professional learning community

Professional learning communities don’t just happen. They need to be nurtured and developed. Planning is an important part of this. This activity is designed to help you to plan the development of your school, early years setting, centre, college, department or team as a professional learning community (PLC). It enables you and your colleagues to approach planning in three main ways, probably working more or less in parallel with each other:

This article focuses on the conceptual bases that have informed the establishment and functioning of a professional learning community (PLC) that involves a university lecturer and tutor (the two authors of the article) and a number of practising teachers. The article is a discussion of the intellectual approaches on which the PLC has been founded. Our starting assumption is that teachers’ pedagogical learning requires a supportive and deliberative set of conversations about the intellectual terms and pedagogical capacitation needed for such change. We argue that PLCs are able to provide the reflexive dialogical space, based on action research approaches, for engaging in pedagogical learning. Our on-going PLC is not necessarily interested in results-orientated teaching outcomes. Instead, we favour an experimental, messy and recursive conversation that focuses on improving teachers’ classroom teaching. The article considers the terms upon which a social justice oriented approach to pedagogical learning and adaptation might be pursued in a PLC. Inspired by the lenses of theorist, Pierre Bourdieu, we offer a view of PLCs as ‘habitus engagement’, to describe the ways in which our dialogical processing in the PLC might engender pedagogies that induct students into subject knowledge by working with students’ lifeworld contexts and knowledges. We develop an argument for the use of a Funds of Knowledge approach as a way of engaging students meaningfully in their learning. The PLC is conceptualised as a safe dialogical space where the participating

Work collaboratively to complete the following charts to answer four questions. Question 1: What is the overall impact? Using the scale of 4=high and 1=low, rate the extent to which you feel your efforts to develop a professional learning community have had an impact on:

• focus your planning of what to do next (see Planning your professional learning community in Booklet 9) We suggest you select one of the methods and complete the activity at regular intervals – perhaps at the end of each term or semester – to help any necessary refocusing for the following term or semester. Alternatively, you may prefer to do it annually. If you continue updating it each year, it will be a useful record of your PLC’s achievements.

Despite compelling evidence indicating that working collaboratively represents best practice; teachers in many schools continue to work in isolation. Even in schools that endorse the idea of collaboration, the staff’s willingness to collaborate often stops at he classroom door. Some school staffs equate the term “collaboration” with congeniality and focus on building group camaraderie. Other staffs join forces to develop consensus on operational procedures, such as how they will respond to tardiness or supervise recess. Still others organize themselves into committees to oversee different facets of the school’s operation, such as discipline, technology, and social climate. Although each of these activities can serve a useful purpose, none represents the kind of professional dialogue that can transform a school into a professional learning community.

2 Academic Management Sector, Educational Department of Negeri Sembilan, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia Abstract Distributed leadership offers a new thinking in transforming school’s leader- ship. Professional learning community has been identified to have a strong influence on the teaching quality of teachers. This article examines the rela- tionship of distributed leadership of secondary school administrators with professional learning community. The literatures suggest that distributed leadership perspective is a good alternative strategy to improve the quality of educational institutions, but empirical evidence shows the relationship of dis- tributed leadership and professional learning community is limited. Data were collected from 592 teachers working in secondary schools in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Data analysis was done based on Structural Equation Modeling using AMOS software. The study found that distributed leadership (DL) has a positive and strong correlation relationship with professional learning community (PLC), r = 0.844, p < 0.001. Regression weight analysis for DL -> PLC shows that regression coefficient value, β = 1.182. This ex- plains that when distributed leadership variable (DL) goes up by 1 unit, the professional learning community variable (PLC) will also go up by 1182 units.

The Establishment of a Professional Learning Community The establishment of the PLC for pedagogical adaptation and change emerged out of an Honours module offered by the university and called Education and Society. The Honours class consisted of approximately 20 students of whom 15 were full-time teachers working mostly in low-income school environments; the other five students were postgraduate students preparing to enter the teaching profession. The Honours class met biweekly for 3 hours over a 6-month period. This format allowed for an in-depth and engaging discussion on the module focus, which included, among other things, issues of social justice to inform the teachers’ pedagogical engagement with their students and teaching contexts. Working within the constraints of the scripted South African CAPS, the module provided the teachers with an understanding of the complexity of teaching within a diverse schooling environment and challenged them to develop both conceptual and pragmatic pedagogical approaches that would enrich their teaching repertoires.

c. Description of the academic component including: i. Goals The primary objectives of the Professional Learning Community Certificate are to 1) develop and increase teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the Professional Learning Communities (PLCs); 2) develop and increase teachers’ knowledge of and expertise with instructional strategies, including technology, to implement the Professional Learning Community Learning outcomes effectively; 3) design and evaluate assessments that inform their instruction of the Professional Learning Community Learning outcomes. The certificate program consists of four graduate courses that include content in the foundational framework and history of PLCs, essential components of PLCs, research on PLCs, the role of assessments, evaluations and grading within a PLC framework, analysis of various forms of assessments,

Appendix C: Informed Consent Teachers, I am asking for your permission to participate in a survey regarding your perceptions on how our school is functioning as a professional learning community. You are invited to participate in this survey group because you are a member of the survey school and functioning in the PLC. This research is designed to determine the current level that the school’s PLC are functioning. The survey has questions regarding your perceptions of administration support of the school, shared leadership, the schools values and visions, shared practice in teaching, supportive conditions for staff, and how the school works with collective learning and application of data. At the bottom of this email, there is a link to the survey. Clicking on the survey implies your consent to participate in this research study. I am a teacher here at the school but this study is in no way connected with my work at the school. This study is connected with my doctoral work at Walden University. I would like to thank you for your time in completing this survey. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at kathlee n.kohl@waldenu.edu .

these tools. Teacher educators have the responsibility to model good practice using ICTs, and to discuss appropriate use of new and emerging technologies with their students. As with other recent technological developments, there is considerable interest in exploiting the huge appeal and availability of mobile devices for their pedagogical use. However, adoption and implementation of emerging educational technologies by education faculty is not unproblematic. There is some literature on teacher educators learning about and with technology within a community of practice (for example, Dourneen and Matthewman 2009). However, while mobile devices appear to have been used in a variety of ways in higher education as indicated earlier in the paper, there are few discussions about how teacher educators can develop their own understanding of mobile learning as they strive to evaluate and incorporate these devices into their teaching. Even fewer studies discuss the development of understanding about mobile learning through a community of practice or a professional learning community. This article reports on an initial study of a professional learning community of educators who are investigating mobile devices in their teaching. The main research question was: how does a PLC support its members’ learning about pedagogy that employs mobile technologies?

100 It takes time to implement professional learning communities and build a collaborative culture. I have seen professional learning communities evolve in our organization from a poorly implemented model on a couple of campuses to a systematic, district-wide process that included frequent formative assessment and data analysis, collaborative learning and planning among teachers, risk taking, and rich discussions about teaching and learning. The first year, we built collaboration time into the schedule and waited for the magic to happen…to no avail. We quickly realized that someone must organize the time in some way. That is when our district began employing instructional facilitators. The district has since provided professional learning community training to building principals and instructional facilitators, which seems to have been most helpful. Collaborative professional learning communities are non-negotiable in our district. Though there are still pockets of resistance, for the most part a culture of collaboration is prevalent throughout the district. I am affirmed in my belief that creating a collaborative culture benefits teachers, students, and schools but that it only happens by intentional decisions and actions of the leadership.

zones. It‟s difficult to get that.” Trust among faculty was seen as essential for the kind of learning and unlearning that might lead to school-wide professional growth among teachers. Theme 3: Relational Trust Supports Effective Collaboration The principals in this study believe that trust and respect among faculty are fundamental if teachers are expected to open up and discuss their ideas about teaching and learning with colleagues. They believe that trust among faculty can lead to collaboration and reflective dialogue. As Principal Coral noted, “I think trust is the foundation ... We can‟t jump into collective professional development until people have had the opportunity to develop trust in each other ... Then I think collaboration will occur.” Principal Blue noted that trust is the basis for the kind of teacher collaboration required to be a professional learning community by suggesting, “In order to see collaboration as a staff, people need to trust each other, which leads to an openness to share ideas and have conversations about where they see room for improvement.” The participants regarded relational trust as a necessary social condition that allowed teachers to come together and work collaboratively on ideas that could potentially improve teaching to benefit students‟ learning.

4. C ONCLUDING NOTES Two of the main aspects of the results are presented in this paper. Firstly, the relationship between the professional learning community and level of effectiveness is rather well established in both phases of this study. This kind of relationship has not been established directly in previous studies on the professional learning community, as far as I know. However, many of the variables have been identified as characteristics of effective schools as well as being recognised in successful professional development. More investigation is needed on the nature of different categories of the professional learning community, how they affect students’ outcome and the relative size of each of them. Furthermore, much more information is needed on the process of improving the professional learning community. If educationalists are convinced that strengthening the professional learning community will improve students’ outcome, efforts should be made to do so. However, this study does not provide much evidence on effective ways to strengthen the professional learning community as was though one of the intentions by conducting it. It is obviously not enough to have scheduled time for collaboration, it is more about the content of the collaboration and how teachers discuss professional matters; if they share ideas and challenge each other’s opinions on the teaching practice.

school be a professional learning community, whilst another principal identified developing positive relationships as her priority. Similarly, three Tasmanian principals spoke with commitment about developing leadership skills and leadership density. One principal spoke of leadership professional development sessions that she encouraged all staff to attend. She was committed to anyone interested in developing leadership skills. The focus of these sessions was on what leadership is and the identification of common purposes. In another interview, a principal spoke of her strong commitment to maintaining a very strong leadership team and how she devised strategies to achieve this. She invited staff to develop their skills in this area and to undertake leadership roles. To the same end, she ensured that staff meetings were rich in educational dialogue. A third principal spoke of his efforts to build and maintain strong collegiality and to empower people, especially senior staff, by assuring and reassuring them that they were skilled, experienced educators and that together they can achieve anything.

Catherine Hands 1 , Katlyn Guzar 2 , Anne Rodrigue 3 1 Brock University, 2 Redeemer University College, 3 Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario A professional learning community (PLC) is one of the most promising strategies for effecting change in educational practices to improve academic achievement and wellbeing for all students. The PLC facilitator’s role in developing and leading blended (online and face-to-face) PLCs with members from Ontario’s school districts was examined through a qualitative case study. The research involved a document analysis of 36 reflections from 6 facilitators, observations, and a 2-hour, open ended, semi-structured interview with 6 facilitation coaches associated with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario. Facilitators shared leadership with PLC members to develop collaborative cultures, shared goals and artifacts, and guided them using dialogue and open-ended questioning to promote deep thinking, inquiry, and reflection. They scheduled meetings, set deadlines, monitored progress, and contacted members between meetings to encourage attendance. This research provides insight into the facilitators’

Many participants voiced that their perception of their influence on colleagues drove their initial reluctance to collaborate with others in a professional learning community. A participant stated: I think we all had that same fear. I wanted to escape the isolation of teaching and exchange ideas with my colleagues but did not feel confident that my ideas would be accepted. I now enjoy working with my colleagues again and demonstrating to them that I can help support student growth. We have begun looking outside of the box for strategies that work for our student population and have made small success. We are renewed again and looking forward to the benefits that PLCs have to offer!

● Allow group members to ask questions ​ . Questioning is the hallmark of an inquiry approach. There is no learning without wondering. Don’t see questioning as a personal challenge, but as inquiry. ● Invite other teachers into your classroom ​ . ● Do not say “I already do that” as a first response ​ . The first response to any topic should be “Let’s see what we can find out about that.” It is a matter of inquiry to discover how students understand learning targets and feedback and how such practices can be improved or tailored to specific student needs.

As an instructional leader, I was able to acquire valuable information in regard to the effectiveness of previously designed professional development activities. Above and beyond the intended results of the research questions, I learned that teachers need a significant amount of time to process newly acquired knowledge as it relates to effectively incorporating technology into instructional lessons. In hindsight, and reflecting upon my own experiences, I actively read the feedback teachers provided after professional development activities and recognized that some teachers were asking for more time to design lessons using the technology skills that were presented during sessions. Therefore, in future activities, I intentionally included blocks of time where teachers could work independently or collaboratively with others to design classroom activities, however, the time granted was not sustained over time. Each successive professional development activity added more technology tools and applications and did not provide time to refine and revisit previous training. The approach of embedding these blocks of time was valuable to some members of the staff who were proficient with technology but created frustration and a sense of being overwhelming for other teachers.

As shown by Wells (2008), teachers need the time, training, and leadership to help develop a culture where ideas on student achievement and educational practice are shared openly. The key elements needed in the process of a successful PLC are: teacher learning and collaboration, teacher community formation, teacher confidence in content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and practices, accountability, and sustainability (Richmond & Monokore, 2011). PLCs should have a shared emphasis on student achievement and learning but also on collaboration and teaching practices. The members should continually research best practices to improve student learning (Tschannen-Moran & Tschannen-Moran, 2010). Having an opportunity to question, investigate, and find a solution to aspects of the teachers’ practice is also important (Rahman, 2011). The process shown at the study school involved creating a common formative assessment (CFA), giving the CFA prior to the unit of study, analyzing the data, and planning the lesson; followed by re-administering the CFA at the end of the unit and analyzing the data generated for gaps in knowledge. This narrow focus of the discussion on a single data source created blinders that prevented the PLC from serving its more comprehensive function. Indeed, that conclusion was most clearly supported by the results of the observations, which revealed that the focus in the PLCs was only on student achievement in the realm of student failures and high-stakes testing. The broader collaboration on learning and improving the pedagogical environment was not seen. Work and conversation with regard to teacher learning and collaboration was also missing from the PLC meetings.

Section 4: Reflections and Conclusions Introduction The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore coteachers perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about the overall effectiveness of the PLC to improve instructional strategies in the cotaught classroom. The use of PLCs can be beneficial to teachers, administrators, and students when all stakeholders work collaboratively towards a common goal. Schools with effective PLCs allows for teachers and administrators to jointly share responsibility, reflect on teaching practice, and work towards improving teaching practices. An effective PLC has the potential to provide educators with professional development opportunities to develop their teaching practice leading to positive student outcomes (Butler & Schnellert, 2012). After the data analysis was concluded, I developed a series of professional development workshops that might lead to positive changes in coteachers perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs regarding the PLC ability to improve teaching outcome in the co-taught classroom. This section includes the projects’ strengths and limitations, and the project’s development and evaluation. I also included a reflection on my growth as a scholar, practitioner, and as a project developer.