News
02.04.2025
Enable Online Training for Teachers – It Works!
New meta-analysis on teacher development training
By Rebecca Beiter
Whether it's AI for teaching, tablets in the classroom or a new curriculum - teachers regularly undergo further training to deal with new challenges and opportunities arising in teaching. But does online training really make a difference? This is a relevant question in school practice, as online training is usually cheaper and easier to implement than face-to-face training. To date, educational research has conducted individual studies on the impact of online training for teachers, but there has been no comprehensive, up-to-date overview.
In order to answer this question, the authors of the study carried out a so-called meta analysis: They compared the results of more than 100 studies conducted with working teachers from first to twelfth grade and their students. Whether a training program was effective can be measured by looking at the teachers, for example by measuring the impact on their knowledge, skills, new attitudes and teaching methods. In addition, some studies analyzed the knowledge of the students – after all, the entire classroom should benefit from an investment in teacher's advanced trainings in the long term.
Joint, simultaneous training programmes are particularly effective
The meta-analysis shows: In the various studies, the pupils benefited from their teacher having attended an online training course - but the positive effects on the teachers themselves were even more significant. Online training courses in which several teachers were able to participate together and simultaneously had a particularly strong impact. Effective online training therefore requires time and space for collaborative activities.
In general, it makes sense to promote and expand online training courses, as they offer considerable advantages for the further development of teachers and the improvement of their teaching practice.
Publication
Morina, F., Fütterer, T., Hübner, N., Zitzmann, S., & Fischer, C. (2025). Effects of online teacher professional development on teacher, classroom, and student level outcomes: A meta-analysis. Computers & Education, 105247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2025.105247
Media Contact
Rebecca Beiter
Rebecca.Beiter@uni-tuebingen.de