Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore beginning teachers' diverse challenges and how these are related to self-directed professional learning through social media. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a content analysis of 2,445 "New Teacher" tagged posts shared in the r/Teachers subreddit. With 1,246 posts…

This study investigated Turkish Language teachers' posts in a Facebook group regarding professional development during an academic year. This study was designed to be a case study, which employed qualitative research methods. The teachers whose posts were the most relevant to professional development were selected among the three Facebook groups…

In this article we research Spanish educational influencers with major presence on Twitter: what are the most common topics or hashtags used by them, whether there are groups based on the topics of their interventions or what type of social network they configure. To meet these goals, we selected 54 educational influencers with a high number of…

In the last decade, social media have become important tools for educator professional development, learning and community. While education has traditionally proven to be an isolating profession, technologies such as Twitter offer opportunities for educators to collaborate beyond their school, district, region and nation. Education-related Twitter…

Social media use has spiked around the world during the COVID-19 global pandemic as people reach out for news, information, social connections, and support in their daily lives. Past work on professional learning networks (PLNs) has shown that teachers also use social media to find supports for their teaching and ongoing professional development.…

This mixed-methods observational study analyzes Advanced Placement (AP) Biology teachers' engagement in microblogging for professional learning. Data from three hashtag-based Twitter communities--#apbiochat, #apbioleaderacad, and #apbioleaderacademy (121 users; 2,253 tweets)--are analyzed using educational data mining, qualitative two-cycle…

The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) brought along with it a number of socio-political, public health, administrative, economic, and educational challenges and impacts across the world. Teaching and learning as a critical component of our social existence have been equally impacted with new technologies providing both the tools and…

This paper presents findings from a systematic review of 11 studies examining online teacher professional development (oTPD) in Canada between 2000-2020. A thematic content analysis of the articles led to four main themes associated with research on oTPD: 1. knowledge exchange; 2. reflective practice; 3. multifaceted learning opportunities; and 4.…

Teachers' online discussion text data shed light on their reflective thinking. With the growing scale of text data, the traditional way of manual coding, however, has been challenged. In order to process the large-scale unstructured text data, it is necessary to integrate the inductive content analysis method and educational data mining…

In light of recent scholarship about teachers leveraging social media to support their continuing professional development, this article documents an investigation of school board policies governing teachers' use of social media. Focusing on 30 traditional public school systems within a 10-county region in the Midwestern United States, the author…

This study explores the process of Community of Practice (CoP) building for language teachers' professional development through the support of a WeChat group. WeChat is an instant messenger app that provides a multimodal platform for one-on-one and group interactions through text, audio and video. In order to support the implementation of flipped…

In this study, the kinds of shares made by science teachers in a WhatsApp group as an online community of practice to support professional development were examined. The netnographic research method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The messages shared by 12 science teachers, who worked at a private school between…

Discussion forums are a primary tool for interactions in the online classroom. Discussions are a critical part of the learning process for students, and instructor facilitation should reflect this importance. Effective instructor discussion facilitation encourages students, provides evidence and analysis and links the discussion to subsequent…

Several changes have occurred over the past century in the education system of Saudi Arabia. The changes have largely been associated with the fact that in the 21st century, information and communication technology is highly applied in the learning process, thereby leading to a major transformation of the process. The application of information…

Aim/Purpose: These days educators are expected to integrate technological tools into classes. Although they acquire relevant skills, they are often reluctant to use these tools. Background: We incorporated online forums for generating a Community of Inquiry (CoI) in a faculty development program. Extending the Technology, Pedagogy, and Content…