Designing teacher professional development programs to support a rapid shift to digital

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Online Learning
• Teacher Professional Development

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid shift to digital education, impacting teacher professional development (TPD).
• A previous review by Philipsen et al. (2019) identified effective TPD for online and blended learning (OBL).
• This paper responds to that review, considering the pandemic's influence on OBL TPD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the impact, value, and application of existing OBL TPD research in the context of emergency remote teaching.
• To identify limitations in current research on OBL TPD.
• To propose future research directions for designing resilient and scalable OBL TPD.

Main Methods:

• Systematic meta-aggregative review of literature on teacher professional development for online and blended learning.
• Critical analysis of existing research in light of emergency digital transitions.
• Identification of research gaps and future opportunities.

Main Results:

• The emergency shift to digital highlighted the critical need for effective OBL TPD.
• Existing research offers a foundation but has limitations in addressing scalability and resilience.
• Further investigation is needed into specific components for robust OBL TPD design.

Conclusions:

• Effective OBL TPD is crucial for educational continuity, especially during crises.
• Future research should focus on creating adaptable and scalable TPD models for OBL.
• A design-informed approach is essential for advancing OBL TPD.