willhaus, J. (2013). An Updated Review of Published Simulation Evaluation Instruments.  Clinical Simulation in Nursing , 9(9), e393-e400.

• Research Guides
• DAAP Library

Planning & Urban Studies Guide

Professional development tools.

• Top Resources
• Books & E-Books
• Finding Articles
• DAAP Theses & Dissertations
• Citations Management Tools
• Copyright Guidelines for Images
• Multimedia Citations
• Image Collections
• Maps and Mapping Tools
• AICP Exam Preparation
• Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning A consortium of university-based programs offering credentials in urban and regional planning. Acting together, the ACSP member school faculty are able to express their shared commitments to understanding the dynamics of urban and regional development, enhancing planning practices, and improving the education of both novice and experienced planners.
• Equity Tools Offers tools, research, tips, curricula and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and to help those working toward justice at every level – in systems, organizations, communities and the culture at large.
• Planetizen Online Courses Planetizen aims to make urban planning skills affordable and accessible. These video courses provide training for urban planners—or anyone—to advance their understanding of the field.
• Choosing a Career in Urban and Regional Planning This brochure was prepared by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP). ACSP designed this brochure to encourage a wide range of students to explore the possibility of a degree in planning, learn about the variety of educational programs that lead to different careers in planning and related fields, and identify the programs that best match their needs, interests, and career goals.
• << Previous: Professional Organizations
• Next: AICP Exam Preparation >>
• Last Updated: May 14, 2024 12:03 PM
• URL: https://guides.libraries.uc.edu/urbanplanning

University of Cincinnati Libraries

PO Box 210033 Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0033

Phone: 513-556-1424

Contact Us | Staff Directory

University of Cincinnati

Alerts | Clery and HEOA Notice | Notice of Non-Discrimination | eAccessibility Concern | Privacy Statement | Copyright Information

© 2021 University of Cincinnati

This device is not currently supported for these products.

Compare Visual Studio 2022 Editions

All features available

Most features available

Some features available

Few features available

To learn more about Visual Studio for Mac, please visit the What’s New page.

For information about Subscriber benefits, you may visit the Subscriptions page.

Looking to compare Visual Studio subscriptions? Go to the Visual Studio pricing page.

For more information on Visual Studio 2022 project support, read our documentation .

For more information about Community, see the Visual Studio Community license terms .

For information about Subscriber benefits, you may visit the Subscriptions page

• Enterprise organizations are defined as >250 PCs or > $1 Million US Dollars in annual revenue.
• Windows Desktop, Universal Windows Apps, Web (ASP.NET), Office 365, Business Applications, Azure Stack, C++ Cross-Platform Library Development, Python, Node.js, .NET Core, Docker Tools
• Can open diagrams generated in other Visual Studio editions in read-only mode.
• Includes Tier Interaction Profiling.

Visual Studio Community 2022

Free, fully-featured IDE for students, open-source and individual developers

Visual Studio Professional 2022

Professional developer tools, services, and subscription benefits for small teams

Visual Studio Enterprise 2022

End-to-end solution to meet demanding quality and scale needs of teams of all sizes

Live chat with a Microsoft Visual Studio representative.

Need help finding the right solution?

A Microsoft specialist is ready to assist you.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• NATURE INDEX
• 05 June 2024

Chinese research collaborations shift to the Belt and Road

• Benjamin Plackett 0

Benjamin Plackett is a freelance science journalist in Portsmouth, UK.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Although China is expanding its international research collaborations rapidly, the composition of these interactions is shifting, according to data from the Nature Index. Specifically, China’s researchers are increasingly working with scientists in countries taking part in the Beijing government’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The BRI is often described as a modern-day reboot of the Silk Road, an ancient system of trade routes that connected China’s heartland with the eastern edge of Europe. Officially, the BRI is a bid to strengthen the resilience of China’s trade networks, both overland — across Asia into the Middle East and Africa — and by sea — upgrading ports and building maritime fuelling stations throughout the Asian continent.

Nature Index 2024 China

In reality it is about far more than just infrastructure. Sometimes referred to as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature policy, it’s an attempt to boost China’s economic and political influence by strengthening its ties with neighbours and other strategic partners around the world. The Green Finance and Development Center at Fudan University in Shanghai has been keeping track of the BRI’s progress. It estimates that China has spent more than US$1 trillion on the initiative since 2013 and that 151 countries have so far signed up to the project and the funding that comes with it.

In science, the BRI has spearheaded a range of initiatives , from Chinese researchers helping to design key pieces of infrastructure in Africa , to countries in central Asia working with China on lunar-exploration plans. Data trends in the Nature Index seem to reflect this. The number of natural-sciences research papers involving China and at least one BRI country has risen by 132% between 2015 and 2023 (data for 2023 are approximated by a 12-month window from August 2022 to July 2023). Such articles accounted for 28% of all of China’s international collaboration in the index in 2023, up from 22% in 2015. At the same time, the overall number of internationally collaborative papers involving China has increased at a slower rate — growing by 83% in the same time period. Collaborative research output with the United States in the natural sciences, measured by bilateral collaboration score (CS), decreased by 15% between 2020 and 2022 — and it has stagnated since then. The data suggest that researchers in China are starting to favour working with countries that are closer to home or deemed to be strategically important by the central government, over others, particularly in the West.

Source: Nature Index

“I’m not at all surprised,” says Caroline Wagner, a researcher at Ohio State University in Columbus who specializes in public policy that relates to science and innovation. “I did a study for the US state department, looking at all of the diplomatic agreements that China has made on science and tech with different countries, and we could see a tremendous rise [in BRI collaborations].”

Of the collaborations between China and BRI countries in the Nature Index, Singapore and South Korea come out on top. Singapore is China’s fifth largest research partner on papers in the database overall, including health sciences, with its bilateral CS rising by 8.4% between 2022 and 2023. These changes are likely to have been driven from the bottom up, says Jenny Lee, a science-policy researcher at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “It’s not like the Chinese Communist Party is saying to Chinese researchers that they must collaborate with these countries,” she says. Part of what the data are showing could also stem from China’s COVID-19 policy, which involved strict lockdowns and closed borders . “People didn’t go abroad to make connections at conferences during that time and it could just be that people in China are only just starting to do that again,” says Lee. Chinese scientists might still be wary of travelling farther afield to the United States and Europe, she says, and they might prefer to stay closer to home.

Part of the growth in China–BRI research collaborations could be explained by quirks in how academics identify themselves on research papers, says Robert Tijssen, a science and innovation studies researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands. “A growing number of ‘cosmopolitan’ academic researchers have multiple institutional affiliations in different countries, especially countries that share a language or a common research culture. This may apply to China and Singapore,” he says. On papers, that could look like international collaboration when it’s more like Chinese researchers working with Chinese researchers.

China’s domestic research collaborations are also skyrocketing: the number of natural-science papers in the Nature Index authored solely by China-based researchers grew by 194% between 2015 and 2023. The implication, says Lee, is that US hegemony as the ‘go-to place’ for researchers around the world is in peril. “It’s yet another demonstration of how global science is shifting away from the West. International collaboration will continue to grow,” she says, but it “may be shifting to a more regionalized model”.

Part of this is driven by geopolitics, she adds. Several countries, including the United Kingdom and United States, have banned Chinese firms such as Huawei from engaging in projects that involve key technology or infrastructure, such as telecommunications and electrical grids. The European Union is considering similar policies. That has a knock-on effect; researchers in China who are interested in working in these areas don’t change fields — they look for collaborators in other countries.

“You can’t collaborate with Chinese nationals if you have NASA funding” in the United States, says Lee. “When we look at sensitive areas of research, or anything to do with national security, the United States is closing access to data and resources. I suspect that this is probably where this trend away from the West is happening. These are areas and fields that are growing in Singapore and South Korea, so it makes sense.”

Nature 630 , S10-S11 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01598-0

This article is part of Nature Index 2024 China , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content. For more information about Nature Index, see the homepage .

Related Articles

Partner content: How innovative research is improving dairy products

Partner content: Fighting micronutrient deficiencies in China

Partner content: From ancient remedies to skincare innovation

Partner content: China’s largest university courts global scholars

• Research data

Japan’s push to make all research open access is taking shape

News 30 MAY 24

Illuminating ‘the ugly side of science’: fresh incentives for reporting negative results

Career Feature 08 MAY 24

Plagiarism in peer-review reports could be the ‘tip of the iceberg’

Nature Index 01 MAY 24

China’s research clout leads to growth in homegrown science publishing

Nature Index 05 JUN 24

Misinformation poses a bigger threat to democracy than you might think

Comment 05 JUN 24

Hope for global pandemic treaty rises — despite missed deadline

News 03 JUN 24

China’s big-science bet

Why China has been a growing study destination for African students

Is AI misinformation influencing elections in India?

Proteomics expert (postdoc or staff scientist)

We are looking for a (senior) postdoc or postdoc-level staff scientist from all areas of proteomics to become part of our Proteomics Center.

Frankfurt am Main, Hessen (DE)

Goethe University (GU) Frankfurt am Main - Institute of Molecular Systems Medicine

Tenured Position in Huzhou University School of Medicine (Professor/Associate Professor/Lecturer)

※Tenured Professor/Associate Professor/Lecturer Position in Huzhou University School of Medicine

Huzhou, Zhejiang (CN)

Huzhou University

Electron Microscopy (EM) Specialist

APPLICATION CLOSING DATE: July 5th, 2024 About the Institute Human Technopole (HT) is an interdisciplinary life science research institute, created...

Human Technopole

Post-Doctoral Fellow in Chemistry and Chemical Biology

We are seeking a highly motivated, interdisciplinary scientist to investigate the host-gut microbiota interactions that are associated with driving...

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Harvard University - Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Postdoc Position (f/m/d) in “Building Healthcare Resilience Against Cyber-Attacks"

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) – The Research University in the Helmholtz Association creates and imparts knowledge for the society and th...

76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (DE)

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) Campus Nord

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value

If 2023 was the year the world discovered generative AI (gen AI) , 2024 is the year organizations truly began using—and deriving business value from—this new technology. In the latest McKinsey Global Survey  on AI, 65 percent of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using gen AI, nearly double the percentage from our previous survey just ten months ago. Respondents’ expectations for gen AI’s impact remain as high as they were last year , with three-quarters predicting that gen AI will lead to significant or disruptive change in their industries in the years ahead.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Alex Singla , Alexander Sukharevsky , Lareina Yee , and Michael Chui , with Bryce Hall , representing views from QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and McKinsey Digital.

Organizations are already seeing material benefits from gen AI use, reporting both cost decreases and revenue jumps in the business units deploying the technology. The survey also provides insights into the kinds of risks presented by gen AI—most notably, inaccuracy—as well as the emerging practices of top performers to mitigate those challenges and capture value.

AI adoption surges

Interest in generative AI has also brightened the spotlight on a broader set of AI capabilities. For the past six years, AI adoption by respondents’ organizations has hovered at about 50 percent. This year, the survey finds that adoption has jumped to 72 percent (Exhibit 1). And the interest is truly global in scope. Our 2023 survey found that AI adoption did not reach 66 percent in any region; however, this year more than two-thirds of respondents in nearly every region say their organizations are using AI. 1 Organizations based in Central and South America are the exception, with 58 percent of respondents working for organizations based in Central and South America reporting AI adoption. Looking by industry, the biggest increase in adoption can be found in professional services. 2 Includes respondents working for organizations focused on human resources, legal services, management consulting, market research, R&D, tax preparation, and training.

Also, responses suggest that companies are now using AI in more parts of the business. Half of respondents say their organizations have adopted AI in two or more business functions, up from less than a third of respondents in 2023 (Exhibit 2).

Gen AI adoption is most common in the functions where it can create the most value

Most respondents now report that their organizations—and they as individuals—are using gen AI. Sixty-five percent of respondents say their organizations are regularly using gen AI in at least one business function, up from one-third last year. The average organization using gen AI is doing so in two functions, most often in marketing and sales and in product and service development—two functions in which previous research  determined that gen AI adoption could generate the most value 3 “ The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier ,” McKinsey, June 14, 2023. —as well as in IT (Exhibit 3). The biggest increase from 2023 is found in marketing and sales, where reported adoption has more than doubled. Yet across functions, only two use cases, both within marketing and sales, are reported by 15 percent or more of respondents.

Gen AI also is weaving its way into respondents’ personal lives. Compared with 2023, respondents are much more likely to be using gen AI at work and even more likely to be using gen AI both at work and in their personal lives (Exhibit 4). The survey finds upticks in gen AI use across all regions, with the largest increases in Asia–Pacific and Greater China. Respondents at the highest seniority levels, meanwhile, show larger jumps in the use of gen Al tools for work and outside of work compared with their midlevel-management peers. Looking at specific industries, respondents working in energy and materials and in professional services report the largest increase in gen AI use.

Investments in gen AI and analytical AI are beginning to create value

The latest survey also shows how different industries are budgeting for gen AI. Responses suggest that, in many industries, organizations are about equally as likely to be investing more than 5 percent of their digital budgets in gen AI as they are in nongenerative, analytical-AI solutions (Exhibit 5). Yet in most industries, larger shares of respondents report that their organizations spend more than 20 percent on analytical AI than on gen AI. Looking ahead, most respondents—67 percent—expect their organizations to invest more in AI over the next three years.

Where are those investments paying off? For the first time, our latest survey explored the value created by gen AI use by business function. The function in which the largest share of respondents report seeing cost decreases is human resources. Respondents most commonly report meaningful revenue increases (of more than 5 percent) in supply chain and inventory management (Exhibit 6). For analytical AI, respondents most often report seeing cost benefits in service operations—in line with what we found last year —as well as meaningful revenue increases from AI use in marketing and sales.

Inaccuracy: The most recognized and experienced risk of gen AI use

As businesses begin to see the benefits of gen AI, they’re also recognizing the diverse risks associated with the technology. These can range from data management risks such as data privacy, bias, or intellectual property (IP) infringement to model management risks, which tend to focus on inaccurate output or lack of explainability. A third big risk category is security and incorrect use.

Respondents to the latest survey are more likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider inaccuracy and IP infringement to be relevant to their use of gen AI, and about half continue to view cybersecurity as a risk (Exhibit 7).

Conversely, respondents are less likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider workforce and labor displacement to be relevant risks and are not increasing efforts to mitigate them.

In fact, inaccuracy— which can affect use cases across the gen AI value chain , ranging from customer journeys and summarization to coding and creative content—is the only risk that respondents are significantly more likely than last year to say their organizations are actively working to mitigate.

Some organizations have already experienced negative consequences from the use of gen AI, with 44 percent of respondents saying their organizations have experienced at least one consequence (Exhibit 8). Respondents most often report inaccuracy as a risk that has affected their organizations, followed by cybersecurity and explainability.

Our previous research has found that there are several elements of governance that can help in scaling gen AI use responsibly, yet few respondents report having these risk-related practices in place. 4 “ Implementing generative AI with speed and safety ,” McKinsey Quarterly , March 13, 2024. For example, just 18 percent say their organizations have an enterprise-wide council or board with the authority to make decisions involving responsible AI governance, and only one-third say gen AI risk awareness and risk mitigation controls are required skill sets for technical talent.

Bringing gen AI capabilities to bear

The latest survey also sought to understand how, and how quickly, organizations are deploying these new gen AI tools. We have found three archetypes for implementing gen AI solutions : takers use off-the-shelf, publicly available solutions; shapers customize those tools with proprietary data and systems; and makers develop their own foundation models from scratch. 5 “ Technology’s generational moment with generative AI: A CIO and CTO guide ,” McKinsey, July 11, 2023. Across most industries, the survey results suggest that organizations are finding off-the-shelf offerings applicable to their business needs—though many are pursuing opportunities to customize models or even develop their own (Exhibit 9). About half of reported gen AI uses within respondents’ business functions are utilizing off-the-shelf, publicly available models or tools, with little or no customization. Respondents in energy and materials, technology, and media and telecommunications are more likely to report significant customization or tuning of publicly available models or developing their own proprietary models to address specific business needs.

Respondents most often report that their organizations required one to four months from the start of a project to put gen AI into production, though the time it takes varies by business function (Exhibit 10). It also depends upon the approach for acquiring those capabilities. Not surprisingly, reported uses of highly customized or proprietary models are 1.5 times more likely than off-the-shelf, publicly available models to take five months or more to implement.

Gen AI high performers are excelling despite facing challenges

Gen AI is a new technology, and organizations are still early in the journey of pursuing its opportunities and scaling it across functions. So it’s little surprise that only a small subset of respondents (46 out of 876) report that a meaningful share of their organizations’ EBIT can be attributed to their deployment of gen AI. Still, these gen AI leaders are worth examining closely. These, after all, are the early movers, who already attribute more than 10 percent of their organizations’ EBIT to their use of gen AI. Forty-two percent of these high performers say more than 20 percent of their EBIT is attributable to their use of nongenerative, analytical AI, and they span industries and regions—though most are at organizations with less than $1 billion in annual revenue. The AI-related practices at these organizations can offer guidance to those looking to create value from gen AI adoption at their own organizations.

To start, gen AI high performers are using gen AI in more business functions—an average of three functions, while others average two. They, like other organizations, are most likely to use gen AI in marketing and sales and product or service development, but they’re much more likely than others to use gen AI solutions in risk, legal, and compliance; in strategy and corporate finance; and in supply chain and inventory management. They’re more than three times as likely as others to be using gen AI in activities ranging from processing of accounting documents and risk assessment to R&D testing and pricing and promotions. While, overall, about half of reported gen AI applications within business functions are utilizing publicly available models or tools, gen AI high performers are less likely to use those off-the-shelf options than to either implement significantly customized versions of those tools or to develop their own proprietary foundation models.

What else are these high performers doing differently? For one thing, they are paying more attention to gen-AI-related risks. Perhaps because they are further along on their journeys, they are more likely than others to say their organizations have experienced every negative consequence from gen AI we asked about, from cybersecurity and personal privacy to explainability and IP infringement. Given that, they are more likely than others to report that their organizations consider those risks, as well as regulatory compliance, environmental impacts, and political stability, to be relevant to their gen AI use, and they say they take steps to mitigate more risks than others do.

Gen AI high performers are also much more likely to say their organizations follow a set of risk-related best practices (Exhibit 11). For example, they are nearly twice as likely as others to involve the legal function and embed risk reviews early on in the development of gen AI solutions—that is, to “ shift left .” They’re also much more likely than others to employ a wide range of other best practices, from strategy-related practices to those related to scaling.

In addition to experiencing the risks of gen AI adoption, high performers have encountered other challenges that can serve as warnings to others (Exhibit 12). Seventy percent say they have experienced difficulties with data, including defining processes for data governance, developing the ability to quickly integrate data into AI models, and an insufficient amount of training data, highlighting the essential role that data play in capturing value. High performers are also more likely than others to report experiencing challenges with their operating models, such as implementing agile ways of working and effective sprint performance management.

About the research

The online survey was in the field from February 22 to March 5, 2024, and garnered responses from 1,363 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. Of those respondents, 981 said their organizations had adopted AI in at least one business function, and 878 said their organizations were regularly using gen AI in at least one function. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

Alex Singla and Alexander Sukharevsky  are global coleaders of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and senior partners in McKinsey’s Chicago and London offices, respectively; Lareina Yee  is a senior partner in the Bay Area office, where Michael Chui , a McKinsey Global Institute partner, is a partner; and Bryce Hall  is an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office.

They wish to thank Kaitlin Noe, Larry Kanter, Mallika Jhamb, and Shinjini Srivastava for their contributions to this work.

This article was edited by Heather Hanselman, a senior editor in McKinsey’s Atlanta office.

Explore a career with us

Related articles.

Moving past gen AI’s honeymoon phase: Seven hard truths for CIOs to get from pilot to scale

A generative AI reset: Rewiring to turn potential into value in 2024

Implementing generative AI with speed and safety

Small Business Trends

Zoho introduces major enhancements to developer tools and launches analytics platform, apptics.

Zoho announced this morning significant upgrades to Catalyst by Zoho, its development platform, and introduced Zoho Apptics, a new application analytics tool aimed at professional developers.

This announcement was made at its annual Zoholics conference in Austin, Texas.

Zoho’s latest developments represent a pivotal shift in how custom applications are built and analyzed, providing developers with more cohesive and comprehensive tools. Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist at Zoho, explained the company’s approach, saying, “Developers have been challenged by the need to assemble custom solutions from disparate tools. Our aim with these enhancements is to offer a complete, trusted toolkit that supports developers from the project start through to completion.”

Catalyst by Zoho, a platform that facilitates the rapid construction, testing, and deployment of full-stack, ready-for-market apps, now offers new features aimed at simplifying development processes. These include:

• Signals : A tool for managing events from various sources, routing them to appropriate handlers.
• NoSQL Database : A flexible database system that supports various data types and scales dynamically, accommodating growth as needed.
• Slate : A service for creating customized user interfaces using popular web frameworks.
• CI/CD Pipeline : A system that automates testing and deployment processes, reducing time to market.

Alongside enhancements to Catalyst, Zoho unveiled Zoho Apptics , an analytics platform designed to integrate seamlessly into existing development workflows. Apptics helps companies develop data-driven strategies by providing comprehensive analytics on app usage, performance, and user engagement. The platform offers a unique feature that allows direct interaction with users for ratings and updates and includes an integrated management system for app store reviews. Prioritizing privacy, Apptics ensures that user data is handled securely, with strict compliance to industry standards.

Zoho Apptics is now available globally, supporting multiple platforms including Android, iOS, macOS, and others, with plans to expand to web analytics. It offers a free tier and a professional tier, which starts at $62 per month when billed annually.

Zoho also reiterated its commitment to user privacy with its Zoho Privacy Pledge, emphasizing that the company operates without an ad-revenue model and maintains control over its data centers to ensure security and privacy.

These updates and new tools from Zoho are designed to streamline the development process for businesses of all sizes, fostering efficiency and innovation in application development.

© Copyright 2003 - 2024, Small Business Trends LLC. All rights reserved. "Small Business Trends" is a registered trademark.