Characteristics, design features, and effectiveness of autism‐focused teacher professional development interventions: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Abstract

Research has highlighted the unmet educational needs of autistic students and the professional support needs of teachers. However, there is no consensus on the best way to provide professional development (PD) to teachers and the need for an evidence‐based PD framework has recently been emphasised. To examine the nature and effectiveness of existing autism‐focused PD interventions and to explore the potential mechanisms through which they may influence outcomes, we applied the Insights, Motivation, Techniques, Practice (IMTP) framework, a testable PD framework not yet applied in autism‐specific PD research, to randomised and quasi‐randomised controlled studies, aiming to evaluate the evidence base to inform future research. We followed Synthesis without Meta‐Analysis (SWiM) reporting guidelines and assessed evidence certainty. Four studies met the inclusion criteria, varying substantially in design and outcome measures. The scarcity of eligible studies is itself a key finding, highlighting a major gap in the availability of high‐quality evidence base. The main topics covered in PD interventions were the nature of autism and behavioural instructional methods. Twenty‐three effect sizes across teacher and student outcomes ranged from small non‐significant to very large, with certainty ratings from low to very low. PD interventions differed in how closely they aligned with the framework: tentative patterns suggest that interventions addressing more goals, particularly insights, motivation, and techniques mechanisms, may be associated with larger effects on teacher self‐efficacy, though lack of follow‐up data and limited evidence base prevent firm conclusions about causality, mechanism clusters and sustained impact. These findings highlight the importance of theory‐driven PD research and identifying the causal mechanisms that explain what works, why it works and for whom, in autism‐focused teacher PD.

Rationale for this study: Autistic students face significant unmet needs in mainstream schools, and teachers consistently report feeling underprepared to support them. Despite growing calls for autism‐specific professional development (PD), little is known about what makes such PD effective.

Why the new findings matter: This review of randomised and quasi‐randomised controlled studies evaluating the impact of PD on teacher or student outcomes revealed a critical gap in high‐quality experimental evidence. By applying a mechanism‐focused PD design framework, the findings offer suggestive patterns to guide future rigorous trials.

Implications for researchers and policymakers: Despite the critically limited evidence base and a high risk of bias in studies, the hypothesis‐generating pattern suggests that addressing more IMTP goals may be associated with larger effects on teacher self‐efficacy. Future research should use comparative designs to examine PD addressing different IMTP goals and varying numbers of mechanisms, employ consistent outcome measures, and include follow‐up assessments to identify which forms of PD produce sustained impact across outcomes for teachers and autistic students. Policymakers should fund rigorous evaluations of evidence‐based PD frameworks to build the high‐quality evidence base this field urgently needs.