Social media are virtual platforms that enable users to share and exchange information. Increasingly, these platforms are being used by educators to learn and grow professionally (Harvey and Hyndman, 2018; Hyndman and Harvey, 2020; McNamara et al., 2021a). Within educational fields, such as physical education, preliminary research suggests social media is being used within teacher education programs and as a medium for professional learning (PL; Goodyear et al., 2019; Richards et al., 2020). For instance, Goodyear et al. (2014) examined seven physical educators’ professional interactions on Twitter and Facebook. It was determined that social media acted as an emerging community of practice for instructors. The authors also suggested that social media was recognized as a new method for PL and provided opportunities for physical educators to collaborate and improve pedagogy.

Scholars have begun to categorize the learning that occurs within social media as informal learning (Carpenter and Krutka, 2014; Krause et al., 2017; McNamara et al., 2021a). Informal learning has been described as learning that occurs outside of formal learning environments, such as college courses or in-person conferences, and often transpires within more casual settings where one would interact with their colleagues outside of the “normal” work environment (Nelson et al., 2006; Latchem, 2014). Historically informal learning often occurs within the teachers’ lounge or in between conference sessions. Within recent years, informal learning is occuring increasingly within online spaces, such as social media platforms (Risser, 2013). The objectives that guide these informal learning experiences are often determined by the learner or a group of learners (Latchem, 2014). It is estimated that 70–90% of a teacher’s work-related learning can be considered informal learning (Latchem, 2014). Informal learning is an important form of PL for educators, as many scholars have long held that these learning experiences may be foundational to one’s professional knowledge and skills (Clardy, 2018; Jeong et al., 2018). It has been suggested that some modes of informal PL, such as social media, may be perceived as a “waste of time” or distraction to learning among educators and educational researchers; however, some scholars have cautioned against this conclusion as research has indicated that social media affords educators and college students alike the benefits that can amplify informal learning such as access to large networks of people and self-directed learning (Greenhow and Lewin, 2016; Tang and Hew, 2017; Goodyear et al., 2019).

Social media may be an ideal medium for informal learning for physical educators given this group of educators has often reported feelings of marginalization and a lack of PL opportunities tailored to their needs (Richards et al., 2018, 2020). Indeed, physical educators have reported a multitude of benefits of using social media to acquire professional specific information (Goodyear et al., 2019; Hyndman and Harvey, 2020; Richards et al., 2020). Through studies presented within a recent monograph (Carpenter and Harvey, 2020; Harvey and Carpenter, 2020), it was reported that although physical educators often benefit from traditional in-person conferences, many feel that social media allows them to engage with PL daily and visually see how teachers are conducting their lessons in real-time. In addition, physical educators reported that they perceived Twitter to be an effective platform to improve one’s practices through sharing resources and developing communities of practices that allow them to feel less isolated and marginalized (Richards et al., 2020).

McNamara et al. (2020) recently surveyed 124 adapted physical educators, a subset of physical educators who provide individualized instruction to students with disabilities and found that over half used social media to access educational research. Further, other descriptive survey research has found that surveyed physical educators who taught students with disabilities about their usage of social media reported multiple benefits for PL, with the highest rated uses being knowledge exchange, networking, and posting or viewing motivational content, respectively (McNamara et al., 2021a). These findings provide preliminary evidence that suggests that social media can support the growth and development of physical educators in relation to learning about adapted physical education (APE) content. Although researchers have recently demonstrated that social media can support the growth and development of physical educators (Goodyear et al., 2019; Carpenter and Harvey, 2020; Harvey and Carpenter, 2020; McNamara et al., 2021a) more research is needed to understand how specialized groups of physical educators, such as APE teachers, perceive social media as a PL tool.

There are significant and persistent shortages of trained APE teachers in the United States of America (United States; Healy et al., 2014). The lack of adequately prepared personnel is due to several factors, including a lack of adequate college preparation programs dedicated to APE (McNamara et al., 2021b) and a lack of relevant PL opportunities dedicated to APE content (McNamara et al., 2021a). For example, many physical education college programs only require one course in APE that provides a broad overview of the knowledge content needed to effectively teach students with disabilities (Piletic and Davis, 2010; McNamara et al., 2021b). McNamara et al. (2021a) found that approximately 40% of physical educators who taught students with disabilities stated they had never attended a conference related to APE content. This is problematic, as attending PL opportunities is known to be more effective when it is tailored to the specific needs of an educator (Armour and Yelling, 2004). Even though it has been suggested that social media allows educators to engage with PL in between traditional in-person conferences (Carpenter and Harvey, 2020), it may be that in the absence of sufficient PL opportunities for APE teachers (McNamara et al., 2021a), social media-based PL may play a pivotal role in their professional growth. In addition, as APE teachers need very specialized content and have unique workplace experiences compared to general physical educators (Wilson et al., 2020), the need to engage with a specific online community may be more pronounced compared to less specialized groups of educators.

Although research is being conducted on the utilization of social media for professional growth among general physical educators (Goodyear et al., 2014; Richards et al., 2020), APE teachers’ usage of social media, and its’ PL benefits, remains undetermined (Healy, 2020). In addition, it is unknown to what degree social media meets APE teachers’ PL needs in comparison to more formal opportunities, such as in-person conferences. Thus, the purposes of this study were to (a) examine how frequently APE teachers use social media to acquire information related to APE, (b) explore how APE teachers use social media to learn about APE content, and (c) compare how APE teachers perceive social media and conferences as being useful for their PL. More specifically, two research questions guided this investigation:

The purpose of this study was to explore how APE teachers use social media to acquire information related to APE, as well as compare how they perceive PL on social media vs. traditional conferences. The current study indicates that APE teachers use social media regularly to access PL experiences, reflecting previous research with physical educators (Goodyear et al., 2014; Hyndman and Harvey, 2020; Richards et al., 2020). APE teachers use of social media for PL may be related to the scarcity of relevant and in-person PL opportunities specifically focused on APE content (Hodge and Akuffo, 2007; McNamara et al., 2021a). Potentially, the lack of PL opportunities may push APE teachers to alternative sources of PL, such as using social media to access much needed knowledge and connect with colleagues and experts. Indeed, most participants in this study were engaging with one form of social media at least once a week, with the most frequently used social media platforms used included YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, respectively. These findings support the assertation that physical educators may use social media to stay connected to PL in between conference attendance, as conference attendance can be sporadic and infrequent whereas social media use can occur daily (Carpenter and Harvey, 2020; Harvey and Carpenter, 2020). Future researchers should seek to qualitatively explore the motivations of APE teachers to use social media for PL purposes and focus on the array of platforms being used.

In alignment with previous research (McNamara et al., 2021a), the present sample of APE teachers are using a range of social media platforms to access PL. One of the lowest ranked social media platforms used for PL is ResearchGate, as this platform specializes in allowing researchers to disseminate and discuss their research. This may suggest the persistent research-to-practice issues that permeate many fields where researchers often do not effectively disseminate their findings with practitioners (Montgomery and Smith, 2015; McNamara et al., 2020) endures within virtual spaces. Conversely, preliminary research suggest that scholars do not see a tremendous amount of benefit from using ResearchGate (Muscanell and Utz, 2017); hence, the finding that APE teachers are not using this platform may suggest that it does not offer much benefit to their PL experiences. Regardless, the literature has demonstrated that there is a research-to-practice gap that exists among APE teachers (McNamara et al., 2020), which the infrequent use of ResearchGate highlights. Researchers should make concerted efforts to use social media platforms to share their research findings with practitioners, especially platforms that appear to be most frequently used amongst the current sample such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Although it appears that APE teachers often use social media for PL, the results indicated that participants predominantly prefer learning about APE related content within more formal conference settings. This reflects data showing that APE teachers most commonly attend conferences, as opposed to other sources such as social media and textbooks, to access educational research (McNamara et al., 2020). APE teachers’ perceptions that conferences are more useful for them to learn about APE content may also be due to how educators often use social media for PL. Scholars have indicated that educators often use social media to promote an image of themselves and their teaching practices that put them in the best possible light, rather than focusing on the validity and authenticity of the information (Carpenter and Krutka, 2014). Erwin (2016) suggested that although social media allows for greater ease to share resources and information, this may be to the determinant of the quality and accuracy of information. Erwin elaborated by explaining that it is essential for those engaged in social media for PL need to hold themselves and others accountable for posting quality and accurate resources and information. Although a plethora of benefits have been linked to social media PL for educators (Richards et al., 2020; McNamara et al., 2021a), conferences may provide a venue that ensures increased validity of information. Further research is needed to better understand why APE teachers perceive conferences to be more useful than social media for PL.

Participants’ high frequency of social media use for personal and professional purposes was a statistically significant predictor for attending conferences. This suggests those that are motivated to engage in PL via social media are also more motivated to attend conferences. This engagement with multiple types of PL mediums, as well as multiple forms of social media, is not surprising. Professionally engaged teachers have been found to be often very interested in various ways to improve their practice (Montgomery and Smith, 2015; McNamara et al., 2020), as both PL within conference and social media settings has been noted as being driven by intrinsic motivation (Harvey and Carpenter, 2020). It may also be that adapted physical educators engaging in PL on social media and through conference attendance have created a community of practice with shared repertoires and experiences that allows them to share information that is often very specific to their needs. This may be ideal, as it has been suggested that APE teachers’ needs and experiences are quite unique compared to general physical educators (Wilson et al., 2020). Future research should seek to understand whether APE teachers view social media as a supplemental tool for their PL experiences, or as a replacement for conferences that often do not focus on APE content.

In consideration of these findings, APE teacher-educators and organizations should seek to enhance the quality of social media-based PL and not view PL on social media, in its current form, as a replacement for more traditional PL opportunities. As professional associations begin to develop more sophisticated knowledge and skills with using social media, the line between formal PL (e.g., conferences) and PL on social media may becoming blurred. For example, some professional organizations have content experts lead discussions, as well as regularly share resources specific to a group of teachers (Goodyear et al., 2019). National organizations should consider providing additional PL opportunities through online mediums and through collaborating with state and local APE organizations. In addition, physical education professional organizations should make more concerted efforts to emphasize APE related topics within the PL they provide at all local, regional, and national levels.

The findings from this study suggest that APE teachers appear to use and value social media PL experiences for a variety of purposes, especially related to collaboration. However, participants perceived conference PL experiences as more valuable for learning about specific APE content. Although, with data suggesting there is a lack of conferences with content tailored to APE teachers (Hodge and Akuffo, 2007; McNamara et al., 2021a), additional efforts are needed to provide this group of professionals with adequate and frequent PL opportunities related to their specialty. Social media can build a bridge between the infrequent PL opportunities, although caution is needed in the quality of content, as it has been expressed that often information shared on social media may manipulate facts, making it increasingly difficult to assess the validity of social media content (Hajli, 2018). Scholars should explore how those that are using social media for PL and the creators of social media PL navigate issues of validity of content.

PL organizations should also consider using a blend of these different forms of PL, as APE teachers appear to benefit from both sources of PL, including a wide spectrum of social media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook). Indeed, it has been suggested that using social media to reinforce and supplement information often introduced at conferences is ideal (Liu et al., 2016). Future research should examine how professional organizations and schools can best utilize social media to assist APE teachers’ PL experiences. More specifically, scholars should examine the impact of social media PL on specific learning domains, such as content and pedagogical knowledge.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the University of Northern Iowa. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.

SM created the research design and purpose of this study, contributed to the data analysis conducted, and led the manuscript preparation. KN assisted with the research design and led the data analyses, as well as assisted with the manuscript preparation. SH provided critical feedback throughout the research process and assisted with the manuscript preparation. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.