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1.
《Africa Education Review》2013,10(2):395-411
Abstract Poor learner performance in South African schools raises concerns related to lack of commitment and accountability from school leaders and teachers with no common vision to promote a culture of high learner performance. This paper provides a literature overview of research available on the impact of professional learning communities (PLC) on effective teaching and practices to promote higher levels of learning amongst students; the nature of PLCs; their essential characteristics, developmental stages and challenges; and an assessment of the benefits of PLC in schools and the challenges of PLC from other researchers’ observations. PLCs are necessary to encourage collaborative teamwork on essential outcomes and intervention activities in learning. Finally, I conclude by exploring how South African schools can benefit from the practices of professional learning communities which endeavour to improve teaching practices and poor learner achievement. 相似文献
2.
AbstractAs the Professional Learning Community (PLC) process becomes embedded within schools, the level of district support has a direct impact on whether schools have the ability to re-culture and sustain highly effective collaborative practices. The purpose of this article is to share a professional learning community conceptual framework from the US, and to highlight recent findings relating to district level support for the PLC process in schools. The professional learning community conceptual model is organized around five dimensions: shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collaborative learning and application, shared personal practice, and supportive conditions. The overarching question guiding this qualitative research study is: How do school district personnel (central office staff) support schools in the professional learning community process? Findings reveal the importance of transformative and proactive district involvement, and the use of transparency, trust, accountability, and autonomy in school re-culturing. It was also found that developing leadership capacity, embedding professional development, and focusing the culture on student success were critically important. As districts provide support for the PLC dimensions and themes, school leaders will have a foundation of curricular strategies, collaborative skills, and necessary resources to serve teachers and students through continuous school improvement. 相似文献
3.
Drawing on data from a larger study on Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and School Leadership in China, this article investigates the practices of teacher collaboration and PLCs in two urban, high-performing secondary schools in Northeast China. Qualitative data were collected from observations, documents and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20 participants. The findings reveal that intentionally arranged organisational structures support teacher professional learning and collective inquiry. Collaborative teams in two schools are characterised by genuine collegiality, promoting disciplined collaboration and shared responsibility, which is different from contrived collegiality imposed on teachers. Professional learning is ongoing, supported and fully integrated into the culture and operation of the school system. Emotional bonds, trust and an inclusive school culture contribute to genuine collegiality. These learning communities establish a system of focused collaboration, peer mentoring and collective responsibility, which leads to improved teaching and student learning. 相似文献
4.
Matthew K. Burns Meredith R. Naughton June L. Preast Ze Wang Robert L. Gordon Vicki Robb 《Journal of educational and psychological consultation》2013,23(4):394-412
ABSTRACTProfessional learning communities (PLCs) promote collaboration among school personnel in an effort to stimulate student learning. Using data obtained from a larger statewide initiative in Missouri, the current study examined data from 181 schools (102 elementary schools, 32 middle schools, 41 high schools, and 6 other schools, average of 428.76 students) to determine (a) the factors that can be used to assess the effects of PLCs, (b) how well PLCs relate to student achievement, and (c) the extent to which teams differentially implement the factors. An exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in two broader constructs that represented PLC attributes, collaborative leadership process and data-driven systems for learning, both of which correlated with student achievement and together provided unique variance in mathematics beyond school variables and achievement scores from before the PLC began. Directions for future research and implications for practice are discussed. 相似文献
5.
Angela Choi Fung Tam 《Compare》2015,45(3):422-444
Factors leading to successful professional learning communities (PLCs) have been widely discussed in the West, but little is known about how/whether teachers’ beliefs contribute to PLCs in the Chinese context. This qualitative case study aimed to investigate teachers’ beliefs about teacher learning in PLCs and their influence on collegial learning activities in two departments of a Hong Kong secondary school. Semi-structured interviews and observations were employed to collect data. The findings indicate that teachers in the Chinese Department believed that learning could be achieved in PLCs and their practices of collegial activities were conducive to teacher learning. Conversely, teachers in the English Department did not believe that interacting with colleagues would foster learning and their collegial activities yielded limited accomplishment in teacher growth. It is suggested that teachers’ beliefs play an important role in facilitating or impeding reform initiatives on teacher development. Implications for teacher education and further studies are discussed. 相似文献
6.
Hairon Salleh 《Asia Pacific Journal of Education》2016,36(2):285-300
AbstractProfessional Learning Community (PLC) has steadily grown in importance over the last decade. The growing importance of PLCs lies in its potential to act as a lever for school-based curriculum development and innovation so as to provide diverse learning experiences to satisfy broader learning outcomes beyond academic achievements (e.g., the twenty-first century skills). The growth in PLCs implies greater time investment for teachers to come together to develop new curricula that engage students to meet these broadened set of learning outcomes. However, this also implies that new competencies need to be acquired to productively participate in PLCs. One essential competency is facilitating PLC conversations. This paper describes key findings drawn from participant observations with three Grade 5 PLC facilitators’ involvement in an intervention to explore how PLC facilitators can support teachers’ collective learning with one another on matters of teaching and learning. The findings from the study served to aid in generating a proposed intervention framework consisting of processes, principles, and practices that facilitators can use in PLC conversations. 相似文献
7.
AbstractThis quantitative study investigated and compared the development of professional learning communities in schools located in two Chinese cities, namely, Shanghai and Mianyang. The two cities have significant differences in terms of educational, economic, social, and cultural development. While Shanghai is a directly controlled municipality in East China, Mianyang is a city of Sichuan Province in Southwest China. Based on the literature review and an analysis of the Chinese context, the authors developed a questionnaire to explore and compare the professional learning community (PLC) practices of schools in the two cities. Findings show that schools in Mianyang had more PLCs practices than those sampled schools in Shanghai, in terms of collaborative learning and facilitative leadership. Such differences could be explained by the educational, economic, social, and cultural differences between the two cities. Practical implications for school development in both Shanghai and Mianyang as well as suggestions for future research are provided. 相似文献
8.
9.
国际上越来越多的研究表明,专业学习社群能够促进教师专业发展及推动学校变革。本研究对专业学习社群进行概念化,并基于中国的学校背景,探索出一套教师专业学习社群的表现指标,对上海市7所中小学进行抽样调查。运用主成分分析法对数据进行分析,得到适用于中国大陆的指标体系,并进一步分析教师专业学习社群的内涵与发展状况。研究发现,所调查的学校在教师合作学习、专业能力、校长领导、结构支持方面均具有良好的表现,且组织变革障碍不大。可通过改善校长领导和结构支持,控制学校内部的组织变革障碍等途径促进教师合作学习和专业能力的发展,以进一步促进教师专业学习社群的发展。 相似文献
10.
Peiying Chen Che-Di Lee Hongda Lin Chun-Xi Zhang 《Asia Pacific Journal of Education》2016,36(2):248-265
AbstractThis research aimed to investigate the key factors of developing effective professional learning communities (PLCs) within the Taiwanese context. Four constructs – supportive and shared leadership, shared visions, collegial trust, and shared practices – were adopted and developed into an instrument for measuring PLC function. A stratified random sampling was conducted with the strata of geographic areas. Out of 335 high schools, 51 schools were chosen and 612 copies of the questionnaires were distributed to teachers. After excluding invalid questionnaires, 444 questionnaires were collected from 34 schools, yielding a response rate of 73%. The final version of the questionnaire had 19 items with a 6-point Likert-type scale. Using confirmative factor analysis, the four factors in the conception of PLCs were confirmed. The results of the structural equation modelling indicated that a collegial trust relationship was strongly and directly related to shared practices, and was an important mediating factor between supportive and shared leadership, shared visions, and shared practices. In other words, shared vision along with supportive and shared leadership, through collegiality and trust relationships, could help school members collectively learn, collaborate, innovate, inquire, reflect, and give feedback to one another in the form of shared PLC practices. 相似文献
11.
Sustaining professional learning communities (PLCs) focused on data use is a challenge for schools. Sustainability is achieved by making the PLC’s core components evident in schools’ organizational routines. Leadership can support sustainability according to literature, but it is unclear what leadership for sustainability looks like in practice. We therefore investigated what sustainable data use PLCs and leadership look like in three secondary schools, and explored how leadership influences sustainable data use PLCs. A mixed methods design (observations, social network questionnaire, school documents) was used to gain in-depth insight. The findings show that sustainability is difficult to achieve at both the ostensive and performative level. The schools differed in the form of sustainability they achieved. A broad set of leadership practices (e.g., organize meetings, participate actively in PLC, know content and procedure) were carried out in interplay by both formal and informal leaders. 相似文献
12.
Ting Wang 《Asia Pacific Journal of Education》2016,36(2):202-216
AbstractThis article presents findings of a qualitative study on school leadership and professional learning community in two high achieving senior high schools in Northeast China. The findings show that teachers participated in school-based communities of professional learning, such as Teaching and Research Groups, Lesson Preparation Groups, and Grade Groups. While the term professional learning community (PLC) was not commonplace, the actual practices of PLC characterized by collective enquiry and collaborative learning became the norm in the two schools. School leaders demonstrated strong instructional leadership and visionary stewardship for school continuous improvement. They played a critical role in developing and communicating a shared vision, shaping a culture of trust, supporting and monitoring collegial learning. Teacher leadership was evident in collaborative teams and expertise leadership was acknowledged. Emotional bonds and shared responsibility in these teams strengthened professionalism. Concerted efforts were made to create aligned structures and processes that support collective enquiry, and to develop a culture of collaborative learning that builds collective capacities. Developing and sustaining the embedded PLC process within a school seems to provide a promising infrastructure for supporting school improvement in the Chinese school context. 相似文献
13.
Robert H. Voelkel Jr. Janet H. Chrispeels 《School Effectiveness & School Improvement》2017,28(4):505-526
Research suggests effective professional learning communities (PLCs) enhance teacher collaboration and student achievement. Some studies indicate that these communities also predict greater collective efficacy, while others suggest teacher efficacy is predictive of teachers working together. Although studies have identified effective, research-based PLC practices, how these specific practices effect collective efficacy has not been thoroughly studied. This study, using structural equation modeling (SEM), investigated the relationship between PLCs and teachers’ collective efficacy drawing on 310 surveys from 16 schools in 1 district that had systematically implemented PLCs. Our findings showed that higher functioning PLCs predict higher levels of teacher collective efficacy (TCE). This suggests that engaging and supporting teachers in PLC work, as this district did, can lead to enhanced collective efficacy, which in turn can contribute to improved student achievement. 相似文献
14.
Research has shown that adequate support from the school environment is necessary to help beginning teachers in applying differentiated instruction (DI), but how schools can aid in this process remains unclear. This qualitative study explores how professional learning communities (PLCs), an indicator of a supportive school environment, can enhance beginning teachers’ professional learning in DI. Furthermore, it examines how structural and cultural school conditions foster the development of PLCs in the schools’ organization. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with school leaders, special needs coordinators, and beginning teachers in primary schools. A comparative analysis was carried out in three schools with high (case A), medium (case B), and low (case C) levels of beginning teachers’ professional learning in DI, as assessed by changes in practice (i.e. teachers’ flexibility in adapting their classroom behaviour). The comparative analysis indicated that the three cases could be situated at different stages of PLC development. Case A had reached the mature stage, whereas case B was in the evolving stage and case C was still in the beginning stage of PLC development. Also, the analysis indicated that structural and cultural school conditions in the three cases were related to the different stages of PLC development. Finally, the results revealed that in the three cases, leadership of both the principal and special needs coordinator played a key role in the development of the structural and cultural school conditions. 相似文献
15.
AbstractOver the last decade, school-based professional learning communities (PLCs) have emerged as a key feature of the education system in South Korea. To understand this relatively new phenomenon in the context of South Korea, we provide a review of research on school-based PLCs in South Korea and an empirical analysis of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2008 with a focus on school-based PLCs. Based on our findings from the literature review and analysis of the TALIS, we aim to provide a fuller picture of the emerging landscape of school-based PLCs in South Korean schools. In so doing, we focus on what constitutes school-based PLCs in South Korean schools and how they are similar to and/or different from their counterparts in other countries. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed. 相似文献
16.
Kimberly LeChasseur Anysia Mayer Anjale Welton Morgaen Donaldson 《School Effectiveness & School Improvement》2016,27(2):255-274
Professional learning communities (PLCs) have become a popular strategy in various forms (e.g., data teams, grade-level teams) and with various champions (e.g., district leaders, university researchers, teacher advocates). Although well-implemented PLCs have been shown to distribute leadership, the tension between democratic inquiry processes and the demands of accountability remain understudied. This study asks how teacher inquiry is situated within conflicting school priorities and the impact of competing power structures on PLCs through a case study of a teacher inquiry initiative at 6 urban elementary and middle schools in the US. Data were collected over 3 years of PLC implementation. District officials, principals, reform coaches, and teachers at each setting participated in more than 300 interviews, regular site visits, and annual teacher surveys. The influences of power structures – such as district mandates, accountability pressures, and principal leadership – emerged as strong themes in teacher narratives of what it means to “do” inquiry in their PLCs. 相似文献
17.
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and Professional Learning Community (PLC) are key notions to help understand teacher development for the benefit of student learning. Less understood is the contribution of PLC to PCK. This paper considers the Teaching and Research System in China to be a nationally institutionalised PLC for in-service teacher education. Building on quantitative analysis of a sample of 10,202 teachers, the paper concludes that participation in teaching and research activities within PLCs benefits teachers’ PCK. The paper also concludes that building PCK through the Teaching and Research System has potential to counteract regional education inequality. 相似文献
18.
“课堂学习研究”对香港教育的影响 总被引：6，自引：0，他引：6
世界上不少地方正在进行教育及课程改革，然而不少教育研究的结果却告诉我们，绝少教育改革能真正对学生学习产生正面的影响；而能够产生明显作用的，都是那些直接涉及学习内容的改革。课堂学习研究就是针对学习内容为出发点，以变易学习理论为基础，运用行动研究的模式，聚合教师、教育研究员的集体智慧，解决学生的学习困难，帮助每个学生学得更好。经过六年的探索、实践及研究，香港已有超过100多所学校参与，并已开展了130多项课堂学习研究。在这过程中，课堂学习研究被发现不仅能帮助学生学得更好。更是一个成就教师发展、校本课程发展及学校改革的有效工具。本除阐述课堂学习研究在香港的发展外，更探讨其对教师发展、校本课程发展及学校改革的影响，以及其未来发展所要面对的挑战。 相似文献
19.
Kit Ling Lau 《教育心理学》2012,32(4):427-450
This study investigated the relation between teachers’ instructional practices and students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) in Hong Kong Chinese language classes using quantitative and qualitative methods. Participants were 1121 Grade 10 students from six secondary schools in Hong Kong. A Chinese reading comprehension (RC) test was used to assess the students’ reading performance and a self-reported questionnaire measured their perception of reading instruction, strategy use and reading motivation. Classroom observations and in-depth interviews were conducted in one class at each school to explore what and how instructional practices supported or impeded SRL in real contexts. The findings of this study generally support the positive relation between SRL-based instruction and Chinese students’ SRL. Among the four instructional variables, instrumental support from teachers showed the strongest relation with students’ strategy use, motivation and RC. The degree of autonomy was low in Chinese language classes and was associated with students’ negative reading behaviours. 相似文献
20.
Kristine Kiefer Hipp Jane Bumpers Huffman Anita M. Pankake Dianne F. Olivier 《Journal of Educational Change》2008,9(2):173-195
The purpose is to document the ongoing development of two schools in becoming professional learning communities and the effects
of meaningful collaboration on teacher learning. The question that guides this research is: How does a school become a sustainable
professional learning community? The theoretical framework is based on the work of Senge, Hord, Fullan, Hargreaves and Fink,
and Stoll, McMahon and Thomas and includes the areas of professional learning community, change and sustainability. Finally,
the study addresses the relationship between professional learning community and school culture. The methodology involves
a qualitative case study approach designed to gain information regarding two emerging schools in their journeys toward developing
learning community cultures. Findings reveal the stories of each school as they evolved as PLCs and the similarities and differences
that emerged. Knowing that sustaining the culture of a PLC is complex, and not to be achieved without determination and growth,
we look ahead at challenges to be addressed and further research to be conducted. Finally, we offer some concluding statements
and attempt to relate findings to the literature on PLCs. The intent is to identify some of the intricacies in building cultures
of learning for adults and students. As we have learned through these two stories, many things happen simultaneously, to greater
or lesser degrees, at varying points in time over a period of years that seem to influence the development of a PLC. Such
development seems so complex that to be able to describe discrete steps or stages is unlikely. Still we are beginning to see
that some categories of activities and issues must be developed before others can emerge. 相似文献