David Jackson

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David Jackson

• Head of ResearchNational College for School
  Leadership

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Networked Learning Communities
Learning from each otherLearning with each
other
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What Characterises a Professional Learning
Community?

• As early as 1992 Judith Little argued that
  professional learning communities are built when
  teachers
• Engage in concrete talk about teaching with one
  another
• Observe one another and provide feedback
  about teaching
• Collaborate around planning for instruction
• Teach each other the art and craft of teaching

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What Characterises a Professional Learning
Community? (continued)
She concluded that joint work (e.g. team
teaching, collaborative planning, peer
observation, action research, sustained peer
coaching and mentoring) led to the most sustained
changes in teaching and learning practices in
schools
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Developing a school as a Professional Learning
Community is a complex and subtle leadership
challenge
NCSL Networked Learning Communities, 2001
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Leaders in Professional Learning Communities

• Develop expanded repertoires generate
  leadership density
• Create collaborative environments
• Foster continuous teacher development -
  takeadult learning seriously
• Assist staff to work smarter together and not
  harder alone

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Networked Learning Communities are about schools
working smarter together not harder alone
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Professional Learning Communities
Culture of Collaborative Practice
The school as a learning community,
collaborating to reinvent practice within the
school and also reinterpreting practice from
outside
Internally collaborative community re-cycling
traditional or low level practice
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If we want to develop young people who are
participating members of society, we must model
that by being collaborating members of the
educational community
The Durham Board, Canada A Networked Learning
Community
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The third reason is a practical one
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• VT

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Networked Learning Communities
are purposefully led groups of schools,
characterised by a commitment to quality, rigour,
and a focus on outcomes
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Networked Learning Communities

• Promote the dissemination of good practice,
• Enhance the professional development of teachers
• Support capacity building in schools
• They are also a powerful means of
• Supporting innovation in times of change
• Capitalising upon the reform environment
• Fostering creativity

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There is a synergy between Networked Learning
Communities and schools that aspire to be
Professional Learning Communities
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Schools and School Networks as Learning
Communities

• The NetworkedLearning Community
• Symbolises learning values
• Facilitates networking
• Responds to need
• Interprets the reform environment
• Creates coherence

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david.jackson_at_ncsl.org.uk