Transfer of Learning (ToL) of Child Welfare Skills Following Training: Results from a Scoping Review

BACKGROUND and PURPOSE: Systematic reviews have been considered the “gold standard” for synthesizing evidence since they first started to appear in health care publications in the 1970’s (Bastian, et al., 2010) and were prompted by the formation of the Cochrane group established in the 1990's to synthesize empirical evidence on health care and health policy and the Campbell Collaboration in 1999 to synthesize evidence related to social and behavioral science. Scoping reviews are a more recent approach to synthesize a body of literature, particularly for examining emerging evidence (Munn, et al., 2018). How well practitioners put into practice skills learned in the classroom (ToL) is still very much an emerging area of study.

Methods: A scoping review was implemented to identify and map the available evidence on ToL from literature published between 1998-2020. Pre-specified search terms were used in PsycInfo (EBSCO), PubMed, CINAHL, and Business Source Premier. After removal of duplications, n = 3804 records were entered into Covidence, a web-based systematic review tool. After review of Titles and Abstracts, the team moved 665 studies for Full Text Review. An iterative process included reading full text articles and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, resulting in 196 studies for data classification and extraction. This symposium is restricted to data extraction and qualitative synthesis from 21 studies implemented in child welfare settings. Papers mapped findings related to four questions (1) what individual, organizational, and training characteristics were related to ToL? (2) What pre or post training reinforcement strategies were examined in these studies? (3) What assessment methods were used to evaluate the degree to which skills were transferred? (4) What specific skills were targeted for ToL in these studies?

Results: Four papers will present findings from the classification of research methods and factors that impact ToL; reinforcement strategies; assessment methods; and targeted skills. Of the n = 21 publications, 17 were conducted in the United States and 4 in the U.K. Study designs were quantitative (n=12) of which 4 were randomized control designs. Six studies used mixed methods and 3 used qualitative methods only. Ten of the studies incorporated the use of ToL reinforcement strategies including coaching (n=3), case consultations (n=3), feedback (n=2), weekly supervision (n=1), use of standardized clients (n=1). ToL was assessed at follow-up including use of observational skills assessments (n=10), audio and/or video recordings (n=6), self-assessments (n=6), composite scores (n=4), surveys (n=3), documentation reviews (n=2), and focus groups (n=1). Overall, the transfer of 26 skills was assessed in the 21 publications. The skills assessed most frequently were engagement (n=14), interviewing (n= 12, out of which n= 7 focused on Motivational Interviewing), and assessment (n=7). Other frequently assessed skills were case management (n=5) and development of a service plan (n=5).

Conclusions and Implications: Reflections from the four papers indicate the importance for employing strong research designs to test specific mechanisms that promote transfer of learning in the real world particularly related to competent and consistent application of skills relevant to child welfare practice.