Professional Learning Communities

A Program of Professional Development for Professional Development Providers

The intent of this document is to provide a brief sketch of a program of professional development that will enable professional development providers (internal assisters, such as central office curriculum specialists or professional development coordinators, etc.; and external assisters such as intermediate service agency personnel, professional association staff, faculty of higher education institutions, state department of education staff, independent consultants) to support and nurture school leaders in creating and maintaining professional learning communities on their campuses. This sketch outlines the content of such a program; it does not at this time include the specific instructional processes that would deliver the content. Segments of the content are accompanied by a suggested time for accomplishment. It is rather dangerous to indicate time frames, for various participant groups find it beneficial to employ more or less time than others.

The idea of professional learning communities (PLC) may be traced to the early nineties when Susan Rosenholz’s writing, Teacher’s workplace: The social organization of schools (1989, New York: Longman), indicated how collaborative work supported teachers in their work with students. Simultaneously, Peter Senge’s The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization (1990, New York: Currency Doubleday) focused on continuous learning, vision development, team work, systems thinking, and other factors. This book hit the corporate world and subsequently was embraced and found its way into the libraries of educators. Each of these authors emphasized the idea of staff working together for increased effectiveness. Soon, the terminology, professional learning community, became applied to this way of working in schools.

In the last ten years, it has become increasingly popular for a school to work, or lay claim to working, as a PLC in the school. This apparent social acceptance has been accompanied by a wide variety of practices across the nation in the name of PLC. This outline of PLC content is grounded in the research on professional learning community, as well as on the exemplary practice of rigorously thoughtful, student-oriented PLC participants. The ultimate purpose of the PLC is the enhanced successful learning of students.

Session 1: PLC Definition and Orientation

What is a Professional Learning Community
How does it support a school improvement project
What is the relationship of PLC, staff learning, and student learning
Who are the members of the PLC
A brief lesson on the influence of professional development components
on adult learning
A review of the strategies imperative for implementing new practice
Three hours, or half day
Application assigned


Session 2: Value of PLC, and Its Research-Based Dimensions
Why create a PLC
What are the benefits to school professionals who work as a PLC
What are the outcomes for their students
What are the components of a PLC
How can the presence of PLC components be assessed
Three hours, or half day
Application assigned


Session 3: Launch of a PLC
What possibilities are there for initiating a PLC
School issue or problem
Review of student data
Persuasion for developing a PLC
What actions can principals take
How might teachers respond to these actions and contribute to PLC development
What responsibilities should central office take to support PLC development
What is the role of superintendent and school board
Three hours, or half day
Application assigned


Session 4: Deep Study of School PLC Stories
How did School 20 initiate its PLC in contrast with School 30
What significant actions or events contributed to each school’s story
What is a major key to the introduction, development, and maintenance of a PLC
What skills are needed by individuals involved in a PLC
Three hours, or half day
Application assignment


Session 5: Skills Needed for Working as a PLC
What are the appropriate modes of conversation for what purposes
How can four different types of reflection be employed
How does the PLC learn to read, understand, and interpret student data
What formats can the PLC use for agendae and minutes of their meetings
Which budgets and legal issues are necessary for the PLC’s work
How can the PLC resolve and manage conflict
Which decision-making models are effective for PLC use
These will be interspersed across the year
Application assignments as appropriate


Session 6: Development of trust and a culture of assessment and collaboration
What does the literature reveal about the significance of trust
How does the PLC assess its work and its application in class rooms (CBAM)
What strategies may be used to develop collaboration across the PLC
A full day or two half days
Application assigned

The program design is such that an application assignment, related to the practical realities of the participants, is requested after each session. These assignments are carried out by the teams attending the sessions (participants are grouped as small learning communities — it would be very useful for at least two persons from each district or entity to attend together). The product of the assignment is reviewed personally by the session director with each team before the next session, or at its outset, dependent on the assignment, the next session, and other factors. The design flow can be visualized as

  • learning session # 1
    application assignment
     
  • team review of the assignment with session director
     
  • learning session # 2 (may include revisiting content of prior session # 1
    for clarification, to deepen understanding, etc.)
    application assignment
     
  • review of assignment
     
  • learning session # 3
    continue the cycle as above
     

    • Celebrations of small and large accomplishments of the learning teams should be designed to acknowledge and encourage the participants — and, because this is highly recommended in the change process and school improvement literature. This action is all too frequently not done.

    It is conceivable that two sessions could be scheduled together for a full day. This will impact the application task — but not, in any way, negatively.

    All session materials and application assignments will be included in a portfolio that each participant will build.

    It should be clear that this content focuses on how to create and operationalize the structure of a PLC. At another level, there is the matter of the “internal” life of the school PLC working together to

  • articulate its mission or goals for the school,
  • identify the area of improvement it will address to increase student learning,
  • describe the new practices the PLC will adopt to improve student results,
  • specify implementation activities to transfer the new practices to the class room
    (see Session # 1, strategies for implementation)

    • I might add that useful resources are

    Learning Together, Leading Together: Changing Schools Through Professional Learning Communities. Hord, S.M. (Ed). (2004. New York: Teachers College Press.

    The Principal and Professional Learning Communities: Possibilities, Practices, and Performance. Hord, S.M. & Sommers, W.A. (in press). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.


     

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