of Learning and Technology / La revue canadienne de l ’ apprentissage et de la technologie , V 35 ( 1 ) Winter / hiver , 2009 How Research Moves into Practice : A Preliminary Study of What Training Professionals Read , Hear , and Perceive

In the growing body of research on the practice of training and development, several studies suggest that use of research-based findings in practice is low. The present study was designed to better understand the research-practice gap by exploring these questions: (1) Which published sources in the field are practicing professionals reading? How frequently do they read these materials? (2) Which conferences and meetings do practicing professionals attend? How frequently do they attend these events? (3) In what formats are research content most usable to practicing professionals? (4) What are practicing professionals’ general perceptions of research publications and presentations? Key findings point to publications having a wider reach among practicing professionals than conferences and, of those publications, professional magazines have a wider reach than peer-reviewed journals. In terms of the manner in which the content is presented, practicing professionals prefer case studies from the workplace over other types of content.


Background
In 2006, the Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD) published Review of the State of the Field of Workplace Learning: What We Know and What We Need to Know about Competencies, Diversity, E-Learning, and Human Performance Improvement, a review of the research in each of these areas, especially as they related to workplace learning and performance in Canada.Although the report was written in a simple language (for the most part, Grade 12) and available on the websites of both CSTD and the Canadian Council for Learning (the sponsor of the report), usage of the report was believed to be low even though the association delivered a series of webcasts to promote the findings.This belief was based on low enrolment levels in the webcasts (less than 1% of the membership in some, 2% in the largest) and the lack of feedback on the report.
Although disappointing, the low usage of the report was not surprising.Despite a growing body of research evidence underlying the practice of training and development, studies suggest that the use of research-based findings in practice is low.Indeed, the evidence-based practice movement in public education is a response to the low usage of research in these settings (Slavin 2004).
More immediately, concern exists in the academic communities that conduct research on training and development (also called workplace learning and performance)-the disciplines of human resource development, adult education, and educational technology-about the extent to which their research findings are applied.In the field of Educational Technology, Clark and Estes (2002) take a prescriptive approach.Their book, Turning Research into Results, explains to practitioners how to review and apply research findings to get "results."Others take a more descriptive approach.Concerned about the extent to which research-based guidelines in the field of Human Resource Management (which includes Human Resource Development) find their way into practice, Rynes, Colbert and Brown (2002) compared HR managers' and executives' beliefs about 35 HR practices that are supported by research.They found that, on several of these practices, the beliefs of more than 50% of the participants were inconsistent with the findings of research.Exploring this issue further, Deadrick and Gibson (2007) found that part of the problem might result from a gap between the groups' presumed primary choices of content: peer-reviewed journals or professional magazines.This research-practice gap is of special concern in workplace learning because, at the least, the research is conducted by so many disciplines, including adult education, educational technology, industrial psychology, human performance technology, and technical communication.At the most, none takes the lead in assessing the extent to which research findings on training make their way into practice.Given the experience with the Field Review, concern existed that, despite the emphasis placed on research dissemination in the Canadian research funding system (indeed, most granting agencies, like the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Fonds de Recherche sur la Societe et la Culture (FQRSC) ask researchers to explain how they will disseminate their findings and groups like SSHRC and the CCL see themselves as knowledge management agencies), research might not be reaching its intended audience using the traditional means of publications, conference presentations and the more recent addition of the Web.Specifically, questions had arisen about: • Which published sources in the field are practicing professionals reading?How frequently do they read these materials?
• Which conferences and meetings do practicing professionals attend?How frequently do they attend these events?
• In what formats are research content most usable to practicing professionals?
• What are practicing professionals' general perceptions of research publications and presentations?
The study described in the rest of this article is intended to answer these questions.The next section presents the methodology, followed by the results.The closing section presents conclusions, describes the limitations of the study, and suggests future research.

Methodology
This was intended as an exploratory study from which future research might proceed.Its primary purpose was Because of the limited resources for conducting the study, as well as the easy availability of the CSTD membership list, a convenience sample of CSTD members was used.This use of a convenience sample raises two concerns about the extent to which the participants actually represent the target population.The first is that trainers who join a professional organization might feel a stronger affinity for the profession and, as a result, might engage in more professional development activity than trainers who do not become members.In addition, some members of CSTD identify themselves as aspiring or former trainers-that is, people who are not currently working in the field.The methodology did not provide a means of excluding their responses from the results.Although initially considered as a stand-alone survey, because CSTD was already planning to conduct a membership survey, the survey questions were included in the CSTD membership survey to avoid over-surveying the membership.This survey was conducted electronically using Survey Monkey.In March 2008, 2334 invitations were sent to all current members of CSTD.A reminder was sent three weeks later.Four hundred thirty two (432) people responded to the overall survey, an 18.5% response rate.A summary of responses was prepared from the online data.Survey questions were validated through a review by members of the research team in advance of conducting the survey and comments were incorporated into a revised draft of the survey.Members of this team have formal backgrounds in research, usability, and editing, as well as training and development.Simple statistics were reported, including counts and, when appropriate, means and averages.A copy of the survey is provided in Appendix A.

Results
The next several sections present the results.After a brief note about the responses, data on the demographics are presented, followed by data about which print and web-based materials participants read and which meetings and conferences participants attend.Last, data about participants' general motivation to track developments in research is presented.

About the Responses
For most of the questions that focused on professional development habits, approximately 75% of those participating in the larger CSTD membership survey responded.Response rates varied among questions, however.For most questions, between 313 and 337 individuals responded.Those questions receiving a lower response will be identified.Although the section of the CSTD membership survey that considers professional development habits was tested internally (as described earlier), this section of the survey was not field tested and, as a result, some questions arose regarding responses.These, too, will be indicated.

Demographics of the Participants
The participants were predominantly female (68.5%), and the majority had completed a bachelor's degree or additional education (1.5% of participants had completed a PhD, 32% had completed a master's degree, 14.8 had completed some graduate work, and 35.6% had completed a bachelor's degree).
Most participants were experienced in training and development; only 22.3% had worked in the profession for five or fewer years.Of the rest, 32.6% had worked in the profession for six to 10 years, 25.5% 11 to 20 years, and 19.8% had worked 21 or more years in the profession.
Most participants were "captive employees;" only 17% were independent consultants.Of the rest, 30.9% worked in departments of one to five people, 11.6% worked in training departments of six to 10 people, 16% worked in training departments of 11 or more people, and 13.1% worked internally to an organization, but outside of training departments.Of these "captive employees," however, several might work for training vendors, because the nature of the organization's business was not requested on the survey.
In terms of certification, 7.8% had earned CSTD's voluntary Certified Training and Development Professional (CTDP) designation and another 18.5% were in the process of earning it.

Which Printed and Web-Based Materials Participants Read
The first several questions explored published sources that survey participants read, the frequency that they read them, and some preferences regarding content from published sources.The survey separated these sources by type: professional magazines (both in-print and online), peer-reviewed journals, and websites and blogs (ones that did not follow a more traditional magazine publication schedule), and preferences and beliefs about published content.

Professional Magazines Read by Participants
In terms of professional magazines, some of which are published as frequently as 10 times per year, we listed magazines specifically targeted to training professionals, including those published by professional associations like CSTD, and those published by for-profit organizations, like the e-Learning Guild and Nielsen Business Media.Table 1 shows the responses to the question.Table 1.Readership of Professional Magazines* * The survey tool automatically rounds to 1 decimal place, so percentages might exceed or miss 100% by .1%. ** Less than once a year means that the individual might have read the publication once or twice over the course of their career, but extremely infrequently.The most widely read professional magazines were those published by CSTD: CSTD's bi-weekly e-newsletter (of which 78.5% of participants either read most or all issues) and the Canadian Learning Journal, its twice-a-year print magazine (of which 67.1% of participants either read most or all issues).This result was not a surprise as the population surveyed was the CSTD membership.The next most commonly read magazines were those with the longest publishing history in the field were TRAINING (which has been published for over three decades) and T+D, the magazine of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), a magazine that has been published for over six decades.The next most commonly read magazines are ones that are most likely to appeal to more experienced members of the field, the Harvard Business Review (not a training magazine per se, but included to get a sense of the readership of broader business publications; during the period of the survey, the magazine published several articles on training), HR Professional (the trade newspaper of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario) and e-Learning Solutions magazine, an online magazine for experienced e-learning developers (published by the e-Learning Guild).Overall, most or all of issues of magazines were read by 19.82% of the respondents (an average of the combined responses in the two right-hand columns of Table 2 (2-3 Times a Year and All 4 Issues)).But that number is skewed because of the extremely high readership of the two CSTD publications.If they were removed from consideration, respondents read most or all of the issues of professional magazines 10.1% of the time.As noted earlier, readership for the two CSTD publications was higher than all of the other publications.In contrast, 40% of the respondents indicated that they had never read two of the other magazines, and 50% or more respondents indicated they had never read nine of the magazines.In fact, more than 70% of respondents indicated that they had never read four of those nine magazines.

Peer-Reviewed Publications Read by Participants
Readership of peer-reviewed publications was, on the whole, lower than that of professional magazines.The next most widely read publication was Performance Improvement Quarterly (of which 6.7% of participants either read most or all issues, a higher readership than Performance Improvement, the magazine published by the same organization).Next on the list was HR Quarterly (the journal of the Academy of Management, of which 6.4% of participants either read most or all issues) and Human Resource Development Quarterly (of which 5.8% of participants either read most or all issues the oldest of four journals published by the Academy of Human Resource Development).The least frequently read publication among those listed was the Sloan Business Review, which 3.2% of participants read 2 or 3 times per year.Like the inclusion of the Harvard Business Review in the list of magazines, we included this publication to get a small sense of the readership of broader business publications.
Overall, participants, only 5.87% of respondents read most or all of the issues of these journals (an average of the combined responses in the two right-hand columns of Table 2 (2-3 Times a Year and All 4 Issues)).This is a little more than half of the readership of magazines.
One concern about the responses to this question is whether readers confused some of the publication titles.

HRD Quarterly
were identified as publications of particular associations, questions about participation in other activities sponsored by these organizations ranked lower, raising questions that respondents confused the names.Also of note was the number of people who indicated that they never read these publications.Of the six publications listed, 80% or more of the participants indicated "never' for five of the publications and 72.6% said that they never read the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology.

Preferences and Beliefs about Published Content
Although the majority of respondents check neither blogs nor websites regularly, the most preferred source of content was websites, selected by 47.7%.The next most preferred sources of content were magazines (37.9%) and journals (8%).The least preferred source of content was blogs (1.8%).
The most credible type of published content to respondents is case studies of personal experience (preferred by 53.2 of participants), followed by reports of formal research studies (28.1%) and news articles by staff of the publication or website (11.6%).Other types of credible content that participants named in their written included e-newsletters and e-magazines.
In written responses, participants provided reasons for these preferences.These included the free price of online resources, information that addresses the needs of a unique situation, the presumed timeliness of online content and, the most commonly cited reason, easy access to information.
The choice of print over paper sparked passionate responses.Some found print easiest to access because they read professional materials while commuting; others found online access most convenient.Writing in favour of print, one respondent commented, "I like the visual aspect of holding a magazine, plus I can take it to lunch with me."In contrast, another expressed a preference for online content, writing that: "I find websites more current and can lead me to topics of interest at that moment more than the journal contents."Still other respondents saw the benefits of both media.One commented that "I expect different information in each of the media listed -I would not go to a blog for peer-reviewed research, for example.I would not go to a journal for first-hand practical case studies and personal experiences."

Which Meetings and Conferences Participants Attend
The next several questions explored the extent to which survey participants participated in meetings and conferences-the other traditional way to transfer research findings-and some preferences regarding content from them.This section of the survey separated these sources by type: professional meetings and conferences, and closed with questions regarding preferences and beliefs about meetings and events.

Attendance at Professional Meetings
In a separate question about attendance at CSTD chapter meetings, a majority of participants indicated that they attended at least one meeting per year.Specifically, 12.7% attended four or more meetings per year and 38.9% attended one to three meetings per year.Still, a large percentage, 48.5, never attended meetings.
42.6% of participants attended chapter meetings of other professional associations.Most frequently, these other associations focused on training and human resources, such as the British Columbia Human Resources Management Association (BC HRMA) and the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO) (the most frequently cited group).Some participants also attended meetings of professional associations in other fields, such as the Canadian Medical Association, International Association of Business Communicators, and the Project Management Institute.

Attendance at Conferences
In terms of conferences attended, the survey listed those specifically targeted to training professionals, including those produced by professional associations like CSTD, and those produced by for-profit organizations, like the e-Learning Guild and Nielsen Business Media.
As the most widely read professional magazines were published by CSTD, so the most widely attended event was the CSTD Annual Conference and Trade Show (of which 37.3 had attended once or twice and 20.1% had attended three times or more).The second most attended event was the American Society for Training and Development International Conference and Exposition (of which 14.2 had attended once or twice and 3% had attended three times or more).CSTD is a global partner of ASTD, and CSTD actively promotes the ASTD conference.The third most attended event was the CSTD National Symposium, an event started in 2005 and which 12.7% had attended once or twice and 1.7% had attended three times or more.
The next most attended events were those intended for practicing professionals, including (in order of No one participating in the study had attended the American Educational Research Association Conference, which is supposed to be the largest event for research on learning.Also of note was the low recognition rate of most of these events.Only three events seemed to be widely known.Of the rest, two were not known to 65% or more, five were not known to more than 70%, and six were not known to more than 80% of participants in the survey.Table 3 shows the responses to the question. intended to gather descriptive information about the ways that training practitioners learn about research.The research was conducted by a team of the Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD), the largest professional association serving trainers in Canada.CSTD is a global partner of the American Society for Training and Development, which is the largest association of training professionals in the world.CSTD already had considerable institutional knowledge about the journals, magazines, and conferences serving the training community and where basic and applied research training is reported.As a result, we did not need to conduct interview-based or focus group research to discover these sources.Our focus was the extent to which the journals, magazines, and conferences are used by this population.A survey that would provide such descriptive statistics seemed most appropriate.Although a simple review led us to literature on the subject, the body of the literature is small, and most of the pertinent studies were published in journals on human resource management, rather than the more specific discipline of human resource development or training.The literature review included a keyword search as well as manual reviews of each issue of Educational Technology Research and Development Human Resource Development Quarterly, Human Resource Development International, and Performance Improvement Quarterly published between the first quarter of 2003 and the first quarter of 2008.The intended participants of this survey were professional trainers working in the field, which includes instructors, instructional designers, planners for training departments, and managers of these professionals.Trainers work in government agencies, non-profit organizations and private corporations.
Journals listed were published by the professional associations most likely to attract training practitioners and scholars, such as the Academy of Human Resource Development, Academy of Management and the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education.We did not include the Canadian Journal of the Study of Adult Education from this list as it was on a publication hiatus at the time of the survey, and we were unsure of its future.Table 2 shows the responses to the question.Table 2. Readership of Peer-Reviewed Journals* ** Less than once a year means that the individual might have read the publication once or twice over the course of their career, but extremely infrequently.The most widely read journal was the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, showing a continued preference for Canadian publications among the respondents.10.2% of participants either read most or all issues.
Blogs and Websites Read by Participants The survey separately asked readers about checking blogs and websites.Only 7.9% said that they regularly check blogs.(Note, however, that the term "regularly" was not defined for users, so respondents supplied their own meaning when responding to the question.)The blog most frequently mentioned was Stephen Downes' blog (known as Stephen's Web).Blogs by Jay Cross and Elliot Masie also received multiple mentions.A majority said that they do not regularly check websites on training (54.3%).Of the 45.7% who do, the most frequently named websites were those of ASTD and CSTD, followed by Google and Google Scholar, and various provincial human resources groups, such as the site of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO-as it was called then, now the Human Resources Professionals Association, HRPA) and Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines et relations industriels du Québec and a few private providers, like Langevin (which offers an introductory course for new training professionals).
participation) events by the e-Learning Guild, ISPI Annual Conference and Exposition, e-Learn, TechKnowledge (ASTD's technology-focused conference), TRAINING/Spring and TRAINING/Fall (both produced by Nielsen Business Media), CLO (Chief Learning Officer), and ISPI's fall symposium.Less attended were more academically focused events, none of which were attended by any more than 1% of the respondents (combined responses of those who attended one or two times, and those who had attended three or more times).These conferences include the Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment Conference, Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE) Conference (the new name of the merged Association for Media and Technology in Education in Canada (AMTEC) and Canadian Association for Distance Education (CADE)), Academy of Management, and Association for Human Resource Development.

Table 3 .
Conferences Attended by Participants in the Survey