“Pd is Where Teachers are Learning!” High School Social Studies Teachers' Formal and Informal Professional Learning

Abstract

The present study used social learning theory and situated learning theory as a way to examine secondary social studies teacher participants' formal and informal professional learning. Existing literature is just beginning to attend to the potential of informal professional learning and to distinguish between formal and informal professional learning, so this exploratory study used observations of scheduled and spontaneous professional learning experiences, semi-structured interviews with 12 secondary social studies teachers, and relevant documents to consider the following research question: In what ways do high school social studies teacher participants engage in formal and informal professional learning? Results indicate that while secondary social studies teachers engage in a variety of formal and informal professional learning experiences, their informal learning experiences are the most valuable and significant for their classroom practice. While informal professional learning is not a replacement for traditional formal professional learning, lessons learned here can inform ways to improve formal professional learning and to capitalize upon teachers’ existing informal professional learning experiences. This study provides insight into the ways in which social studies teachers support their growth outside of formal professional development.

Professional Development of a Teacher in the ICT Era

“…On the other hand, teacher working group or KKG is aimed to improve teacher mastery for the certain subject. The other advantages may involve the improvement on curriculum understanding, improvement of learning quality and giving new knowledge to be applied to the teaching process, and self-improvement activities (Thacker, 2017).…”

The information literacy and continuous professional development practices of teachers at a Jewish Day School

“…Similarly, like these learning practices, participants' IL activities are constricted by a requisite adherence to core values: in this case, the school's educational ideology, acceptable techniques and teacher identity, rather than adherence to the Torah (Lehman and Kanarek, 2011;Sacks 1989). This study found that teachers strongly associate CPD with the traditional form of learning through courses, conferences and other formal, structured events (Hoban, 2002;Wilson, 2006); yet they place higher value on the learning that emanates from informal CPD (Thacker, 2015) and practical experience (Allen, 2009).…”

Elementary Education and Language Teachers’ Professional Development Needs: The Context of Pakistan

“…Their work is limited only to teachers' content knowledge, and therefore, it does not explain how individualistic and community knowledge contribute to teacher practices. Thacker (2015), uses situated learning theory, as an approach to analyze formal and casual expert learning by optional training. The study concludes that teachers engage in a number of formal and informal professional learning experiences.…”