Toward Conceptual Clarity

Relating school leadership to perceived professional learning community characteristics: A multilevel analysis

“…Sleegers et al (2013) used the model of Mitchell and Sackney (2000) in an attempt to address this issue. The authors described the PLC concept as multidimensional, including organizational, personal, and interpersonal capacities.…”

“…Regarding the outcome variables, it is striking that the multidimensionality of PLCs has been widely recognized in literature (Bolam et al, 2005;Lomos, Hofman, & Bosker, 2011b;Sleegers, den Brok, Verbiest, Moolenaar, & Daly, 2013), but that very few studies have taken separate characteristics into account when studying potential facilitating factors.…”

Schools as Professional Learning Communities

“…The concept of professional learning community (later referred as PLC) in education has been modified from the learning organization concept used in the business sector (Senge, 1996;Vescio et al, 2008) and in organizational theory (Leclerc et al, 2012), starting from concepts of collegiality and collaboration that finally developed into PLC (Lomos et al, 2011). Regardless of broad research, there is no universal definition (Sleegers et al, 2013;Vescio et al 2008) of PLC. It has been conceptualized and operationalized differently in different research settings without final agreement on which and how many interrelated characteristics are needed to operationalize and measure PLCs (Lomos, 2017).…”

“…It has been conceptualized and operationalized differently in different research settings without final agreement on which and how many interrelated characteristics are needed to operationalize and measure PLCs (Lomos, 2017). The conceptual challenge with the PLC is on its multidimensional and multilevel nature (De Neve et al, 2015;Sleegers et al 2013): studies emphasize the importance of different dimensions differently: same dimension can be treated as a key dimension (Hord, 2004), it is not mentioned (Hord, 1997(Hord, , 2004 or it is mentioned as supportive condition (Louis & Kruse, 1995). Due to these challenges PLC is still in a developmental stage of theory building Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008), and it has proved difficult to measure (Lomos, 2017).…”

“…Morrissey (2000) found that if principals do not identify a shared focus, they are not able to guide their staff in developing and articulating a collective vision for their students or their school. Additionally, leadership is a dynamic process involving many individuals (Cibulka, Coursey, & Nakayama, 2000) and distribution of leadership is one of the key factors in implementing a PLC (DuFour & Mattos, 2013;Harris, 2004;Leclerc et al, 2012;Sleegers et al, 2013). Studies indicate that distributed leadership, organizational development and student outcomes are interconnected (Heck & Hallinger, 2009;Leithwood & Mascall, 2008).…”