Educational institutions offer diverse staff development programmes to allow staff members to keep up with educational innovations and to guarantee educational quality. The current study investigates by means of a survey and semi-structured interviews whether the teacher perceives staff development as a management model, a shop-floor model or a partnership model; what effects are perceived by teachers in higher education; what kind of motivation is apparent when teachers decide to participate in a staff development activity and significant differences between the kind of motivation regarding the effects perceived by teachers. The results show that all respondents were satisfied after following a shop-floor staff development session and most respondents were aware of a learning process. With all three models, changes in conceptions of teaching were perceived. The shop-floor model scores highest here. The majority of respondents indicate that they apply their newly gained knowledge and skills in practice. This particularly refers to ICT topics. After applying the acquired knowledge respondents perceived effects on students (with all three models).