Continuing professional development for teaching is important for institutional renewal, teacher development and student learning improvement. However, our longitudinal research into provision of continuing professional development has shown that the majority of educators who attend professional development workshops do not put what they have learned into practice. We present the background to our research, research method, research procedures and research results. Whilst the majority of participants in our professional development workshops have evaluated the workshops positively and achieved the intended learning outcomes, only a minority of participants have put what they learned into practice. We present a hypothesis to explain this phenomenon and conclude with a discussion of academics' motivation to improve and innovate in their teaching. (Contains 6 tables.)