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The concept teachers' community (TC) applies to a range of activities teachers undertake in collaboration, mainly for professional development purposes. Although much theoretical literature and empirical studies were devoted to the subject, many aspects are yet to be examined and clarified, including types of these communities, their formation, and the interests of their initiators. This review begins with theoretical background of teachers' communities (TCs) in order to understand the concepts and context in which these communities act. Following, the different aspects of the phenomenon are examined: the formations and types of communities; essential elements for their favorable outcomes; the roles the initiators of such communities play and their influence on the operation of the communities. In order to provide this information a broad search on TCs was performed. Inclusion criteria were applied through a multistage process, at the end of which 30 empirical studies on TCs from across the world were selected and analyzed using a narrative synthesis method. The results indicate that TCs vary in form and function and these materially influence the work and accomplishments of the communities. Moreover, the capacities of the facilitator and the school principal, the group composition and elements of trust and respect among the members are critical to the successful outcomes of the work of the communities. Moreover, it was found that the stakeholders of these communities have a significant influence on their formation and sustainability. Lastly, the conceptual confusion surrounding TCs field is addressed. Key words: professional learning communities, teacher learning, stakeholders

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During the last ten years, organizations have been confronted with an extreme and a continuous flow of information, due to technological developments. Therefore, workforces have to be constantly up to date with this information to obtain competitive advantages as a company. Since then, the concept of learning broadened from only formal learning situations to a combination of formal and informal learning activities. Also, past technological developments were major factors for globalization and internationalization and generated further interdependence of economic activities. Therefore, creativity is more than ever important for becoming sustainably competitive. This study examines the mediating role of informal learning activities between some job characteristics- that are relevant in today's highly competitive society, and creative behaviour. In addition, informal learning activities are split into individual and social informal workplace learning activities. The Job Demands-Resources Model is used as a theoretical model. More specifically, two potential job demands (job complexity and workload), one potential job resource (the perception of cooperation opportunities), and a personal variable (extraversion level) are investigated in relation with individual and social informal learning and creativity. The hypotheses are tested via multiple linear regression analyses and structural equation modelling, using the programs SPSS and R. Employees could voluntarily participate in the online questionnaire that was distributed through a mailing list and social media. A total of 386 employees completed the survey. The results revealed a partially mediated effect of individual informal learning activities between job complexity and cooperation opportunities, and creative behaviour. The positive covariance between individual and social informal learning activities emphases also on the importance of implementing social learning activities in the work environment. Employees will probably engage in social learning activities when they are quite extraverted, observe opportunities to cooperate and when a relative high workload is experienced. The perception of cooperation opportunities - and not the engagement itself in social activities - can promote creative behaviour directly.

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Organizations and researchers acknowledge the importance of informal workplace learning in the current knowledge society. It is important to examine which learning conditions are necessary to accomplish learning outcomes, but studies on the relationship between learning conditions and learning outcomes are scarce. The main goal of this study is to investigate how learning conditions in the workplace relate to learning outcomes. This goal was accomplished by means of a quantitative study. The quantitative data were collected using an online questionnaire combining a questionnaire on learning outcomes and a questionnaire on learning conditions. This was submitted to army officers and non-commissioned officers of the Belgian army (N=422). First, the intern consistency of the scales was calculated for the learning conditions (cooperation, informative, feedback, coaching, evaluation and reflection) and the learning outcomes (generic, job-specific and organizational level learning outcomes. Secondly, descriptive statistics and correlation were calculated to get a first sight at the relationship between the learning conditions and the informal learning outcomes. Finally, a multivariate multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine which learning conditions predict which learning outcomes. The results suggest that cooperation and information predict all three types of learning outcomes, feedback predicts generic and job specific learning outcomes and coaching predicts organizational level learning outcomes. Keywords: Workplace learning, Informal learning, Learning conditions, Learning outcomes, Army officers

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Flemish primary school teachers are under a lot of pressure and have to deal with increasing demands in their job. Therefore, it is important that they continuously develop themselves professionally. Prior research pointed out that teachers learn most through informal learning in the workplace, which is the focus of this research. The literature revealed that in order to learn, teachers engage in several different informal learning activities: reflecting, reading and information seeking, experimenting and collaboration. Furthermore, because there is disagreement about the role of teaching experience in teachers' informal learning, this will be closer examined. In addition, the role of school culture will be researched, as it is necessary to understand the teaching community and work culture in order to understand what teachers do. Consequently, this study aims at answering the following three research questions: (1) Which informal learning activities do primary school teachers undertake? (2) Is there a difference between beginning and more experienced primary school teachers regarding their informal learning activities? (3) What is the role of school culture in the informal learning of primary school teachers? To provide an answer to these questions, a mixed method approach was adopted. The main focus was on the collection of rich, detailed data through semi-structured interviews of twenty Flemish primary school teachers of ten schools. In addition, questionnaires were administered to all primary school teachers of the participating schools.First, the results of this research showed that Flemish primary school teachers engage in the same learning activities as prior research indicated. Experimenting, however, was often limited to trying out a new teaching method and happened less often with the 'main subjects' such as mathematics and languages. Second, the results showed that more experienced teachers do not engage less in learning activities, but undertake different activities then their beginning colleagues. Furthermore, collaboration with experienced colleagues, proved to be of even greater importance for Flemish, beginning primary school teachers then prior research indicated. Finally, a collaborative culture seems to enhance informal learning of primary school teachers. Teachers felt it was natural to collaborate and experiment with their colleagues, because there is trust, openness and spontaneity. It also became clear that the principal has a great influence in the shaping of a collaborative culture. Finally, some limitations and suggestions for further research will be discussed.