Building Professional Learning Communities

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Building Professional Learning Communities
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What is a Professional Learning Community?

• Ongoing teams that meet on a regular basis to
  learn, plan lessons, and solve problems.
•  

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Mission

• Commitment to continuous improvement in daily
  work to advance student achievement.

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• Learning Communities may be various sizes and
  serve different purposes based on areas of need
  and interest.

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• A Learning Community is a practical way to
  improve teaching and learning.

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• Teachers assist each other in examining student
  standards, planning lessons, critiquing student
  work and solving problems of teaching.

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• Identify needs and ways to meet those needs by
• Acquiring necessary skills or behaviors
• Observing each other in classroom settings
• Sharing job related strengths

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• Professional learning communities can be a
  powerful staff development approach and a potent
  strategy for school change and improvement.

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Attributes of Learning Communities Five
Dimensions

1. Supportive and Shared Leadership.
2. Shared Values and Vision.
3. Collective Learning and Application of Learning
   (Collective Creativity).
4. Supportive Conditions.
5. Physical conditions and human capacities that
   support such an operation.

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Procedures for Developing Learning Communities

•  Collaboration embedded into daily work
• purposeful          
• structured            
• facilitated            
• accountability
• Training in collaboration
• Collective work-shared lessons, student work

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Procedures for Developing Learning Communities,
continued

• Protecting shared values
• Celebrating progress-individual and collective
• Reflective dialogue

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Procedures for Developing Learning Communities,
continued

• Curricular focus-            
• collaborative adoption process
• research-based, use of data assessment
  model        
• commitment to continuous improvement
• Role of leadership-          
• be fixated on results,           
• focus on learning rather than teaching,
• shared decision making

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First Steps

• Determine need            
• Identify facilitator
• Set scheduled meeting times and dates
• Identify barriers and boosters
• Assign Learning Community roles
• Establish ground rules for Community

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Results of Professional Learning Communities in
Action for Teachers

• Reduction of teacher isolation           
• Increased commitment to the mission and goals of
  the school
• Shared responsibility for the total development
  of students and their success
• Creation of new knowledge and beliefs about
  teaching and learners     
• Higher likelihood that teachers will be well
  informed, professionally renewed, and inspired to
  inspire students
• More satisfaction, higher morale, and lower rates
  of absenteeism 

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Results of Professional Learning Communities for
Students

• Decreased dropout rate and fewer classes
  skipped          
• Lower rates of absenteeism
• Greater academic gains in math, science, history,
  and reading than in traditional schools
• Smaller achievement gaps between students from
  different backgrounds 

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• Communication is key.

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Resources

• DuFour,R. Eaker, R. (1998). Professional
  Learning Communities at Work. National
  Educational Service.
• http//www.teachinflorida.com/teachertoolkit/PLC.h
  tm
• http//www.nsdc.org/standards/learningcommunities.
  cfm