Continuing education in psychology: Preferences, practices, and perceived outcomes.


Nearly every state licensure board requires psychologists to engage in continuing education (CE) for license renewal as a mechanism for ensuring ongoing learning and continuing professional competence. But what instructional methods promote the greatest learning, how do actual practices match those instructional preferences, and how successful is CE in generating new learning and practices? In a 2-part nationwide survey, psychologists (N = 6,449) indicated which instructional methods they learned the most from, and these preferences were then compared with actual instructional practices in an independent sample of psychologists (N = 1,014) who participated in 70 different CE workshops conducted at an annual American Psychological Association convention. Results indicated a moderately strong relationship between preferred and actual instructional practices overall (r = .63), but with some methods potentially being overutilized (e.g., PowerPoints, lectures) and others being underutilized (e.g., demonstrations, videos), with the vast majority utilizing multiple instructional methods (mode = 6 different methods). Results also indicated that participants reported relatively high levels of learning from their CE trainings as well as the translation of that learning into practice. Implications are discussed in relation to the developing literature on evidence-based CE and suggestions for optimal CE delivery. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)