There are a number of comparable sounding terms utilized within the theoretical and research literature that must to begin with be clarified and differentiated. These terms include: teacher learning, professional learning, teacher development, professional development, continuing professional development, teaching training, in-service training and in-service education for teachers.

Instructors can learn in both formal and informal settings, at work and outside work. A basic way to distinguish between teacher learning and professional learning is subsequently to indicate that teacher learning can incorporate learning outside work, while professional learning as it refers to learning at work. For instance, Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2000) distinguish five diverse ways in which teachers can learn (of which the fourth and fifth points are not considered to be a part of professional learning):

  1. Teachers learn from their own practice.
  2. Teachers learn through their interactions with other teachers.
  3. Teachers learn from teacher educators in their schools, and in specific teacher

enhancement projects.

  1. Teachers enroll independently in graduate programs.
  2. Teachers learn about teaching outside their formal professional work.

(Adapted from Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000, pp. 191–192)

In some cases, the terms teacher development and professional development are used in a somewhat different way. For instance, Farrell and Richards (2005) depict teacher development as a process of development and state that: “Teacher-education processes derive their rationale from assumptions about the nature of teacher development and how it takes place. This field is called teacher learning.” (Farrell & Richards, 2005, pp. 5–6). This recommends that the idea of teacher development is broader than that of teacher learning and is unlock to different explanations.  The evaluation of the literature on professional development, Avalos (2011), found that this area was studied and presented in a wide variety of ways., yet “always at the core of such endeavors is the understanding that professional development is about teachers learning, learning how to learn and transforming their knowledge into practice for the benefit of their students’ growth” (Avalos, 2011, p. 10).

It may be to highlight the fact that teaching is a profession and that the profession has standards when the term professional development is used instead of teacher development.

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