Active vs passive CPD: the PsyBA distinction explained

The Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) distinguishes two flavours of CPD: active and passive. The distinction matters because the registration standard requires a minimum of active CPD hours each year — passive CPD alone doesn't meet the standard, no matter how many hours you do.

Here's the difference and how to plan around it.

The PsyBA definition

Active CPD is participatory: you're producing something, practising something, or engaging in dialogue. Examples: skills-based workshops with role-play, case-based discussion with peers, supervised clinical practice, presenting a case at a conference, working through a structured reflective-practice exercise with another psychologist.

Passive CPD is receptive: you're absorbing content. Reading, watching, attending. Examples: didactic conference sessions, journal-article reading, watching a webinar, listening to a podcast.

The distinction is about what you do, not about what the activity is called. A conference is mostly passive if you sit and listen. The same conference can be active if you present, run a workshop session, or take part in a structured case-discussion roundtable. A journal-article read is passive; pairing that read with a peer-consultation discussion turns it into active CPD.

Why the distinction exists

Pure passive learning doesn't reliably change practice. The clinical-education literature is consistent on this — practitioners absorb content but often don't translate it into behaviour change. Active CPD requires you to do something with the learning, which is when the change tends to stick.

PsyBA's standard reflects that evidence by mandating that a meaningful portion of your annual CPD is active.

Examples of clearly active CPD

Role-play workshop on a clinical technique (e.g. CBT for anxiety, motivational interviewing)
Case presentation you deliver to peers or a multidisciplinary team
Supervised clinical practice sessions where you receive feedback on your work
Structured reflective practice with another psychologist — e.g. discussing a difficult case with a planned reflective framework
Skills-based courses where assessment happens (you have to demonstrate the skill, not just learn about it)
Peer consultation discussions where you bring case material and work through it
Journal club where you discuss the paper rather than just read it

Examples of clearly passive CPD

Conference attendance where you sit and listen to presentations
Reading journal articles without subsequent discussion or application
Webinars you watch without participating
Podcasts
Books

Activities that can be either

Most CPD activities have an active or passive version depending on how you engage:

Journal reading → passive on its own; active if you write a structured reflection on application to your practice, or discuss with a peer
Online course → passive if it's video only; active if there are quizzes, assignments, or applied exercises
Conference → passive if you're an attendee; active if you present, run a workshop, or participate in structured roundtables
Webinar → passive if you just watch; active if it includes Q&A, polling, breakout discussion

The honest test: when you finished the activity, did you do something with what you learned, or just listen?

How to plan a year that meets both

A reasonable pattern for a full-time psychologist:

Active backbone (40-50% of CPD hours): monthly peer consultation, two skills-based workshops a year, one case presentation. That covers most of the active requirement.
Passive enrichment (50-60% of CPD hours): conference attendance, journal reading, podcasts, webinars. Easy to accumulate; you do these anyway.
Convert where possible: pair every webinar you watch with a 5-minute structured reflection — and suddenly the same webinar counts as active CPD.

How PracticaCPD logs the distinction

Pick "Psychologist" as your profession on sign-up. The activity form lets you tag each entry as active or passive, and the dashboard separately tallies the two so you can see whether your active minimum is met at any point in the year.