Social Media–Based Professional Development of K–12 Teachers: A Systematic Literature Review

• In Event: Virtual Technology-Enhanced Teaching and Learning: What Can We Learn From Research Syntheses?

Abstract

The evolution of social media platforms has created new meanings to the emerging educational paradigm, supporting participatory and lifelong learning. The purpose of this review is to summarize the existing knowledge of why K-12 teachers use social media for professional development and investigate how social media-based interventions may support teaching practices. Our findings reveal that convenience to overcome geographical and time barriers, individual teachers’ motivation, and access to emotional support are the main reasons for using social media for informal PD. However, this systematic review finds relative gap in the literature concerning the studies that measure K-12 teachers’ learning outcomes.

Authors

• Feliza Marie Mercado, Texas Tech University

• Sungwon Shin, Texas Tech University

• Amanda Viola, Texas Tech University