Running head: The Professional Learning Community
Building a Strong Foundation: Local School Teachers’ Perception of Their School as a
Professional Learning Community
Research Proposal
Georgia College and State University
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Running head: The Professional Learning Community
Introduction
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has created a culture of accountability, requiring schools
to reassess what they are doing to raise achievement of all students and support teaching and
learning (US Dept. of Education, p. 6, 2004). NCLB has set the goal of having every child
make the grade on state-defined education standards by the end of the 2013–14 school year (US
Dept. of Education, 2004) In response to these mandates, many districts have charged their
teachers and administrative staff with creating curriculums that allow them to reach the goals set
forth by the state. Simply changing the structure of a school will not produce fundamental
changes. The culture, the belief system of a school, must also change. Therefore many K-12
schools are working to become professional learning communities (PLC) in the hope that student
learning will improve when adults commit themselves to talking collaboratively about teaching
and learning and then take action that will improve student learning and achievement
(Thompson, 2004).
In Thompson (2004) Dufour and Eaker stated:
Each word of the phrase "professional learning community" has been chosen
purposefully. A "professional" is someone with expertise in a specialized field, an
individual who has not only pursued advanced training to enter the field, but who
is also expected to remain current in its evolving knowledge base ..."Learning"
suggests ongoing action and perpetual curiosity .... The school that operates as a
professional learning community recognizes that its members must engage in
ongoing study and constant practice that characterize an organization committed
to continuous improvement. (para. 6)
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Running head: The Professional Learning Community
For the purpose of this research study, I used DuFour and Eaker’s definition of a
professional learning community (as cited in Thompson, 2004). A professional learning
community is one in which in “educators create an environment that fosters mutual cooperation,
emotional support, personal growth as they work together to achieve what they cannot
accomplish alone (para. 6). Teacher collaboration is designed with the end goal being improved
classroom practices that insure successful students and a plan to help struggling learners.
The purpose of this study is to investigate how teachers at one school view their school’s
progress of having an effective professional learning community. Mandates requiring all
students to perform paved the way for collaboration so that teachers can work smarter and not
harder and to end the isolation that had been prevalent in many schools.
This study will address the following questions:

What is the teachers’ understanding of professional learning communities and its ability
to increase student achievement?

What professional development have teachers had on professional learning communities
and how do they view the training? Adequate, inadequate, helpful, etc.

What are some ideas to help teachers move into quality collaborative planning sessions?

What are some ways to help teachers have the deeper, critical friends type conversations
during collaborative planning sessions/
Literature Review
Nelson, Deuel, Slavit and Kennedy (2010) found that engaging in substantive dialogue
about teaching and learning is uncommon in U.S. schools. Teachers have little time to engage in
professional dialogue; rather time is spent most often in staff meetings, professional development
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Running head: The Professional Learning Community
and lunch breaks. While ideas may be shared during these times, sharing is more of a congenial
nature. Time is not given to solely to the purpose of student achievement and teacher learning. .
According to Defour (2004), the professional learning community model flows from the
assumption that the core mission of formal education is not simply to ensure that students are
taught, but that they learn. This community is created over time and built upon the foundation of
teachers working together in both a congenial and collegial fashion.
Both Defour (2004) and Nelson, T., Deuel, A., Slavit, D., & Kennedy, A. (2010) agree
that dialogue that can transform a school into a professional learning community is that which
contains deep conversations. Teachers must move beyond making excuses, talking congenially
only and remaining in cliques or isolated from other staff. In a profession, evidence trumps
appeals to mindless precedent or personal preference (DeFour, 2011). In effective professional
learning communities, teachers commit to meeting on a regular basis. The purpose of these
meetings is to generate and share instructional strategies that will create an environment
conducive to insuring student success. When teachers decide to plan collaboratively, the students
that they serve win. When these planning meetings contain the deep conversations needed for
the creation of more effective teaching strategies, then student achievement can be a reality.
Seashore-Louis and Whalstrom (2011) agree that professional communities motivate
teachers to take collective responsibility for ensuring that all students learn, and they strengthen
teachers’ resolve to break out of old practices.
Before working in PLC teams, staff must be trained appropriately. According to Defour
(2011) and Thessin and Starr (2011), as schools and districts race to implement PLCs, they are
also realizing that learning how to work in teams does not just magically happen. Districts must
be deliberate in their efforts to teach teachers how to collaborate. It is not enough to put teachers
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Running head: The Professional Learning Community
together and expect them to know how to work collaboratively, especially with team members
who are use to working alone or in small cliques. These teachers should be afforded professional
development as well as follow-up monitoring to teach them how to work in collaborative groups
and supervise their attempts at doing so.
In the beginning phase of the transition to professional learning communities, teachers
need to know and understand what professional learning communities are and how they function.
After that, trainings can evolve to the essentials of how a professional learning community
works. Thessin and Starr (2011) found that districts or schools planning to implement PLCs
should provide administrators and teachers with sufficient training in Year I to ensure that both
administrative and teacher leaders are prepared to lead PLC work at their school sites. This is an
important phase that should not be taken lightly, especially if the staff is use to working in
isolation or only congenially.
The most comprehensive study of factors affecting schooling ever conducted concluded
that the most powerful strategy for helping students learn at higher levels was ensuring
that teachers work collaboratively in teams to establish the essential learning all students
must acquire, to gather evidence of student learning through an ongoing assessment
process, and to use the evidence of student learning to discuss, evaluate, plan, and
improve their instruction (Hattie 2009 as cited in DeFour, 2011).
However Hargreaves (1991) (as cited in Lam, Yim and Lam 2002) was concerned that
requiring educators to work together violates their right as professionals to work in isolation and
can result only in “contrived collegiality” rather than a true collaborative culture. This is worth
considering when deciding to move to creating PLC’s. District and school administrators should
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Running head: The Professional Learning Community
take this into consideration when planning the early PLC professional development training
sessions.
Methodology
Purpose of the Research Study
The targeted school district has implemented a district-wide plan to improve student
achievement that includes teacher collaboration.
Participants
One local school district within the suburbs of Atlanta, GA has also seen the value in
encouraging and increasing collaboration among teachers in order to facilitate the creation of a
school district in which all students excel. The district has implemented Academic Pathway
2011-2012 which is their roadmap to improving academic excellence. One of the components of
their four pronged approach to increasing student achievement throughout the district is
collaborative planning. It has also created new teacher leader roles entitled, Great and Effective
Lead Teachers. The classrooms of these teachers, the GELT, will serve as model classrooms for
teacher improvement and professional development. Although the district has not specifically
used the phrase, professional learning community, they do refer to the teachers working as a
learning community. However, the previous administrative leaders of the school in which the
participants were selected used the phrase continually during the past two years when requiring
or discussing teacher collaboration.
Six local school teachers in an elementary school in this school district will be asked to
participate in this focus group. Any teacher selected will have tenure at the school and have
served or is currently serving as a leader in this school in some capacity. Any teacher selected
would have to have been on staff at the school during the tenure of the previous administration
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Running head: The Professional Learning Community
and would therefore be familiar with the use of the terminology of professional learning
community by that administration.
Procedure
The selected teachers will meet at an off-site location during after school hours. They
will have a few minutes to eat and socialize with one another before questioning begins. They
will be apprised of the purpose of the focus group prior to agreeing to participate. Teachers will
be reminded that this meeting will be audio recorded and transcribed at a later date.
I will give a brief introduction of the purpose of this focus group, followed by a reminder that
this meeting will be recorded and transcribed at a later date. I will give each teacher a copy of
the interview questions at the onset of the discussion. I will allow the teachers to give some
background information about themselves without giving their names. I will ask each question
and allow time for each teacher to answer if they choose. Teachers and I will also be allowed to
ask follow-up questions and or make comments based on responses. The interview will
conclude after the questions and discussion have been exhausted or after sixty minutes
whichever comes first.
After the transcription of the audiotape, I will review data for themes. Since the
interview subjects are co-workers, I will need to put aside preconceptions and any personal
previous knowledge of the work environment, thereby allowing the codes to emerge from the
data. I will focus on key terms in context, phrases, and understandings.
Because the interview subjects are co-workers, I will use member checking for data
validation. After the data has been analyzed, I will have the participants review my findings to
see if they agree with my research conclusions of the interview.
.
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Running head: The Professional Learning Community
References
(2004). No child left behind toolkit for teachers. US Department of Education. Retrieved from
http://www2.ed.gov/teachers/nclbguide/nclb-teachers-toolkit.pdf
DuFour, R. (2004). What Is a "Professional Learning Community"?. Educational Leadership, 61(8), 611. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
DuFour, R. (2011). Work Together But Only if You Want To. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(5), 57-61.
Retrieved from EBSCOhost
Nelson, T., Deuel, A., Slavit, D., & Kennedy, A. (2010). Leading Deep Conversations in Collaborative
Inquiry Groups. Clearing House, 83(5), 175-179. doi:10.1080/00098650903505498
Lam, S., Yim, P., & Lam, t. (2002). Transforming school culture: can true collaboration be initiated?.
Educational Research, 44(2), 181-195. doi:10.1080/0013188011010xxxx
Seashore Louis, K., & Wahlstrom, K. (2011). Principals as Cultural Leaders. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(5),
52-56. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Thessin, R. A., & Starr, J. P. (2011). Supporting the GROWTH of Effective Professional Learning
Communities Districtwide. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 48-54. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Thompson, S. C., Gregg, L., & Niska, J. M. (2004). Professional Learning Communities, Leadership,
and Student Learning. Research in Middle Level Education Online, 28(1), 35-54. Retrieved from
EBSCOhost.
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