Professional Learning Community
Encyclopedia
A professional learning community (PLC) is an extended learning opportunity to foster collaborative learning
among colleagues within a particular work environment or field. It is often used in schools as a way to organize teachers into working groups.
and learning tasks for students; or engaging students, teachers, and administrators simultaneously in learning." Richard Dufour, a recognized national expert in PLCs, finds that "To create a professional learning community, focus on learning rather than on teaching, work collaboratively, and hold yourself accountable for results." The Ontario Ministry of Education defines a PLC as "a shared vision or running a school in which everyone can make a contribution, and staff are encouraged to collectively undertake activities and reflection in order to constantly improve their students’ performance."
The idea behind a PLC was to integrate two concepts that in the past, have been quite distinctive from each other; professional
and community
. Louis states that, professionalism is, "based on specialized knowledge and a focus on serving client needs"; whereas community is, "based on caring, support, and mutual responsibility within a group."
to the success of PLCs. The PLC process should be a reflective process where both individual and community growth is achieved. Among the team there should be a shared vision of where they want the school to be. In his book The Fifth Discipline
, Peter Senge comments on shared vision and states, “The practice of shared vision involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance. In mastering this discipline, leaders learn the counter-productiveness of trying to dictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt” (1990, p. 9). "Collaborative efforts may seem at first to be hard to organize and keep going, yet under the PLC model of small groups working together within a larger group, the collaborative teams can be organized as either academic, grade level, or any other sub group that works well within the framework of what the PLC’s are hoping to accomplish (Norwood, 2007)".
s so that all members are satisfied with the direction in which the organization is moving.
, student achievement, and teacher empowerment the results of PLCs can be tremendous. This statement is supported by Hord who states, "The benefits of professional learning community to educators and students include reduced isolation of teachers, better informed and committed teachers, and academic gains for students". Expert Michael Fullan
has found that PLCs are necessary, stating "Numerous studies document the fact that professional learning communities or collaborative work cultures at the school and ideally at the district level are critical for the implementation of attempted reforms."
are extensively shared, a focus on reflective inquiry
, emphasis on improving student learning, shared values and norms, and development of common practices and feedback
. Dufour & Eaker (1998) and Levine & Shapiro (2004) as cited in Education for All further break down these points and indicate the characteristics of PLCs are as follows:
In an educational setting a PLC may contain people from multiple levels of the organization who are collaboratively and continually working together for the betterment of the organization. Peter Senge
believes "it is no longer sufficient to have one person learning for the organization." The idea that there is one main decision maker who controls the organization is not sufficient in today’s school; all people within the community must work effectively towards common goals. A major principle of PLCs is that people learn more together than if they were on their own. The idea of team learning is an interesting concept that teachers work to promote in their classrooms but often do not practice in their professional lives. Senge suggests that when teams learn together there are beneficial results for the organization. It becomes the team, not the individual, that is viewed as the main learning unit. High-quality collaboration has become no less than an imperative.
Team learning builds upon personal mastery and shared vision. This involves creating a snapshot of what is important to both individuals and the school community. Although individuals are responsible for their own actions, feelings and opinions, it is the common good of the community that guides decision making.
Through this commitment and creation of a shared vision the team becomes empowered to work together and achieve goals. "Top-down mandates and bottom-up energies need each other." This process involves sharing diverse ideas and making compromises so that all people are satisfied with the direction in which the school is moving. As teachers’ capacity increases and they develop a feeling of success, they will better understand that when they ally their strengths and skills they are able to reach goals they could not reach on their own.
Collaborative learning
Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together. Unlike individual learning, people engaged in collaborative learning capitalize on one another’s resources and skills...
among colleagues within a particular work environment or field. It is often used in schools as a way to organize teachers into working groups.
Definitions
PLCs have many variations. In one definition PLCs "extend... classroom practice into the community; bringing community personnel into the school to enhance the curriculumCurriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
and learning tasks for students; or engaging students, teachers, and administrators simultaneously in learning." Richard Dufour, a recognized national expert in PLCs, finds that "To create a professional learning community, focus on learning rather than on teaching, work collaboratively, and hold yourself accountable for results." The Ontario Ministry of Education defines a PLC as "a shared vision or running a school in which everyone can make a contribution, and staff are encouraged to collectively undertake activities and reflection in order to constantly improve their students’ performance."
The idea behind a PLC was to integrate two concepts that in the past, have been quite distinctive from each other; professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
and community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
. Louis states that, professionalism is, "based on specialized knowledge and a focus on serving client needs"; whereas community is, "based on caring, support, and mutual responsibility within a group."
Barriers to implementation
Many teachers and other educators often feel as if they are pawns in a larger game of chess where school and district leaders place obstacles that can cause issues in educators doing their job (Buffum and Hinman, 2006). Some of the barriers that are present and inhibit the development of PLC's, according to Riley and Stoll (2004), include subject areas, because some educational subjects tend to naturally take precedence over others. Another obstacle is simply the physical layout of the school.Staff as a community
A PLC is seen as an effective staff development team approach and a powerful strategy for school change and possible improvement. The idea of community is crucialCrucial
Crucial may refer to:* Crucial Technology, a brand used by semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology* The Crucial Conspiracy, an album by The Dingees* The Crucial Squeegie Lip, a recording by Ween...
to the success of PLCs. The PLC process should be a reflective process where both individual and community growth is achieved. Among the team there should be a shared vision of where they want the school to be. In his book The Fifth Discipline
The Fifth Discipline
The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization is a book by Peter Senge focusing on group problem solving using the systems thinking method in order to convert companies into learning organizations...
, Peter Senge comments on shared vision and states, “The practice of shared vision involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance. In mastering this discipline, leaders learn the counter-productiveness of trying to dictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt” (1990, p. 9). "Collaborative efforts may seem at first to be hard to organize and keep going, yet under the PLC model of small groups working together within a larger group, the collaborative teams can be organized as either academic, grade level, or any other sub group that works well within the framework of what the PLC’s are hoping to accomplish (Norwood, 2007)".
Empowerment
Through this commitment and creation of a shared vision the team, including leaders and participants, becomes empowered to work together and achieve goals. PLCs are not effective when the team is being told what to do and does not collaborate. PLCs must be a joint venture for it is true that, "Top-down mandates and bottom-up energies need each other.". This process involves sharing diverse ideas and making compromiseCompromise
To compromise is to make a deal where one person gives up part of his or her demand.In arguments, compromise is a concept of finding agreement through communication, through a mutual acceptance of terms—often involving variations from an original goal or desire.Extremism is often considered as...
s so that all members are satisfied with the direction in which the organization is moving.
Authentic instruction
In regards to authentic instructionEducation
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, student achievement, and teacher empowerment the results of PLCs can be tremendous. This statement is supported by Hord who states, "The benefits of professional learning community to educators and students include reduced isolation of teachers, better informed and committed teachers, and academic gains for students". Expert Michael Fullan
Michael Fullan
Michael Fullan was born in Toronto, Ontario, the eldest of 7 hockey-playing boys, Michael Fullan turned in his skates for books at the age of 18 and slowly worked his way into academia earning a Ph.D in Sociology in 1969...
has found that PLCs are necessary, stating "Numerous studies document the fact that professional learning communities or collaborative work cultures at the school and ideally at the district level are critical for the implementation of attempted reforms."
Attributes
There are many core characteristics of PLCs (Louis, in press) including collective team work in which leadership and responsibility for student learningLearning
Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.Human learning...
are extensively shared, a focus on reflective inquiry
Inquiry
An inquiry is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. A theory of inquiry is an account of the various types of inquiry and a treatment of the ways that each type of inquiry achieves its aim.-Deduction:...
, emphasis on improving student learning, shared values and norms, and development of common practices and feedback
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
. Dufour & Eaker (1998) and Levine & Shapiro (2004) as cited in Education for All further break down these points and indicate the characteristics of PLCs are as follows:
- Shared vision and values that lead to a collective commitment of school staff, which is expressed in day-to-day practices
- Solutions actively sought, openness to new ideas
- Working teams cooperate to achieve common goals
- Encouragement of experimentation as an opportunity to learn
- Questioning of the status quo, leading to an ongoing quest for improvement and professional learning
- Continuous improvement based on evaluation of outcomes rather than on the intentions expressed
- Reflection in order to study the operation and impacts of actions taken
Educational community building
- "If schools are to be significantly more effective, they must break from the industrial model upon which they were created and embrace a new model that enables them to function as learning organizations. We prefer characterizing learning organizations as ‘professional learning communities’ for several vital reasons. While the term ‘organization’ suggests a partnership enhanced by efficiency, expediency, and mutual interests, ‘community’ places greater emphasis on relationships, shared ideals, and a strong culture – all factors that are critical to school improvement. The challenge for educators is to create a community of commitment – a professional learning community.” “It sounds simple enough, but as the old adage warns, ‘the devil is in the details.’"
In an educational setting a PLC may contain people from multiple levels of the organization who are collaboratively and continually working together for the betterment of the organization. Peter Senge
Peter Senge
Peter Michael Senge is an American scientist and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is known as author of the book The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization from 1990...
believes "it is no longer sufficient to have one person learning for the organization." The idea that there is one main decision maker who controls the organization is not sufficient in today’s school; all people within the community must work effectively towards common goals. A major principle of PLCs is that people learn more together than if they were on their own. The idea of team learning is an interesting concept that teachers work to promote in their classrooms but often do not practice in their professional lives. Senge suggests that when teams learn together there are beneficial results for the organization. It becomes the team, not the individual, that is viewed as the main learning unit. High-quality collaboration has become no less than an imperative.
Team learning builds upon personal mastery and shared vision. This involves creating a snapshot of what is important to both individuals and the school community. Although individuals are responsible for their own actions, feelings and opinions, it is the common good of the community that guides decision making.
Leadership
It is important for leadership in the schools to establish and maintain PLCs. Successful PLCs will require a shift in the traditional leadership role from leader-centered (top-down) to shared leadership. Often, a top down leader will create the vision statement and then staff members will be encouraged to adhere to the goals outlined in the statement. Thompson, Gregg and Niska (2004) point out how many educators often feel that "new ideas that came from someone else without teacher input" is a waste of time and does not qualify as true leadership or support. Principals need to lead from the center rather than the top. The view of the principal as the instructional leader is changing to one that reflects the principal’s role within a community of learners and leaders. "The practice of shared vision involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance. In mastering this discipline, leaders learn the counter-productiveness of trying to dictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt"Through this commitment and creation of a shared vision the team becomes empowered to work together and achieve goals. "Top-down mandates and bottom-up energies need each other." This process involves sharing diverse ideas and making compromises so that all people are satisfied with the direction in which the school is moving. As teachers’ capacity increases and they develop a feeling of success, they will better understand that when they ally their strengths and skills they are able to reach goals they could not reach on their own.