Continuing Professional Education among Educators: Predictors of Participation in Learning Activities

Abstract

The intent of this study was to identify those skills and characteristics that successfully predict involvement in professional development among educators. Two hundred and fifty-six professionally-defined educators were administered the Characteristics of Lifelong Learners in the Professions (CLLP) Scale. Following principal component analysis of the scale items, the four extracted factors and a set of sociodemographic variables were subjected to multiple regression analysis to predict the amount of time spent by the respondents in learning activities during the previous year. Two lifelong learning factors (Self-Motivated Learning and External Motivation) and one sociodemographic variable (Education Level) predicted one-sixth of the variance devoted by respondents to professional learning activities. Results of this study are compared to previous research findings focusing on lifelong learning among two other groups of professionals, namely, human service providers and pharmacists.