Team-Based Professional Development of Teachers: Dimensions and Components

Although teachers’ professional development is not a new topic and numerous studies have been done on it, fewer studies are done in the area of model construction for team-based professional development of teachers. The absence of a study identifying the dimensions and components of team-based professional development program has been the basis of the study reported herein. In this study a set of 20 articles related to the topic were content analyzed and four dimensions of professional development were identified as personal, team-vise, educational, and organizational. The personal dimension consists of the following components: positive attitude, strong motivation, commitment, self-efficiency, accessibility, and self-confidence. The team dimension is constituted by clarity of objectives, group interaction, team composition, team leadership, and small work groups. Cooperation, critical thinking, instructional approach, and teacher identity are identified as the components of the educational dimension. The organizational dimension consists of organizational support, rewards, research-based, finances, and administrative cooperation. This framework can be utilized to help with the professional development of teachers and the overall improvement of the quality of teaching.