Systematic review and extraction of components of professional development courses for professors of Farhangian University with reverse learning approach: Metasynthesis

Universities and higher education institutions need more capable professors than ever before to face the threats and challenges of the modern world. The aim of this study was to review the studies conducted to identify the components of professional development of professors at Farhangian University. 

The research method was qualitative and of the synthesis type. The research population included all sources related to the professional development of university professors during the years 2000 to 2020 in Eric, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Scopus and Sage databases and three Iranian databases of Sid, Migiran and Civilika, which are among 3152 written sources after evaluation. The quality of the initial studies was identified using the evaluation checklist of Carlson et al. (2007). 60 suitable sources were identified and examined based on the seven-step steps of Sandlowski and Barroso (2007). The main category was categorized. In order to control the extracted concepts, the kappa index with a value of (0.718 and significance of 0.000) was used, indicating that the extracted codes have good reliability.

Identified components including educational development; Research development; Service development; Individual development; organizational development; Institutional factors; Managerial factors; Individual and social factors. 

The results of this study provided valuable information for the planners of Farhangian University to adopt principled policies to improve the quality of professional development programs for professors with new approaches.