School Teacher Professional Development in Online Communities of Practice:A Systematic Literature Review

This study informs researchers of educational technology, teachers, teacher associations and moderators or admins of online platforms who are interested in knowledge sharing among teachers within online communities of practice (CoPs). The continuous professional development of teachers is primarily about improving their teaching practice. It includes both formal and informal learning activities to transform attitudes, behaviour, skills and knowledge. Formal knowledge sharing methods like training workshops have failed to deliver the desired on-demand, context-appropriate knowledge. On the other hand, informal knowledge sharing through CoPs can transform teachers by contributing to their immediate context or needs. There are various national and global IT platforms that are designed to enable teachers to participate and share knowledge in a CoP but in many countries, online platforms for the professional development of teachers are relatively new. This systematic literature review reports a qualitative synthesis of literature on in-service teachers’ online CoP participation. It adheres to the five-step literature search and analysis process by Creswell (2012). Seven peer-reviewed articles were included from 603 initial records. Applying an approach inspired by grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 1990), themes were identified in each article and then grouped into seven categories as follows: (1) In the online communities of practice, in which activities do teachers engage with one another? (2) What knowledge do teachers share in the online CoP? (3) What motivates teachers to participate and share knowledge in the online CoPs? (4) What are the barriers to teachers’ participation and knowledge sharing in the online CoP? (5) What roles do moderators play in teachers’ online platforms? (6) What are the perceived benefits of teachers’ online CoPs? (7) Which factors should be considered while developing online platforms for teachers?