Unveiling the Practices and Challenges of Professional Learning Community in a Malaysian Chinese Secondary School

Abstract

Professional learning community (PLC) studies in the Asian Chinese nations remain scarce despite the emerging interest in the practice of PLC beyond the Western context. This study attempts to provide an understanding of the practices of PLC and challenges in implementing PLC in a Malaysian Chinese culture–dominated secondary school. This qualitative study used a phenomenological constructivist approach as a strategy of inquiry. Semi-structured interview data were collected from six middle leaders and ordinary teachers in a national-type Chinese secondary school in the northern region. Findings informed three existing PLC practices at the school level, namely, (a) peer coaching, (b) sharing of personal practices, and (c) professional development courses. However, the practice of PLC encounters various challenges, including excessive workload, teachers’ passive attitudes, unsupportive conditions in the school, poor execution of PLC by the school community, and a vague understanding of PLC. Interestingly, this study identified two uncovered challenges hindering the development of PLC: misconception about PLC and lack of supervision from the authority. Implications and future studies are presented.

Implementation of Professional Learning Community among Teachers in Schools: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Teacher Motivation Heggen's (2018) study with his colleagues shows that the main challenge in developing a school as a professional learning community is that school administrators and teacher colleagues are not committed in in the implementation of PLC. Teachers are passive during the PLC program (Chua et al, 2020). Moreover, teachers are already too comfortable to remain in their current state and it is difficult for them to accept PLC (Kin & Kareem, 2021).…”

“…Strong professional learning requires ongoing commitment and support (Cherkowski & Schnellert, 2018;Avidov-Ungar & Ezran, 2020;Amirova, 2020;Chua et al, 2020). People in school believe that school culture can change through support from administrators (Mohan et al, 2019).…”

Validating Professional Learning Communities Practice Model in a Malaysian Context

“…One of the barriers is school leaders are inefficient in distributing power and managing school's resources (Gill & Berezina, 2020). Moreover, poor school cultures such as teachers' unwillingness to share their practices (Huang et al, 2020) and teacher's workload that constrain teachers to collaborate (Chua et al, 2020). In addition, external contexts such as lack of collaboration between schools and other educational stakeholders can hinder the effective implementation of PLCs (Kin & Abdul Kareem, 2021).…”

Tinjauan kajian empirikal mengenai komuniti pembelajaran profesional di Malaysia (2010-2020): Dapatan dan tema

“…Walaupun terdapat bukti empirikal yang menunjukkan tahap amalan KPP guru di Malaysia tinggi, terdapat kajian lepas turut mendapati kekangan yang dihadapi oleh guru semasa mengamalkan KPP (Chong et al, 2018;Chua, Thien, Lim, Tan, & Guan, 2020). Bagi memudahkan perbincangan bahagian ini, halangan atau masalah ini dibahagikan mengikut tema iaitu kepimpinan sekolah, budaya kolaboratif, struktur sekolah dan kepercayaan kolektif guru.…”

“…Selain itu, kajian mendapati latihan KPP yang diterima oleh pemimpin dan guru sekolah adalah daripada dua pihak berbeza iaitu pemimpin sekolah daripada Institut Aminuddin Baki (IAB) dan latihan guru pula oleh Bahagian Pendidikan Guru (BPG) (Nur Ain et al, 2018). Ini menyebabkan wujudnya guru yang tidak memahami peranan KPP secara dasarnya dan hanya menganggapnya sebagai lesson study sahaja (Chua et al, 2020;Zuraidah et al, 2016). Pembudayaan KPP memerlukan kefahaman, sokongan dan kerjasama daripada pemimpin, guru serta semua ahli dalam komuniti sekolah.…”