Online teacher professional development: A meta-synthesis

This study aimed to synthesize qualitative studies in the field of online teacher professional development (oTPD). To this end, meta-synthesis was employed. Metasynthesis was conducted using Noblit and Hare's metaethnographic approach. For the studies to be included in the meta-synthesis, electronic searches were conducted using relevant keywords in Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCO databases. In all stages of the metasynthesis, the necessary techniques were applied to ensure the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability, which are validity and reliability criteria in qualitative research. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) tool was used to decide on the final version of the studies, taking into account the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Ultimately, the findings of the 20 studies were synthesized using reciprocal translation and 3 themes and 13 sub-themes emerged. The themes are development, emotional benefit and platforms used for oTPD.The development theme includes two sub-themes: personal development and pedagogical development, while the emotional benefit theme includes the sub-themes of empathy, self-confidence, making friends, getting rid of isolation, being recognized and altruism. The theme of platforms used for oTPD consists of sub-themes: characteristics of platforms, characteristics of participants, problems, reasons for participation and barriers to sharing. As a result, it was revealed that teachers used online platforms with the need arising from their own needs and that peer learning was evident along with emotional development in these platforms. The study provides a holistic view of online platforms that have become widespread and used for teacher professional development. Keywords: Online communities of practice, online teacher professional development, social media sites, meta-synthesis, meta-etnography