The purpose of this study was to analyze research trends of teacher in-service education,
based on classified criteria derived from the review of its related literature during 1980-2012.
As a result, research on teacher in-service education sparsely appeared in the 1980s and
began to increase from the 1990s. Second, concerning research areas, general in-service
education related papers(46%) were on the top in their numbers, followed by subject-matter
related in-service education(25%), information related(20%) and non-subject-matter related
ones(9%). Third, regarding research themes, 'evaluation and effectiveness analysis on
in-service education(29%)was ranked the 1st in numbers of research, followed by
'constructing, developing, and adapting in-service education programs and models'(28%),
'improving teacher in-service education system'(27%), and 'analyzing conditions and demands
to participate in in-service education'(16%). Fourth, among research methods, literature
review(45%) was the most frequently used in in-service education research, followed by
quantitative methods(39%) and mixed methods(9%). Qualitative methods(7%) were the fewest
out of all the major research methods. Fifth, from the perspective of research target,
in-service education related research usually incorporated both elementary and secondary
schools rather than separated them into independent object.