How to enhance teachers’ professional learning by stimulating the development of professional learning communities: operationalising a comprehensive PLC concept for assessing its development in everyday educational practice

Huijboom, Fred; Meeuwen, Pierre Van; Rusman, Ellen; Vermeulen, Marjan

doi:10.1080/19415257.2019.1634630

Cited by 24 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The underlying factor of this continuum is, the more time teachers spend to reflect and talk about their instructions, the more they will complement each other's content and pedagogical knowledge. Research also suggested that teachers' collaborative learning was more effective when it was embedded into their daily routines, and took place in their schools rather than one-shot workshops (DuFour, 2004;Fred et al, 2020). Therefore, for teacher collaboration to be impactful, teachers must be frequently engaged in professional discourse for them to build upon their unique content, pedagogical and experiential knowledge to improve instruction (Goddard et al, 2007), so much so that the right environment for these practices to establish and grow has to be created within the school context.…”

Section: Literature Review Collaboration Mattersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring teacher collaboration: what's inside the Malaysian PLC black box?

Mohd Zabidi,

Abdullah,

Sumintono

2023

JPCC

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore mathematics teachers' collaboration within their professional learning communities (PLCs), and to gain insight into how the teachers developed their collective efficacy through it to focus on improving student learning.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative approach, data were collected from three high-performing secondary schools, mainly through semi-structured in-depth interviews with the Heads of Mathematics Unit. For explication and triangulation purposes, focus group interviews with the mathematics teachers and students and document analysis were also conducted.FindingsThe findings indicate that PLCs were the vessel through which a culture of disciplined teacher collaboration was fostered. More importantly, this culture encouraged teachers to participate in reflective dialogues that became a driver for their learning, and eventually led to their changed professional practice for improved student learning. The collaborative setting within the PLCs allowed teachers to pool their resources, knowledge and individual expertise to identify their student learning focus, and administer and measure their student intervention strategies. This collaborative professional learning reduced professional isolation, and as a result, improved teachers' collective pursuit of professional growth to impact student outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsThe aim of this qualitative study was to provide a detailed description of the teachers' collaboration within their PLCs based on the researchers' interpretation of how the participants make sense of their PLC practices and experiences. Hence, findings are indicative, and not definitive. In addition, the Heads of the Mathematics Unit, and the mathematics teacher participants in this study illustrated salient aspects of subject subcultures, where their beliefs, norms and practices were non-generic, or specific only to their subject context. Therefore, the implications to practice were built from commonalities shared only among the mathematics units.Originality/valueThis is a study in a Malaysian context that provides empirical evidences that are concerned primarily with the process of teachers developing their collective efficacy through disciplined collaboration within their PLCs.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Review Collaboration Mattersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring teacher collaboration: what's inside the Malaysian PLC black box?

Mohd Zabidi,

Abdullah,

Sumintono

2023

JPCC

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“…In fact, PLC’s, as formal organizational networks, has been found to play a vital role in increasing self-efficacy, enabling access to information, responding to diverse needs, promoting professional growth, facilitating instructional change, and shaping organizational commitment (e.g., Daly et al, 2010; Fred et al, 2020; Quardokus & Henderson, 2015; Trust et al, 2017). Therefore, adopting the theoretical lens of social network theory, we propose the following research questions to explore the benefits that PLC’s bring to the university community:…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovating Teaching Practice Through Professional Learning Communities: Determining Knowledge Sharing and Program Value

Clark,

Zhan,

Dellinger

et al. 2023

Sage Open

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The Professional Learning Community (PLC) model has been used to help faculty develop innovative teaching practices and diffuse effective strategies and resources throughout K-12 schools. Yet, whether and how PLCs influence research-focused higher education institutions remain unknown. Drawing on existing research on PLCs and the social network theory, this mixed-methods study investigated how participants shared what they learned during their time in the program to build greater capacity and the perceived benefits and weaknesses of the PLC model. We conducted semi-structured interviews ( n = 8) and a survey ( n = 77) among current PLC fellows and alumni at a large research university. The results based on social network analysis showed that PLC fellows shared knowledge and resources across departments and offices at the university, and these efforts led to additional collaborative research and grant applications. Results also indicate that PLC fellows valued the diversity of the program, developed skills that they used in their courses, gained confidence in their ability to share knowledge and resources, and appreciated the accountability the program provided. Furthermore, respondents rated the program positively and indicated that they were currently using the knowledge and skills gained to further develop innovative teaching practices as well as planning to continue to do so in the future. These findings suggest that the PLC model can be an effective way for universities to empower faculty to develop innovative teaching practices, and, by sharing what they have learned with others, to build capacity for innovative teaching and research practices across the institution.

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“…To develop such a set of coherent instruments, an intermediate step was taken: the operationalisation of the PLC characteristics into attitudinal and behavioural 'indicators', which render them into 'measurable' and 'visible' phenomena. The indicators were based on literature (scientific and teaching practice) and validated in practice by teachers and school leaders in focus groups (Huijboom et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Keeping track of the development of professional learning communities in schools: the construction of two qualitative classification instruments

Huijboom

Meeuwen

Rusman

et al. 2020

Professional Development in Education

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For investigating a comprehensive PLC framework, instruments are needed that capture the multi-layered PLC characteristics and that take into account the complex influencing educational context. Such instruments are currently lacking. This study aims at describing the development and validation of two qualitative classification instruments usable for systematically identifying changes in PLCs. The 11 characteristics and accompanying behavioural and attitudinal indicators of a recently designed PLC framework were converted into codes and measuring values. For this conversion the 'directed content analysis approach' was used. The result is two classification instruments that can be used to collect and classify behavioural and attitudinal data from interviews and observations. The instruments cover all the characteristics, respectively indicators of the PLC framework and are suitable for validation by triangulation. This study contributes to the methodology for investigating PLCs by presenting two theoretically grounded and validated sets of codes, and two sets of measuring values. The latter is important for systematically developing knowledge on PLCs in educational practice. In everyday educational practice the instruments can be used to determine the state of the PLC and steps can be taken to stimulate its development.

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How to enhance teachers’ professional learning by stimulating the development of professional learning communities: operationalising a comprehensive PLC concept for assessing its development in everyday educational practice

Cited by 24 publications

References 31 publications

Exploring teacher collaboration: what's inside the Malaysian PLC black box?

Exploring teacher collaboration: what's inside the Malaysian PLC black box?

Innovating Teaching Practice Through Professional Learning Communities: Determining Knowledge Sharing and Program Value

Keeping track of the development of professional learning communities in schools: the construction of two qualitative classification instruments

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