Teacher professional learning communities in innovative contexts: ‘ah hah moments’, ‘passion’ and ‘making a difference’ for student learning

Abstract

Innovative educational approaches for schooling require changes to the traditional teacher role towards operating as co-facilitators and co-learners, and working in teacher teams, with considerable professional learning supporting this. Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been acknowledged as highly effective, with their characteristics being identified with reasonable consistency. However, specific processes through which PLCs operate are less evident. Furthermore, there is little research about the links between PLCs and student learning outcomes in innovative contexts. This paper uses teacher interviews within three innovative case-study schools, and considers student learning outcomes and the links to teacher learning within PLC contexts from a teacher perspective. Findings provide specific examples of PLC learning processes with regard to coplanning, co-teaching and co-assessment. Using achievement data, student work samples, teacher observations and self-reports, all teachers perceived that PLCs supported changes in their practices relevant to innovative contexts. Teachers indicated increased learning outcomes for students in terms of achievement, social skills, emotional aspects, independence and creativity. Significantly, the overall key impacts arising from effective PLCs operating within innovative contexts seem to be increased well-being of teachers and students.

Tensions experienced by teachers when participating in a professional learning community

“…It is important to understand which tensions occur when teachers participate in PLCs. The current body of knowledge regarding PLCs predominantly focuses on frameworks to identify learning processes within PLCs (Admiraal et al 2012), characteristics of PLCs (Hindin, Morocco, Mott, & Aguilar, 2007), effects of existing teams that are marked as PLCs on student results (Lomos et al 2011), in the context of large organizational innovations (Owen 2015) or on the relationship between schools as PLCs and school outcomes (Sigurdardóttir 2010). However, most of this research neglects the complex interactions between workplace affordances and personal features (Tynjälä 2013).…”

Análisis del modelo de Comunidades Profesionales de Aprendizaje a partir de la indagación en experiencias de colaboración entre profesores

“…Las CPA fueron diseñadas desde la teoría de aprender haciendo, célebremente desarrollada por J. Dewey en Norteamérica, en su implementación han permitido la generación de múltiples innovaciones en diversas escuelas a partir de una clara organización inicial desde el equipo directivo y la orientación de las prácticas docentes al logro de aprendizajes en todos los estudiantes por medio de la colaboración entre profesores (DuFour, 2004;DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010;DuFour & Mattos, 2013;Roberts & Pruitt, 2009). Las investigaciones publicadas en las últimas décadas sobre el impacto de las CPA en establecimientos educativos de diversas características, indican la pertinencia del modelo para fomentar y destacar las capacidades de los profesionales de una escuela, además evidencia la influencia positiva del modelo en el clima escolar y en la satisfacción de los docentes con su trabajo como profesionales de la educación, como lo ha presentado especialmente en contextos norteamericanos (D'Ardenne et al, 2013;Dogan, Pringle & Mesa, 2015;Ning, Lee, & Lee, 2015;Owen, 2014)"id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "dateparts" : [ [ "2013", "4", "12" ] ] }, "page" : "n/a-n/a", "title" : "PLCs In Action: Innovative Teaching for Struggling Grade 3-5 Readers", "type" : "article-journal" }, "uris" : [ "http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=a1f51231-a0e4-428b-a0a0-1afbaf199e3b" ] }, { "id" : "ITEM-2", "itemData" : { "DOI" : "10.1080/13540602.2015.1055447", "ISSN" : "1354-0602", "abstract" : "The development of teacher professional learning communities (PLC. En la tabla siguiente se han resumido parte de los hallazgos referidos a la implementación de las CPA en diversos contextos según indicadores de alta relevancia para la mejora escolar: Tabla 1.…”

Teacher Learning within a Multinational Project in an Upper Secondary School

“…One of the teachers mentioned the following: the group work results were good, the versioning succeeded well, and the digital applications used were good. Teachers teaching courses in the entity human rights course mentioned students' active participation as the best outcome; they discussed with and made active contact with students in other courses (4). As one teacher explained: "The students worked with pleasure, they returned [the assignment] in time.…”

“…At the moment, studies [4] and policy-papers [6] emphasize the need for a shift from a teacher-centred to a student-centred approach as a key learning need for teachers in order to enhance students' necessary future competencies, such as constructive collaboration, knowledge searching and application, and solving complex problems. The teacher-centred approach focusing on an individual student's learning of mere academic knowledge does not support the development of these skills [6][7][8].…”

“…Teachers' professional learning is regarded as one of the key issues for a well-managing school and for improving students' learning outcomes (e.g., [1]), although the connection is complicated and not always true [2][3][4][5]. At the moment, studies [4] and policy-papers [6] emphasize the need for a shift from a teacher-centred to a student-centred approach as a key learning need for teachers in order to enhance students' necessary future competencies, such as constructive collaboration, knowledge searching and application, and solving complex problems.…”