Professional Learning Communities

Jean Haar, Kathleen Foord

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781317926115
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book demonstrates how a professional learning community can increase teacher growth and student achievement. The authors provide detailed examples along with innovation maps to help school leaders implement the eight key elements of an effective PLC.

1

Effective Professional Learning Communities

The current popularity of professional learning communities (PLCs) raises many questions for leaders as they develop a vision for PLCs in their schools. Why should we use PLCs? What are the most important elements, components, or functions in a PLC? How do we get them started and keep them going? How do we know when PLCs are working well or on the verge of failure? What is the role of the teacher and the leader in developing and sustaining PLCs? These and other questions flood the thoughts of leaders across the nation as they read, study, and implement PLCs. Each of the leaders works in a different setting, with different students, teachers, parents, and politics. Are the answers to these questions the same in each setting or dependent on the context?

In this book, we guide you in developing your capacity to lead PLCs as you answer the hard questions with the right answer for your personal context. Leadership comes in many forms and is most effective when shared to create collective responsibility for change. This book can support the PLC leadership capacity of everyone in a school or district.

♦ Teachers can use this book to increase student achievement, shape their own professional growth, work effectively with colleagues, become more accountable for results, and develop interdependence with other educators and leaders within their school and district.

♦ Teacher leaders can use this book to develop shared leadership and responsibility for increased student achievement, focused professional growth, effective interpersonal relationships in PLCs, increased accountability and increased interdependence among educators and leaders in their school and district.

♦ Principals can use this book to strengthen instructional leadership that supports increased student achievement, coaching for professional growth, development of effective structural and relational change in policies and practices, and assured accountability, interdependence, and sustainability for effective PLCs in their school and district.

♦ Superintendents and other district office leaders can use this book to align and support policies, practices, and resources needed by schools to develop effective PLCs that increase student and professional growth and that assure accountability, interdependence, and sustainability for effective PLCs among schools within the district.

We begin by introducing you to a leader, who much like you, seeks to increase her capacity to lead through the use of effective PLCs.

Vignette 1

Teresa had been a principal for seven years following eight years as a classroom teacher. She really wanted her staff to be less dependent on her to solve school problems and more professionally committed to addressing student needs. She wanted more distributed responsibility for decisions in her building.

Principals in her district had completed a book study on professional learning communities (PLCs) and agreed to try some practices. She shared her vision for PLCs at a faculty meeting in January. During faculty meetings, teachers read articles on PLCs and developed a list of elements needed in PLCs. At the end of the year, Teresa asked a group of teachers to serve as the PLC leadership team. They looked at their school’s list of PLC elements and student achievement data to develop a vision, a mission, and goals for the next year.

She knew there were skeptical teachers who were likely to resist PLCs during the next year and wondered what physical, academic, and social structures would increase the likelihood of successful PLC implementation.

Guiding Questions

♦ Why should we use PLCs?

♦ Why do we need to develop structural and relational practices for successful implementation of PLCs?

♦ How can we analyze our assumptions and information about PLCs for effective implementation?

Let’s start by developing an understanding about why we recommend the use of PLCs. There is considerable evidence about how PLCs increase teacher and student achievement, and we will explore that in a moment. However, most teachers and leaders want to know that something works in the real world, not just in a research study. So, we decided to start by sharing a few of our own stories that have led to our study and commitment to PLCs. We think it is important to walk the talk and that our credibility and confidence come from the ability to reflect on our personal experiences. We each share stories about what has and has not worked in our journey to use PLCs.

Kitty’s Story

I worked as a curriculum and assessment specialist in two school districts as the standards movement came into full swing. There were state-level initiatives to teacher-proof the delivery of standards through implementation of core assessments. Even if the state assessments didn’t fit the context, teaching skills, or style, or even the district adopted materials; teachers were encouraged to work as a team to implement the state assessments. I worked with teams of teachers to understand how the new standards matched their own outcomes and materials and helped them develop their own core assessments. I experienced all the elements of resistance that come with major teacher-change initiatives. “This will pass; this is inappropriate for my discipline; what will you do if I don’t comply; this is a waste of precious teaching time; this is causing interdepartmental conflict, you can’t make me work with that teacher; our community will rally around us to stop this; this is not really part of my job description; how much are you going to pay me to do it; there’s no time to do this,” and so on. I learned a great deal during that time about what doesn’t work and what does work when implementing teacher change. Treating teachers as delivery technicians instead of professionals didn’t afford them the respect or recognition they deserved as well-educated adults and ensured dependent or resistant behavior would continue.

I earned my master’s and doctoral degrees in settings that were effective PLCs. Those experiences supported significant change in my own practices and beliefs and in those of my colleagues. This led to extensive personal research into learning communities, adult learning, change, and professional practices. Seven state-sponsored grants permitted me to use this research to study PLCs. One of the grants became the focus of my dissertation on how professional development in learning communities influences changes in teacher beliefs and practices. This work revealed that professional expertise increased significantly as did the ability to reflect, to self-direct learning, to learn with others, and to assume leadership responsibility for the learning of others. I am a product of and now a committed facilitator in several districts for effective PLCs because I know that they can increase teacher professionalism, and, therefore, student achievement.

Jean’s Story

I began my professional career in a small, rural school district. The level of personal attention I could provide students and, in turn, their open, honest communication about what they were or were not learning served as valuable learning experiences for me not only about student learning but also about effective teaching. I also realized that a number of factors that occurred outside my classroom greatly impacted my students’ ability to learn within my classroom. It did not take me long to realize the important role leadership played in creating an atmosphere conducive to teaching and learning. The foundation I gained from my teaching experience prepared me for the challenges I faced as a building principal who was intent on creating a culture focused on respect and high expectations for student and adult learning.

As a principal, I had staff members who were committed to their profession and who cared about students. What I did not have was a structure or a culture that promoted professional learning as a community. Teachers were pursuing their own professional growth based on what was brought to their attention and what was available. Often times the opportunities focused on content or technology—little focused on student learning.

During my years as a principal, I consistently faced issues where teachers’ efforts to create powerful learning experiences for their students were meet with obstacles. These obstacles included (a) expecting teachers to envision and plan for all learning experiences a year in advance (without allowing teachers to become familiar with student needs and then determine appropriate learning experiences); (b) expecting teachers to develop, implement, and score comprehensive exams that promote critical thinking in conjunction with expecting them to submit the final grades in a short time frame; (c) being asked to appropriately incorporate technology into the curriculum with basic technology application training; and (d) being asked to complete budget requests, to determine facility needs, and to determine supplies for next year in the midst of teaching. These as well as other policies and procedures hindered our abilities to be innovative, to explore new strategies, and to take the risks needed to improve student learning. Most of the policies and procedures were created for efficiency rather than effectiveness—many were also developed before the existing era of educational accountability and change.

During my principalship and through my doctoral studies, I continually investigated ways in which school leaders were effectively creating environments conducive to student and teacher growth. The research on PLCs provided me with an understandable concept and a framework. PLCs are an opportunity for schools to replace dated policies and procedures and to develop a culture that promotes high expectations for all while respecting student and adult learning. PLCs also serve as a framework for building a sense of community within a district—something I believe is desperately needed as schools continue to face the enormous challenges that accompany the needs of an ever-changing, global society.

Why Should We Use Professional Learning Communities?

There is growing evidence that documents improved teaching and learning with the use of PLCs. Recent work (DuFour & Eaker, 1998) offers strong testimony of the significant changes in student achievement that can occur in single schools. What does the wider body of research across various schools reveal? Work by Newman, Wehlage, & Secada (1996) indicates significant student gains regardless of school demographics when teachers worked collaboratively to apply, assess, and analyze authentic standards and assessments. Hall and Hord (2001) document increases in teacher learning and implementation of teacher learning communities for improved student results. They also indicate that improved collaboration among teachers and administrators is an essential factor in effective teacher community. McLaughlin and Talbert (2006) also report improved teaching and learning from a synthesis of recent studies:

A wide range of statistical data supports the claim that school-based PLCs improve teaching and learning. Evidence includes:

a. Positive effects of teacher learning community measures on student achievement for both regional and nationally representative school samples;

b. Strong correlations of teacher learning community with teaching practices that predict student learning gains; and

c. Strong correlations of teacher learning community and student experiences of the school and class. (p. 9)

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of 1988 (Scott & Ingels, 2007) researchers found that students do better academically in a school with collaborative teacher communities and that in these schools socioeconomic status had less effect on their achievement gains (Lee & Smith, 1995, 1996; Lee, Smith, & Coninger, 1997 as quoted in McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006, p. 9).

The use of learning communities by math and science teachers resulted in changes in practice that involved increased communication density, intensified instructional practice norms, and increased consistency in practice (Yasumoto, Uekawa, & Bidwell, 2001): “The study provides statistical evidence to argue that teacher learning communities develop knowledge of practice that is beyond the sum of competent and innovative teachers” (p. 10). Deep, social construction about the meaning and application of teaching practice by groups of teachers can lead to an exponential impact through teacher synergy and consistency of practice.

Research is revealing a correlation between collegial relationships among teachers and how students respond with respect, participation, and academic self-efficacy in the classroom (Center for Research on Context of Teaching, 2002 as cited in McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006, p. 10). The evidence clearly beckons us to implement PLCs to improve teaching and learning. The evidence is less clear about the PLC structural and relational practices that create effective, collaborative PLCs.

Much of the recent literature has focused on listing elements needed for the structural design of PLCs. Schlechty (1997, p. 136), however, reminds us that “structural change that is not supported by cultural change will eventually be overwhelmed by the culture, for it is in the culture that any organization finds education reform.” We agree and in subsequent chapters will outline the structural and relational changes in practices that can lead to effective PLCs.

Why Do We Need to Develop Structural and Relational Practices at the Same Time for Professional Learning Community Success?

Hundreds of schools and districts have implemented structural practices to use PLCs over the last several years. They put in place well-articulated missions, visions, values, and goals. They arranged teachers into PLC groups, set regular meeting times, used meeting protocols, and developed PLC reporting systems. As they moved into defining essential outcomes, core assessments, and consistent teaching practices, they started to experience teacher push-back.

Often after the first year or two of structural practices, pleas for strategies to ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Meet the Authors
• Acknowledgments
• Free Downloads
• 1 Effective Professional Learning Communities
• 2 Look Before You Leap
• 3 Using Innovation Maps to Guide Implementation
• 4 Shared Commitment and Purpose
• 5 Effective Interactions
• 6 The Learning Is in the Questions
• 7 Built to Last
• 8 Conviction, Courage, and Effort
• References
• Index