An Analysis of Professional Learning: A Literature Review

This literature review examines the significance of professional learning, exploring its definition, historical context, and impact on educators and students. It analyzes four scholarly articles focusing on motivation, backward planning, developmental stages, and potential drawbacks. The review highlights the benefits of professional learning, such as enhanced teacher skills, improved student outcomes, and the development of professional learning communities. It also discusses the importance of motivation and collaboration in the learning process, and the need for practical strategies to support educators. The review identifies both positive aspects, such as real-life case studies and the shift from professional norms to collaborative practice, and negative aspects, like a lack of practical methods and evidence. Overall, the literature review establishes the advantages and disadvantages of professional learning, aiming to stimulate ideas and provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction
A literature review is going to be structured on the importance of professional
learning, emerging time, impact, and the desired outcome. Professional learning is defined as
learning, where teachers are engaged in different kinds of knowledge so that they can
stimulate their thought process as well as professional knowledge (Muijs et al., 2014). It
benefits the teachers in several ways and they can implement or even practice the gained
knowledge in order to sharpen their abilities and capabilities. The process of professional
learning actually ensures that their practices are critically well-informed along with deals
with relevant information. There will be four articles, which will be discussed in the
discussion section. The first article is about professional learning as well as motivation,
which will support both the students along with the teachers to develop their structure
appropriately, and that leads to professional development (Durksen, Klassen & Daniels,
2017). In the second article, the authors have incorporated planning backward approach as
well as mixed in order to provide the readers with a piece of better knowledge about other
approaches and it has been proven to be a better approach towards the concept of professional
learning (Guskey, 2014). They have also provided a case study for delivering better
understanding towards the approach but the authors have provided only pieces of researches
and none of the essential methods have been utilized to develop a practical strategy for the
readers. In the third article, the author has gathered information on the developmental stages
of professional learning (Stewart, 2014). In the fourth article, the authors have incorporated
specific issues that may cause a drawback to the approach and it can be dissolved by applying
specific methods (Campbell et al., 2013). The main objective of this literature review is to
establish the advantages as well as disadvantages in the field of literature based on
professional learning so that the readers can understand and can stimulate their ideas

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appropriately. A brief description along with the history of professional learning will, in the
upcoming section, and then four articles will be analyzed accordingly.
Discussion
Professional learning is defined as the process through which teachers, educators, and
administrators, along with staff members, attain knowledge in the field of their respective
subjects (Muijs et al., 2014). This process of learning is focused on enhancing and refining
the acquired knowledge, advanced skills, implementation, and certain dispositions. Teachers
are required to engage themselves in this process of professional learning so that they can
gather knowledge in order to stimulate their individual thought process as well as
professional knowledge (Eteläpelto et al., 2014). It helps to ensure that the practice of their
knowledge and skills are critically well-informed as well as relevant. Therefore, for better
understanding four scholarly articles are going to be discussed in order to understand the
thoughts as well as ideas of the authors regarding professional learning.
According to an article, there is a relevant connection between motivation as well as
the learning process of the teachers (Durksen, Klassen & Daniels, 2017). Professional
learning is required to produce as well as to provide support to the higher levels of learning
for all the students. The author has managed to provide the desired information about the
subject and the connection with the motivation that can lead to the success of such a theory.
For instance, the teachers need to receive a high range quality along with sustainable
experiences of professional learning so that teachers can inspire the students and can deliver
high-quality teaching. These learning experiences enable the learners to attain their desired
results, and that leads to ultimate satisfaction. It is essential to know about professional
learning because it allows a variety of excellent opportunities for the teachers to enhance as
well to develop their expert knowledge and practicing this knowledge on various occasions.

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The practice is necessary in this field of professional knowledge in order to follow up on the
progress of the desired quality of the learning, teaching along with the improvement of
schools. The authors have secured a place for the readers to engage themselves in reading
books, looking after the students, studying lessons and encouraging expectations, which may
lead to advantages as well as disadvantages.
The authors have incorporated some primary data like they have collected data from
about two hundred fifty-three practicing teachers, who have been tested the hypothesized
relationships via structural equation modeling so that they can get relevant answers for the
question: How does the implementation of teachers’ efficacy thoughts, beliefs and
engagement affects their individual professional beliefs? The data was collected from the
source of primary data collection and in the form of a questionnaire, and it was carried out
among five primary as well as five secondary groups in the same five districts (Durksen,
Klassen & Daniels, 2017). The desired results have been generated upon the positive
relationship between professional learning and motivational constructs, notably when the
process of learning can collaborate. The Authors have managed to provide the desired
outcome through implementing for future research as well as a well-generated integrative
theory. A developmental framework is generated for acquiring better knowledge about
teachers’ motivation as well as professional learning.
The authors have provided several essential parts about the motivational as well as the
collaboration part in order to support professional learning. The work is quite to the point and
the authors have provided relevant researches. There have been several dimensions of this
process and it affected successfully in order to understand the main elements like developing
students, encouraging and being the motivational person in front of them(Durksen, Klassen &
Daniels, 2017). The motivational factors are examined appropriately and teachers will inspire
their students by providing knowledge, competent guidance and showing the road to success.

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The teachers help to stimulate their thought process as well as professional knowledge and
that leads on to professional development for teachers along with the students.
It is essential to know why the community of professional learning developed in every
country and why it was required to establish in the upcoming years. There is another article,
the authors have significantly provided all the researches on the planning of professional
learning, which is interlinked with professional development and with desired activities to
support the students. The authors have successfully provided definition, impacts along with a
mixed history o that the readers can understand the base of their knowledge and construct
accordingly. They have incorporated various lesson planning in order to benefit the educators
and practice all the lessons actively in the classroom. They have managed to secure all the
details about the approaches, which are related to planning backward and it will help the
educators at new levels of their lesson planning. The positive aspect of the article is that they
have gathered several real-life case studies, which will help to acquire knowledge in the
evaluation process and at any of the levels, it will not be neglected. Every method of learning
has a significant history behind its growth, and finally, it will spread all across the world
successfully (Guskey, 2014). The term professional learning community was first introduced
among some researchers during the 1960s. The concept was first offered as another option for
the isolation endemic towards the profession of teaching in the United States. The research
started in the late 1980s as well as in the early 1990s in order to evolve more in an
understandable way. The main objective of the professional learning community is to
improve the desired skills of teaching activities as well as to develop the scholarly
performance of the students.

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The authors have added several kinds of research on the mixed history along with
planning backward, which definitely supported the context effectively. For so many years,
most of the schools have been practicing such professional learning without having the
knowledge of what will happen and how will they accomplish or emerge as a successful
venture. Therefore, improvement is a must for the progress of the process of professional
learning and it will help to expand the knowledge and assuring the educators for occasional
history. The approach of planning backward is required in the field of professional learning
as discussed in the article; it helps to articulate different facts and information (Guskey,
2014). Firstly, it evaluates the reactions of the participants; secondly, it gives a space to
acquire new ideas as well as knowledge; thirdly, support and guidance are provided by the
organization, fourth, utilizing the latest knowledge and different kinds of skills.
The negative aspect of this article is that no such methods have been incorporated to
help the readers to understand the factors in a practical way. They have shared a lot of details
of their researches but primary data is applied to such an article. Hence, it set a drawback
towards the article and the paper is a bit complex, maybe some young readers may find it
challenging to address all the answers appropriately (Guskey, 2014). Another positive aspect
is that the details of the author have been provided and his researches have been recognized
but readers need a practical approach towards any project and it will help them to stimulate
their ideas and thoughts adequately.
As the readers should have been interested in acquiring more knowledge on the
developmental factors where they will attain more innovative ideas as well as their individual
thoughts will develop (Stewart, 2014). Therefore, it is essential to go through an article that
serves as the medium for the readers about the professional development of the process of
professional learning. An article has discussed and examined the transformation of
professional development towards professional learning, where the author has managed to

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incorporate several practices and implementation of such processes for the betterment of the
approach. The author has examined a shift from professional norms to collaborative practice.
It will aid the readers to understand the facts and it will raise the levels of the educators for
the betterment of the students. The article has elaborated that individual practices are
inadequate for educators to broaden their ideas and knowledge for the students and therefore,
it is required to prepare the teachers in different processes. The implementation of their
individual knowledge, as well as innovative ideas, are inadequate for the progress of
professional learning and the teachers need to incorporate several other thoughts so that they
can enhance their academic skills appropriately. The learners need to focus on their learning
activities as well as should develop their academic skills by acquiring knowledge from the
teachers. Some precise and relevant practices are required for attaining such knowledge and
they should have engaged themselves with both workforces as well as college readiness. The
author has also provided knowledge about promising practices, which have benefitted the
students for their professional development. Thus, the definition of professional learning is
actually identified as the community, which is useful, active along with the traditional way of
learning and it is a traditional method that has been practiced for many years. This article has
focused on several aspects of professional learning communities, which can be added in the
Adult Basic Education program in order to improve, develop as well as enhance the process
of teaching along with learners. In short, it will benefit both educators as well as learners in
the long run and it improves their academic skills appropriately.
The authors have provided a sound knowledge of the learning activities as well as
processes to encourage professional learning for the teachers as well as students. The author
has provided particular tables to submit his thoughts over the primary context and it has been
a good effort for making the readers understand the process. The author has just discussed the
learning theory but has not incorporated any shreds of evidence. The only drawback of this

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article is that all the sources, as well as knowledge, have been added from different
researches but the author has not utilized primary data. The questionnaire method or survey
method among a few participants could have been incorporated and it could have made the
article more appropriate and the readers could have recognized the details more practically.
In another article, the authors have managed to search for undesired issues or
problems with the process of professional learning. The authors have provided a response
towards the demanding situation of the 21st-century learner, where the environment of the
classroom is rapidly shifting from the traditional ways of delivering knowledge from a single
teacher in the classroom. This process of traditional ways has been eliminated from the good
books of the present generation (Campbell et al., 2013). There are some challenges in the way
to produce opportunities for the process of professional learning. The article has been
discussed about three primary schools that have adopted such non-traditional classroom
ambiance. The main objective of this article to recognize the new spaces in order to shape the
practices of the process of professional teaching. They implemented certain practices for
overcoming such practices, which can benefit the teachers.
A literature gap has been recognized that all the articles have been recognized that
only one article has been provided with practical approaches. All the other articles have not
provide any practical method for collecting the data from primary sources and have
exclusively provided scholarly journals for all the researches. The context was quite complex
to understand but some of the articles have been quite easy to understand.

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Conclusion
Therefore, the above five articles have summarized all the extending details about
professional learning that will benefit the readers to stimulate their ideas as well as thoughts
appropriately. All the articles have discussed different aspects such as professional
development, professional motivation and collaboration, an approach of planning backward
along with mixed history, and it definitely explains the different layers of professional
learning so that the concept can be evident in front of the readers. For so many years, there
has been a massive improvement in the process of professional learning and the teachers
should develop their knowledge and ideas through technological advancements and by
various other methods as well. The authors have managed to provide several types of
research but many of them failed to instigate practical approaches like engaging participants
for collecting the primary data and information. There was only one article that has
incorporated several participants so that they can deliver a practical approach for the readers,
where the teachers were quite supportive but were a long process to execute it appropriately.
The authors tried to keep it simple in their approach but the structure was quite complex to
understand and sometimes, many of the articles have been diverted from the main context
and have been shifted to another layer of professional learning. Basically, the authors should
have provided more sources upon the development as well as enhancement of the concept of
professional learning. The context of professional learning emerged a long time but the
history of the approach proves that it has developed in such long years. Therefore,
professional learning will help continuously help the teachers to acquire essential as well as
effective knowledge so that they can properly appropriately guide the students.

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References
Campbell, M., Saltmarsh, S., Chapman, A., & Drew, C. (2013). Issues of teacher professional
learning within ‘non-traditional’classroom environments. Improving schools, 16(3),
209-222.
Durksen, T. L., Klassen, R. M., & Daniels, L. M. (2017). Motivation and collaboration: The
keys to a developmental framework for teachers’ professional learning. Teaching and
teacher education, 67, 53-66.
Eteläpelto, A., Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä, P., & Paloniemi, S. (2014). Identity and agency in
professional learning. In International handbook of research in professional and
practice-based learning (pp. 645-672). Springer, Dordrecht.
Guskey, T. R. (2014). Planning professional learning. Educational leadership, 71(8), 10.
Muijs, D., Kyriakides, L., Van der Werf, G., Creemers, B., Timperley, H., & Earl, L. (2014).
State of the art–teacher effectiveness and professional learning. School effectiveness
and school improvement, 25(2), 231-256.
Opfer, V. D., & Pedder, D. (2011). Conceptualizing teacher professional learning. Review of
educational research, 81(3), 376-407.
Stewart, C. (2014). Transforming professional development to professional learning. Journal
of Adult Education, 43(1), 28-33.