Theorizing interprofessional pedagogic evaluation: framework for evaluating the impact of interprofessional continuing professional development on practice change

This study outlines the development of a conceptual framework to guide the evaluation of the impact of the pedagogy employed in continuing professional development for professionals in education, health and social care. The work is developed as part of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Interprofessional Learning across the Public Sector (CETL: IPPS) at the University of Southampton. The study briefly outlines the field for pedagogic research and comments on the underpinning theories that have so far been used to guide research into interprofessional learning (IPL). It maps out the development of interprofessional continuing professional development (CPD) in its specific context as part of the CETL: IPPS with its links to a local authority undergoing service reorganization and the role of the CPD in effecting change. It then brings together a theoretical framework with the potential to explore, explain and evaluate the essential features of the model of pedagogy used in interprofessional CPD, in which professionals from education have for the first time been included alongside those from health and social care. The framework draws upon elements of situated learning theory, activity theory and Dreier's work (2002, 1999) on trajectories of participation, particularly personal action potency. By combining the resulting analytic framework with an adapted version of an established evaluation model, a theoretically driven, practicable evaluation matrix is developed. The matrix has potential use in evaluating the impact of pedagogic input on practice change. The study models a process for developing a conceptual framework to steer pedagogic evaluation. Such a process and the resulting matrix may be of use to other researchers who are similarly developing pedagogic evaluation.