TRANSFORMING TEACHER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH MICROLEARNING: INSIGHTS FROM LAHORE, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The study explores the effectiveness of microlearning in the context of professional development (PD) for teacher-educators who teach in institutions located in Lahore, Pakistan, as opposed to conventional PD that is typically delivered over extended periods of time, including through workshops. With its brief and focused nature in digital form, there appears to be a quick training alternative. This research will focus on assessing the role of microlearning in transforming teacher educators’ professional development and how it influences various developmental factors. Research Design: The study used a survey research design and data were collected from 217 Teacher Educators of public and private universities of Lahore. It is finally concluded that the microlearning use is moderate, but it is highly valued in terms of access, flexibility and fitting into their busy schedule. Microlearning about two thirds (68%) of the respondents saw microlearning to boost engagement, retention, and lifelong learning. Quantitative analysis demonstrated that the frequency of microlearning usage was positively associated with professional development outcomes, and the variance (effect size) on development could capture about 30% by microlearning. Gender and job titles were found to be factors influencing microlearning, while experience and university type did not influence the perception of effectiveness. These results indicate that microlearning presents a potential medium for promoting teacher professional growth in low-resource contexts such as Pakistan. Nevertheless, obstacles such as platform unawareness,  digital competences and lack of institutional support need to be addressed for microlearning to become a reality in teacher training.