An international perspective for ‘Improving teacher professional development for online and blended learning: a systematic meta-aggregative review’

This paper is in response, from an international perspective, to the manuscript entitled “Improving teacher professional development for online and blended learning: a systematic meta-aggregative review” (Philipsen, B., Tondeur, J., Pareja Roblin, N. et al. 2019). The impact of the manuscript has been reinforced by the claims of international organisations like UNESCO and ILO, as far as they highlight that Teacher Professional Development (TPD) for Online and Blended Learning are a priority in the present scenario. The findings can be clearly applied to guide appropriated TPD for the recovery as well as for a resilient education system. Nevertheless, the research was conducted in a West-European context where most learners use computers on an everyday basis, while half the world’s students do not have access to a household computer, and this has determined the emergency response to the pandemic. Dreesen et al. (2020) reported that most of the countries have adopted a remote education based on some combination of digital platforms, television, radio, take-home packages, home visits, text messaging and phone calls. It would be very interesting to incorporate these recent discoveries in the use of frugal technologies and elucidate if new components should be aggregated for TPD strategies from an international perspective. As far as the authors adopted the approach of a systematic meta-aggregative review, new data supported by unequivocal or credible evidence can be conveniently incorporated without reinterpreting the original findings.