Primary School Teachers’ Informal Learning in The Workplace: Defining Engagement Moments and The Role of Experience

Abstract

Professional development is considered essential for many professions, specifically for teachers in a rapidly changing society. An important aspect of professional development is informal learning, which is regularly used in the teaching profession. This qualitative study aims to investigate primary teachers' informal learning in the workplace and, more specifically, the deliberate part. Consequently, primary teachers from Greece were interviewed to examine the moments that impel them to participate in informal learning deliberately, their preferred informal learning activities, and the differences between novices and experienced primary school teachers regarding those engagement moments and learning activities. After analysing the data, seven engagement moments were identified, with similarities and differences between these engagement moments of novices and experienced primary school teachers and their preferred informal learning activities. These new insights could benefit teachers and school administrations in fostering the implementation of teachers' professional development and tailoring it according to their specific needs. Supplementally, this study provides a new research angle regarding primary school teachers' informal learning that could be further explored.