SAMEN WIJS
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
COMMUNITIES
Prof. Dr. E. Verbiest
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SAMEN WIJS
OVERVIEW
• What is a professional learning community?
• Why (should we develop) professional learning communities?
(innovation theory – effect of a professional learning
community).
• Assumptions of a professional learning community.
• Developing a professional learning community.
• How to think about (how to conceptualize) development
of a professional learning community?
• How to develop a professional learning community
(research project)
• Discussion
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SAMEN WIJS
A professional learning community is ……………….
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SAMEN WIJS
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
Three fundamental concepts
PROFESSIONALISM:
- Interest of students
- improvement
- knowledge base
LEARNING:
- of students
- of professionals
- individual, collective
COMMUNITY:
- shared vision
- shared responsability
- mutual recognition
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SAMEN WIJS
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
Personal capacity
 active, reflective and critical (re)construction of knowledge
 currency
Interpersonal capacity
 shared values and shared vision on learning and teaching
 collective learning and shared practices
Organisational capacity
 supportive structural conditions
 supportive cultural conditions
 shared, supportive and stimulating leadership
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SAMEN WIJS
Two fundamental paradigms in innovation theory
Outside view:
implementation of external developed reform
designs in schools
Research
Developing
Diffusion
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SAMEN WIJS
Evaluation of innovations according to the outside view
• Limited results
• Mutual adaption
• Local factors (motivation, beliefs, capacity of teachers, culture,
school leader…) are important
• Policy cannot mandate what matters
• Deprofessionalising
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SAMEN WIJS
Two fundamental paradigms in innovation theory
Outside view:
implementation of external developed reform
designs in schools
Inside view:
developing capacity of schools to transform
themselves into supportive environments for teacher
learning and change.
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SAMEN WIJS
Do professional learning communities work?
• Few research
• Modest evidence
• Indirect positive effect on students’ results
• Through the creation of an innovative climate in the school
• Positive effect on teachers’ well being in the school
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SAMEN WIJS
Assumptions of a professional learning community.
1. Knowledge is situated in the day-to-day lived experiences of
teachers and best understood through critical reflection with
others who share the same experience .
2. Actively engaging teachers in PLCs will increase their
professional knowledge and enhance student learning.
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SAMEN WIJS
KNOWLEDGE BASE OF THE PROFESSIONAL
KNOWLEDGE FOR TEACHERS
KNOWLEDGE OF TEACHERS
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SAMEN WIJS
KNOWLEDGE FOR TEACHERS
• Theoretical knowledge (codified in books)
• Based on research
• Basis for skills en didactical approaches
• Evidence based teaching
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SAMEN WIJS
KNOWLEDGE OF TEACHERS
(practical knowledge)
•
•
•
•
Developed on the basis of experiences
Implicit knowledge
Influential
Vulnerable
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SAMEN WIJS
VULNERABILITY OF PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE
Ambiguity of stimuli
Interpretation in the context of frame of
references
Psychological processes
Apprenticeship of observation
Routines
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SAMEN WIJS
VULNERABILITY OF PRACTICAL
KNOWLEDGE
REFLECTION
COLLECTIVE LEARNING
IN A
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
COMMUNITY
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SAMEN WIJS
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
Timperley et al. 2007:
The opportunity to process the meaning and implications of new
learning with one’s colleagues appears to be fundamental to the
change process, where that change impacts positively on student
outcomes.
Participation in structured professional groups was, however,
associated with neutral or negative outcomes for students in
several studies. These studies show that it is possible for
teachers to be given generous amounts of time to collaborate and
talk together, only to have the status quo reinforced, with change
messages misunderstood, misrepresented, or resisted.
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SAMEN WIJS
Timperley et al. 2007: CONDITIONS FOR LEARNING IN A
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
• High but realistic expectations of students and believing
they could make a difference.
• Norms of collective responsibility for students
• Analysing the impact of teaching on student learning.
• Challenging problematic beliefs and testing the efficacy
of competing ideas.
• Bringing in new perspectives by external experts
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SAMEN WIJS
THE C.O.P.L. - PROJECT
CAPACITEITSONWIKKELING IN
PROFESSIONELE LEERGEMEENSCHAPPEN
(CAPACITIY BUILDING IN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
COMMUNITIES)
SUPPORT and RESEARCH
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SAMEN WIJS
Research questions
1. How to account for the development of a school as a
professional learning community
2. Which interventions contribute to the development of a school
as a professional learning community?
• Interventions:
• Sources: external / internal action / event
• Focus: are the interventions directed at the development
of the three capacities?
• Which interventions are contributing to the development
of the schools as a PLC?
• What is the role of the school leader
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SAMEN WIJS
THE C.O.P.L. - PROJECT
Approach / Methods
1. Quantitative (questionnaire – dimensions of a PLC) –
• 6 schools in the project
• 89 other schools ( benchmarking)
• Pre and post test
2. Qualitative (interviews - dimensions of a PLC)
• 4 schools (most successful) schools in the project
• At the begin and at the end of the project, with school
leaders and teachers
• Transcription, coding, applying codes >> 4 whit-in case
analyses and a cross case analysis.
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SAMEN WIJS
COPL-project
September 2005 – June 2008.
Theoretical study
Developing questionnaire
and interviews
Questionnaire 89 school (survey)
Questionnaire 6
project schools
Questionnaire 6
project schools
Interviews 4 schools
Interviews 6 schools
Sep
05
Jan
06
Jul
06
Sem 1
2
3
Consultation, Coaching
Jan
07
4
Jul
07
5
Oct
07
Jan
08
Jun
08
6
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SAMEN WIJS
1. How to think about development of a professional
learning community?
One answer: thinking in stages of development
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SAMEN WIJS
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
CAPACITY
not yet
initiated
initiated
implemented incorporated
Personal
capacity
Interpersonal
capacity
Organisational
capacity
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SAMEN WIJS
1. How to think about development of a professional
learning community?
One answer: thinking in stages of development
Another answer:
• No stages
• Three different concepts:
• Broadening
• Deepening
• Anchoring
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SAMEN WIJS
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SCHOOL AS
A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
CAPACITY / DIMENSION
B
R
O
A
D
E
N
I
N
G
D
E
E
P
E
N
I
N
G
A
N
C
H
O
R
I
N
G
LESS
MORE
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SAMEN WIJS
THE C.O.P.L. - PROJECT
1. How to account for the development
2. Interventions:
•
Sources?
Internal
External
Event
Action
Internal event
Internal action
Internalbyaction
school leader
External event
External action
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SAMEN WIJS
THE C.O.P.L. - PROJECT
1. How to account for the development
2. Interventions:
• Sources?
• Focus: are the interventions directed at the
development of the three capacities?
 Almost every intervention focused on developing one or
more capacities
 Every capacity influenced by one ore more interventions
 The school leaders are using deliberately the concept of a
PLC as frame-work for selecting interventions
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SAMEN WIJS
THE C.O.P.L. - PROJECT
Frame of Analyses
1. How to account for the development
2. Interventions
• Sources
• Focus:
• Which interventions are contributing to the
development of the schools as a PLC?
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SAMEN WIJS
Effective interventions
 Professional development
 Re-organisation of the teaching process and making
teachers depending on each other
story
telling
Independency
aid and
assistance
sharing
joint work
Interdependency
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SAMEN WIJS
Effective interventions
 Professional development
 Re-organisation of the teaching process and making
teachers depending on each other
 Connecting the development as a PLC to the running
innovations and actions in the school
 Re-organisation of the structures for meetings and CPD
 Leadership
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SAMEN WIJS
THE C.O.P.L. - PROJECT
1. How to account for the development
2. Interventions
• Sources
• Focus
• Interventions
3. Role of the school leader?
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SAMEN WIJS
THE C.O.P.L. - PROJECT
Role of the school leader
•
In schools most developed as a PLC, three roles are
fulfilled
• CULTURE BUILDER
• EDUCATOR
• ARCHITECT
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SAMEN WIJS
THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL LEADER
CULTURE BUILDER
•
developing and disseminating a shared vision and sense of
purpose, aimed at the improvement of the pupils’ learning
•
stressing the professional standards and expectations
•
stimulating trustfull relations and tolerance for errors
•
stimulating innovative attitudes and experiments
•
providing individual psychological support
•
involving the team members in CPD
•
using rituals and symbols to underline the values sought
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SAMEN WIJS
THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL LEADER
EDUCATOR
•
modelling the teacher’s actions
•
instructional leadership
•
•
providing teachers with information regarding the pupils’ progress
maintain a professional dialogue and stimulate teachers
intellectually
•
systematically supervise teachers’ learning processes
•
help to set feasible targets for teachers
•
train staff members and teams in the skills required for learning
•
develop leadership
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SAMEN WIJS
THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL LEADER
ARCHITECT
•
making space, time and money available for learning, cooperation, CPD
•
developing systems providing teachers with information
•
•
developing shared and distributed leadership
draw up selectional and assessment criteria that stress individual
and collective learning capacities
developing basic rules and procedures for communication, the
organisation, curriculum and professional development
•
•
forming sub-teams in (bigger) schools
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SAMEN WIJS
THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL LEADER
B
e
B
b
A
e
A
b
0
5
10
15
Culture builder
Educator
20
25
30
Architect
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