School-based Professional Learning Communities Research Articles

‘It didn’t feel like something extra we had to do; it was something we all looked forward to’ - how school-based professional learning communities can reimagine teacher professional learning for inclusive practice

ABSTRACT The development of inclusive education has become a policy priority across the world, yet the reality of enactment is inconsistent. While many barriers contribute to creating inclusive classrooms, effective teacher professional learning (PL) presents a significant challenge. Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been identified as potentially transformative models of PL but despite the growing research base on PLCs, there is limited research on their role in the context of inclusive education. We address this knowledge gap and build upon previous research that demonstrated the positive impact of a PLC on sustained PL for inclusive practice. Situated in the Republic of Ireland, PLCs for inclusive practice were developed in four schools, supported by a school-university partnership, comprising one academic and four teacher leaders. Focus group interviews with the PLC participants (n = 33) and observation of practice in two schools indicated teacher change. Of note, PLCs that transform PL for inclusive practice can be internally led when teachers are empowered through a school-university partnership. This paper strengthens the research on the potential of PLCs as transformative models of PL for inclusive practice and offers a framework that includes design principles for school-university partnerships to support the PLCs for inclusion across diverse school contexts.

Teacher collaborative inquiry into practice in school-based learning communities: The role of activity type

This study contributes to growing scholarly interest in teacher-led, school-based learning communities and the characteristics of teacher dialogue and social interaction that support professional learning in these settings. Based on existing conceptual distinctions proposed in the literature, we term this type of teacher dialogue “collaborative inquiry into practice” (CLIP) and propose a systematic and reliable tool to measure it. We then employ a quantitative, comparative research design to study how different teacher team activities (i.e., video-analysis, peer consultations, and pedagogical planning) shape the extent to which teachers engage in CLIP. Fifty-four transcribed teacher meeting excerpts were analyzed with the CLIP coding scheme, assessing different aspects of inquiry-based reasoning, participation, and content. Quantitative comparisons and illustrative examples show that CLIP was lowest during peer consultations, in part because teachers were often not positioned as agents of change in such conversations. Pedagogical planning activities featured more instances of inquiry into each other's ideas. Contrary to common assumptions, collaborative video analysis activities were not characterized by increased attention to student thinking or inquiry orientation. Our findings provide new insights into teacher-led, collaborative learning in on-the-job settings, as well as practical implications for the design of school-based professional learning communities.

Attending to the Emotional Side of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) by Cultivating Positive Team Dynamics

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are becoming increasingly commonplace in America’s schools. As part of the school community, physical educators are positioned to add and receive value within PLCs. Given that school-based PLCs are driven by collaborative teams, reaching high performing status requires external supportive school structures coupled with internal positive team dynamics. A PLC can be an emotionally charged collective action formation with the potential to positively enhance teacher practice and student learning or, conversely, be hindered by adult drama. This paper focuses on and provides research-informed practical suggestions for addressing the internal team dynamics aspects of physical education PLCs (PE-PLCs). Drawing from team dynamics literature, this analysis unpacks and applies sub-constructs associated with team member attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions (ABCs) within a PE-PLC setting. Practical suggestions for enhancing ABCs within PLCs are provided.

Teachers' and Principals' Views Regarding School-Based Professional Learning Communities

The study's aim was to examine the views of teachers and principals regarding teachers' professional development (PD) carried out in their school's professional learning communities (PLC), in order to identify the conditions that promote its success. This quantitative study collected information from 193 teachers and 10 principals from 10 schools in the north district of Israel. The study findings are based on a meta-evaluation of several PLCs in which different models of teachers' PD operated, and therefore, indicates a broad point of view beyond a specific PD model or a specific school-based PLC. Main findings emphasize the importance of a 'tailor-made' PD in a local school PLC, on one hand, and the relationship between teachers' PD in school PLCs and the growth-oriented organizational culture, on the other hand. Results further highlight the importance of simultaneously reinforcing both in order to improve the overall educational endeavor in the school organization.

Shoulder to shoulder: why stance matters in instructional coaching

ABSTRACT Drawing on adult learning theory, this article proposes a coaching stance that is conducive to cultivating teacher agency and developing teacher effectiveness. As university-based teacher educators and literacy coaches in a large urban school district, the authors describe the evolution of three distinct coaching stances, based on a 3-year grant-funded school-based professional development effort. Using compelling vignettes and reflections from the field, the authors illustrate why the first two stances lack sustaining power; while the third one, that of a shoulder-to-shoulder stance, leads to productive coach/teacher collaboration and school-wide changes. Central to the effectiveness of this stance are 1), making student learning data accessible and meaningful to teachers; and 2), the positioning of the coach as a co-learner, thus turning the entire inquiry process as learning for everyone. This coaching stance is of value to teacher educators, coaches, designers of school leadership training programs – stakeholders who are interested in meeting the needs and demands of school-based professional learning communities.

School-Based Professional Learning Communities as a Means for Curriculum Development: A Case Study from Taiwan

The purpose of this study is to explore how participating in professional learning communities influenced teachers’ curriculum design skills during the recent curriculum reform in Taiwan. A cohort of high school teachers in suburban areas participated in a semester-long professional learning community, strictly based on a well-planned agenda as professional experimentation. The researchers adopted a qualitative method by devising an initial and a final interview protocol as a data collection instrument. The results identified four components during the PLC process leading to teacher change in the curriculum design process—active participation, consistent focus, supportive collaboration and collective learning and shared practice. The notions of hard and soft PLCs along with the implications are proposed.

Utilizing School-based, Professional Learning Communities to Enhance Physical Education Programs and Facilitate Systems Change (Part 2)

ABSTRACT Systems change literacy includes the willingness and ability to engage in collective action within and among system components, guided by long-term plans and measured by short-term, achievable “small wins.” While potentially perceived as too “high level” or abstract, it can be helpful to consider that collective action occurs within three units of analysis: (a) people; (b) organizations; and, (c) cross-sector partnerships. Collective action formations are place-based and context-dependent. Professional learning communities (PLCs) can be structured accordingly and potentially utilized for planning and action-oriented advocacy at the district and school levels. This paper represents a theoretical analysis of an action-oriented, structured framework for guiding local advocacy within school-based PLCs. The herein proposed Advocacy Model delineates collective action toward policy change or social promotion as dual functions of effective advocacy. Additionally, six action items for local advocacy are considered within a structured, school-based PLC.

The Impacts of a Face-to-Face Training in Combination with LINE Application and Professional Learning Communities on English Teacher Development

This study examines the impact of a teacher-training program on the development of teachers’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards English reading teaching. The training program was implemented in combination with the use of LINE (a message application) and the teachers’ participation in school-based professional learning communities. The framework supports the training of English teachers to teach students in accordance with the national core curriculum and its emphasis on reading skills. The participants of this study were 50 English teachers working in the central part of Thailand. Four research instruments were used to collect data: a 12-item pre-test and post-test on teaching English reading skills covering the content of the training, an open-ended form for recording emerging points from the implementation of the lesson plan and preparation of the video clip, a survey including 5-point Likert-scale options and an open-ended response field to assess teachers’ satisfaction with the training program, and an observation form of the teachers’ level of participation in the training program. The findings of this study revealed that participants had developed in three major areas: knowledge, skills, and attitude, and they indicated satisfaction with the training program in all areas. The participants’ post test scores was higher than the pre-test scores. With a statistical significance improvement (p=0.05). Participants demonstrated their skills in designing more creative lesson plans with suitable educational objectives. Finally, the participants reflected a positive attitude towards their participation in the PLC. The significance of this study is related to the theoretical and pedagogical implications of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of teachers teaching English reading skills in an EFL context.

Launching Networked PLCs: Footholds Into Creating and Improving Knowledge of Ambitious and Equitable Teaching Practices in an RPP

One of the major challenges in educational reform is supporting teachers and the profession in the continual improvement of instruction. Research-practice partnerships and particularly networked improvement communities are well-suited for such knowledge-building work. This article examines how a networked improvement community with eight school-based professional learning communities—comprised of secondary science teachers, science and emergent bilingual coaches, and researchers—launched into improvement work within schools and across the district. We used data from professional learning communities to analyze pathways into improvement work and reflective data to understand practitioners’ perspectives. We describe three improvement launch patterns: (1) Local Practice Development, (2) Spread and Local Adaptation, and (3) Integrating New Practices. We raise questions about what is lost and gained in the transfer of tools and practices across schools and theorize about how research-practice partnerships find footholds into joint improvement work.

Research on the Influencing Factors of High School English Teacher Professional Learning Community Evaluation in Changchun, China

This research shows the development and influencing factors of high school English teachers’ evaluation of professional learning community in Changchun, China. Followed Olivier and Hipp & Huffma’s research, the teacher professional learning community evaluation questionnaire was developed by the researchers. 422 English teachers in Changchun were invited to participate in the online survey. This study found that the organization characteristics of professional learning communities in this city shared similar characteristics with Western countries at some degree. English perceptions of including the “shared personal practice” and “collective learning and application” achieves the average level in this research. Compared to the western professional learning communities, the Chinese professional learning communities in this study lack of the democratic leadership and shared value and vision attributions. According to the analysis, we find that the Confucian cultural context, teacher’ career development stages, the pressures of national college entrance examination and the systematic teaching training have a significant impact on the evaluation of teacher professional learning communities. Aiming at to build a learning organisation rather than a bureaucratic administration, we suggest that the “shared value and vison” and “shared and supportive leadership” needs more reform in the current professional learning communities. Namely, traditional Soviet model of school-based professional learning communities need to reform toward a learning organisation emphasizing the teaching and learning.

Examining Elements of School Culture Measurement for Forming and Invigorating School-based Professional Learning Communities

Examining Elements of School Culture Measurement for Forming and Invigorating School-based Professional Learning Communities

The emerging landscape of school-based professional learning communities in South Korean schools

Over the last decade, school-based professional learning communities (PLCs) have emerged as a key feature of the education system in South Korea. To understand this relatively new phenomenon in the context of South Korea, we provide a review of research on school-based PLCs in South Korea and an empirical analysis of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2008 with a focus on school-based PLCs. Based on our findings from the literature review and analysis of the TALIS, we aim to provide a fuller picture of the emerging landscape of school-based PLCs in South Korean schools. In so doing, we focus on what constitutes school-based PLCs in South Korean schools and how they are similar to and/or different from their counterparts in other countries. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed.

Exploring intersubjectivity between student teachers and field instructors in student teaching conferences

AbstractStudent teachers are learners of teaching and emerging collaborative practitioners preparing to join school-based professional learning communities. Using situative learning theory, this 16-week multiple-case study explored whether necessary conditions were satisfied within field instructor-led conferences towards the goal of helping student teachers learn how to develop roles as participatory contributors. Systematically shared meanings of conference discourse and similar perceptions of control regarding topic selection were explored as indicators of successful conferencing. Findings show that even though field instructors aimed to engage student teachers in mutually understood conversations and share control of topic selection; these objectives were not fully achieved. Conference participants’ perceptions of discourse and control must be aligned if field instructors are to help student teachers improve instructional decision-making and develop contributor roles as members within communities of p...

The nature of professional learning communities in New Zealand early childhood education: an exploratory study

Professional learning communities are receiving increasing attention within the schooling sector but empirical research into their development and use within early childhood education contexts is rare. This paper reports initial findings of an exploratory study into the development of professional learning communities in New Zealand’s early childhood sector. The study found that the characteristics of effective school-based professional learning communities are also applicable to early childhood settings, and that development of supportive structural and relational conditions is required if the promise of professional learning communities evident in the schooling sector is to be achieved in early childhood education.

Problem Finding in Professional Learning Communities: A Learning Study Approach

This study marries collaborative problem solving and learning study in understanding the onset of a cycle of teacher professional development process within school-based professional learning communities (PLCs). It aimed to explore how a PLC carried out collaborative problem finding—a key process involved in collaborative problem solving—that has received minimal attention in the extant literature. In line with this goal, we adopted the learning study approach, which highlights the application of a theory in research lessons. Multiple data sources were drawn upon to construct a narrative description of four consecutive meetings, detailing challenges and turning points that teachers experienced while engaged in collaborative problem finding, and how the process was facilitated by developing shared understandings of the complexity of possible curricular problems and establishing a common ground amongst teachers. Other modes of action and factors that can facilitate the process of collaborative problem finding are also presented.

Training and Sustaining Effective Teachers of Sheltered Instruction

This article provides guidelines for programs to deliver and sustain effective professional development on sheltered instruction to teachers who teach content to English learners. Many content area teachers have not had university coursework on second-language acquisition or the integration of language and content instruction in teacher preparation courses, yet they face students learning a new language at the same time they are studying subjects such as mathematics, science, and social studies. A methodology these teachers can employ is sheltered instruction that incorporates techniques for making content accessible to English learners and develops students' academic English skills. This article offers recommendations for ongoing professional development that includes a mixture of face-to-face workshops, classroom observations and coaching, school-based professional learning communities, and measurement of implementation. The guidelines are illustrated with research practices and findings related to one model of sheltered instruction, known as the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model.

Cycles of inquiry: Formative assessment in service of learning in classrooms and in school-based professional communities

The paper reports results of three studies that used a formative assessment (FA) framework to compare schools that vary in their level of functioning as professional learning communities with respect to three processes: classroom assessment (study 1), development and implementation of school-based curriculum (study 2), and pedagogical conversations at teachers’ lounge professional meetings (study 3). When performed at their best, these three are inquiry processes that follow the phases of formative assessment cycles. Results supported the conclusion that school-based professional learning communities (SBPLC) make a difference in terms of FA practices enacted at both classroom and organizational levels. Moreover, classroom culture seems to mirror the organizational culture, where attributes considered as enhancing FA practice are clearly more noticeable in the high SBPLC group than in the low one.