Abstract
The main objectives in building professional learning communities are to improve teachers’ professionalism and well-being, and create positive impacts on student learning. It is a question of changing the school culture. The main objective of this quantitative study was to investigate the maturity level of thirteen Finnish schools as professional learning communities from the perspectives of school culture, leadership, teaching, and professional development. The participants’ perceptions indicated a culture of collegiality, trust and commitment as common strengths at all schools. The school cultures supported professional collaboration, and the teachers had the knowledge, skills and dispositions to engage in professional collaboration. The challenges were related to structural conditions, especially the lack of collaboration time. Three school profiles were identified in the cluster analysis from the viewpoint of maturity as professional learning communities. Statistically significant differences between the three clusters were found in organizational and operational characteristics.
Highlights
The contemporary global concern for learning outcomes and well-being in schools has led to whole school reforms (Harris, 2011), which involves pressure for better student performance (Daly, 2009)
This study offers a Finnish view to schools as learning communities, where teachers have a high level of independency and university-level education as personal resources and the school is not led by results of intensive testing
Responses to leadership statements indicated one common strength in the participating schools: 76% (N=160, 4–5 in the Likert scale) of respondents indicated that most teachers had expertise in collaborative skills such as conflict resolution, consensus building, problem solving, and team building
Summary
The contemporary global concern for learning outcomes and well-being in schools has led to whole school reforms (Harris, 2011), which involves pressure for better student performance (Daly, 2009). International PISA studies (OECD, 2007; 2012; 2015) have revealed that during the last ten years in Finland, there have been signs of declining learning outcomes in pupils completing their basic education and the proportion of young people with poor basic skills in different cohorts has grown, and attitudes that obstruct learning have become stronger (FMEC, 2015). Regardless of these challenges, Finland has not joined the global education reform movement and has not adopted outcome-based education (Sahlberg, 2011) and has not tried to improve student performance through tighter accountability systems. According to the national core curriculum 2014 for basic education some of the key aims are: developing schools as learning communities, distribution of leadership, emphasizing the joy of learning, emphasizing collaborative atmosphere and promoting student autonomy in studying and in school life (FNBE, 2014)
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