MODES OF CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION: A TEST OF HOULE'S TYPOLOGY WITH PASTORS.

Abstract

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180 p.

The purpose of the study was to test Houle's typology of how professionals engage in continuing professional education (CPE). Houle suggested a typology of three major ways professionals learn. The three major modes of learning he suggested were: inquiry, instruction, and reinforcement.While his typology provided a framework to begin to understand CPE, it has been tested only with nurses in studies done by R. Cervero, M. Lebold, and K. Dimmock in 1983 and R. Cervero and K. Dimmock in 1985. As a result of these studies, refinements to Houle's typology were suggested.The investigation provided an additional test of Houle's typology with Protestant pastors. The data were collected through an instrument developed and tested for the study. The Pastor Activity Survey (PAS) contained 50 activity items that were selected and judged by panels of pastors to have educative value.The PAS was mailed to a sample of 509 pastors representing seven Protestant denominations. Responses were received from 371, resulting in an overall response rate of 72.9%. Data were analyzed using the principal component extraction technique and an oblique rotation. Relationships between selected demographic variables were analyzed using correlation coefficients and one-way analysis of variance.A four-factor solution was selected as the best understanding of the data. The four factors represented the four modes of learning which were labeled "self-inquiry," "self-instruction," "reinforcement," and "inquiry/reinforcement."In addition, significant relationships were found between the four factors and the age of pastors, years of service, size of church, size of community, and denominational affiliation.The results of this study suggest Houle's major modes are a satisfactory framework to begin to describe the learning modes of Protestant pastors, but that additional refinements are needed to Houle's typology to describe fully the CPE of Protestant pastors. Implications and suggestions for further research are given which will provide additional insights into pastor CPE.