The impact of short-term professional development on participant outcomes: a review of the literature

A narrative literature review was conducted to identify the design features of effective short-term face-to-face professional development (PD) events. The 23 reviewed studies described PD with durations of 30 hours or less and involved participants in education or human service-related professions. Design features associated with positive impacts of short-term PD include sufficient time based on topic complexity, the use of learning objectives, alignment with participants' training needs, demonstrations of desired behaviors, opportunities for participant practice, group discussions, pre-work and homework, active learning tasks that require cognitive processing, a participant-centered setting and follow-up support to promote transfer of learning.