What works in professional development? A short review of reviews

The ‘People’ strand of our programmes team has published a new report reviewing recent research from a wide range of sectors, with the aim of identifying the key principles in professional development that drive genuine skill acquisition and behavioural change.

The report argues for a shift away from judging professional development by format alone – whether coaching, workshops or communities of practice – and toward the core features that make it effective. Rather than asking what form professional development takes, the sector should focus on the evidence-based building blocks that drive impact. Frameworks such as the insight, goal-directed behaviour, technique and practice (IGTP) model (Sims et al., 2025), show that effective professional development should be designed around clear insights, purposeful goals, explicit technique development and sustained opportunities to embed practice.

The review, which assessed professional development across sectors including education, healthcare, policing and the civil service, also identified ineffective professional development methods, such as passive information dissemination and ‘drive-by’ workshops. Approaches such coaching, blended learning and simulation were identified as high-impact – and key to informing how UPEN designs and commissions robust, evidence-led interventions for academic-policy engagement in the future.

Read the full report to learn more about the core principles of effective professional development, how these can be implemented, and how this work can inform UPEN’s approach in the future.