Sustaining data use professional learning communities in schools: The role of leadership practices

Sustaining professional learning communities (PLCs) focused on data use is a challenge for schools. Sustainability is achieved by making the PLC’s core components evident in schools’ organizational routines. Leadership can support sustainability according to literature, but it is unclear what leadership for sustainability looks like in practice. We therefore investigated what sustainable data use PLCs and leadership look like in three secondary schools, and explored how leadership influences sustainable data use PLCs. A mixed methods design (observations, social network questionnaire, school documents) was used to gain in-depth insight. The findings show that sustainability is difficult to achieve at both the ostensive and performative level. The schools differed in the form of sustainability they achieved. A broad set of leadership practices (e.g., organize meetings, participate actively in PLC, know content and procedure) were carried out in interplay by both formal and informal leaders.     

Effects of leadership practices on professional learning communities: the mediating role of trust in colleagues

The building of professional learning communities has been widely recognized as an effective strategy for schools wanting to improve student performance and enhance teachers’ professional capacity. This study explored the relationship between leadership practices and professional learning communities, with a particular focus on the mediating role of trust in colleagues within the context of mainland China. A total of 215 primary school teachers in a province of southwestern China participated in the study. The results showed that leadership practices and trust in colleagues had positive effects on five factors of professional learning communities, namely a shared sense of purpose, collaborative activity, collective focus on student learning, deprivatized practice, and reflective dialog. Trust in colleagues also mediated the influence of leadership practices on professional learning communities. The implications for facilitating professional learning communities in mainland China are discussed here.     

Sustaining professional learning communities: Case studies

The purpose is to document the ongoing development of two schools in becoming professional learning communities and the effects of meaningful collaboration on teacher learning. The question that guides this research is: How does a school become a sustainable professional learning community? The theoretical framework is based on the work of Senge, Hord, Fullan, Hargreaves and Fink, and Stoll, McMahon and Thomas and includes the areas of professional learning community, change and sustainability. Finally, the study addresses the relationship between professional learning community and school culture. The methodology involves a qualitative case study approach designed to gain information regarding two emerging schools in their journeys toward developing learning community cultures. Findings reveal the stories of each school as they evolved as PLCs and the similarities and differences that emerged. Knowing that sustaining the culture of a PLC is complex, and not to be achieved without determination and growth, we look ahead at challenges to be addressed and further research to be conducted. Finally, we offer some concluding statements and attempt to relate findings to the literature on PLCs. The intent is to identify some of the intricacies in building cultures of learning for adults and students. As we have learned through these two stories, many things happen simultaneously, to greater or lesser degrees, at varying points in time over a period of years that seem to influence the development of a PLC. Such development seems so complex that to be able to describe discrete steps or stages is unlikely. Still we are beginning to see that some categories of activities and issues must be developed before others can emerge.     

Linking empowering leadership to innovative behavior in professional learning communities: the role of psychological empowerment and team psychological safety

Asia Pacific Education Review - This study investigates the mediating role of teachers’ psychological empowerment and the moderating role of team psychological safety in the relationship...     

Transformational leadership,professional learning communities,teacher learning and learner centred teaching practices; Evidence on their interrelations in Mozambican primary education

This study examines the routes via which transformational leadership, professional learning communities and teacher learning lead to more learner centred teaching practices. By means of structural equation modelling (path analysis with latent variables) a conceptual model was tested, using questionnaire data from 518 teachers in 95 Mozambican primary schools. The data analysis shows that the effect of transformational leadership on teaching practices is substantial but indirect, running via professional learning communities and teacher learning. All in all, the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practices is particularly strong. Its effect is both direct and indirect, running via teacher learning. The findings show the relevance of the concepts transformational leadership and professional learning communities in an African context.     

The relationship between teacher value orientations and engagement in professional learning communities

The development of teacher professional learning communities (PLC) has attracted growing attention among practitioners, policy-makers and researchers. The aims of this study were to identify typologies of professional learning teams based on measures of professional learning engagement, and assess their linkages with teachers’ value orientations. Based on data obtained from 408 professional learning teams in Singapore schools, cluster analysis identified three types of professional learning teams: highly engaged, moderately engaged and less engaged. These three profiles differ mainly in terms of level of endorsement for the four measures of professional learning engagement (collective focus on student learning, collaborative learning, reflective dialogue and shared values and vision). Results revealed that highly engaged professional learning teams reported the highest levels of endorsement for all four engagement measures. Teachers among the learning teams in the highly engaged profile reported a significantly higher level of uncertainty avoidance than those in the moderately engaged and less engaged profiles. Teachers in the less engaged profile also reported a significantly higher level of power distance than those in the highly engaged teams. Multinomial logistic regression analysis found that team power distance and team uncertainty avoidance were significant predictors of engagement profile membership. The implications for fostering effective teacher development through more systematic support of PLC are discussed.     

Stages of collaboration and the realities of professional learning communities

Although professional learning communities are often promoted as unique learning opportunities, little is known about how they get started and how they are sustained. For this reason, group members are often unprepared, and then frustrated, by inevitable group tensions. With this in mind, Karl Weick's [(1979). The social psychology of organizing. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley] model of means convergence was used to analyze the social dynamics of a small group of Middle Years teachers over a 2-year period as they implemented Egan's [(1992). Imagination in teaching and learning: The middle school years. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press; (1997). The educated mind: How cognitive tools shape our understanding. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press] theory of Imagination and Learning to their practice. Along with the analysis of journal entries, focus-group discussions, and individual interviews, Weick's (1979) four developmental stages of collaboration provide a broader understanding of why conflict occurs in learning communities and its effect on collaborative learning.     

The emerging landscape of school-based professional learning communities in South Korean schools

Abstract

Over the last decade, school-based professional learning communities (PLCs) have emerged as a key feature of the education system in South Korea. To understand this relatively new phenomenon in the context of South Korea, we provide a review of research on school-based PLCs in South Korea and an empirical analysis of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2008 with a focus on school-based PLCs. Based on our findings from the literature review and analysis of the TALIS, we aim to provide a fuller picture of the emerging landscape of school-based PLCs in South Korean schools. In so doing, we focus on what constitutes school-based PLCs in South Korean schools and how they are similar to and/or different from their counterparts in other countries. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed.     

The principals as literacy leaders with indigenous communities: professional learning and research

Recent educational changes in China such as the decentralization policy and the marketization of education have introduced concepts such as performativity, competition and effectiveness to the education sector and they have become part of the educational lexicon. Such policy shifts force more local participation in teacher education programmes and schools are now identified as the prime site for offering relevant professional learning activities to teachers. However, interestingly, research on professional development of teachers in China has not devoted significant attention to the voices of teachers. This paper examines how teachers from seven schools in Guangdong Province view the effectiveness of these school‐based learning activities within the new context of educational change.     

Induction seminars as professional learning communities for beginning teachers

This paper explores the operation and contribution of induction seminars operated as learning communities for new teachers. Mixed methods were used: 378 new teachers and 29 seminar leaders completed questionnaires, 16 new teachers and 14 seminar leaders were interviewed, and 20 seminar meetings were observed. Findings showed that seminar discussions focused primarily on coping with discipline problems, building self-confidence, and developing a professional identity. The main contribution of the seminars was emotional support provided in a non-threatening environment. Findings imply that seminars can be a significant supplement to in-school mentoring for the professional development and adjustment of new teachers.     

Factors that develop effective professional learning communities in Taiwan

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the key factors of developing effective professional learning communities (PLCs) within the Taiwanese context. Four constructs – supportive and shared leadership, shared visions, collegial trust, and shared practices – were adopted and developed into an instrument for measuring PLC function. A stratified random sampling was conducted with the strata of geographic areas. Out of 335 high schools, 51 schools were chosen and 612 copies of the questionnaires were distributed to teachers. After excluding invalid questionnaires, 444 questionnaires were collected from 34 schools, yielding a response rate of 73%. The final version of the questionnaire had 19 items with a 6-point Likert-type scale. Using confirmative factor analysis, the four factors in the conception of PLCs were confirmed. The results of the structural equation modelling indicated that a collegial trust relationship was strongly and directly related to shared practices, and was an important mediating factor between supportive and shared leadership, shared visions, and shared practices. In other words, shared vision along with supportive and shared leadership, through collegiality and trust relationships, could help school members collectively learn, collaborate, innovate, inquire, reflect, and give feedback to one another in the form of shared PLC practices.     

Placement schools as professional learning communities in teacher education

This article investigates how schoolteachers’, school leaders’ and college teachers’ involvement affects placement schools as professional learning communities. Norwegian teacher education is used as a case. The first part builds on a survey among schoolteachers and mentors at 111 placement schools in Norway. It documents great variety in the level of engagement. Interviews with mentors, school leaders and college teachers reveal how cooperation between colleges and placement schools, as well as the school leaders’ commitment, influences the quality of placement. The school leaders’ role proves to be important in developing the schools as professional learning communities, and they seem to have a significant impact on the work of the mentors. The data also show that there is a need for a more substantial cooperation between college teachers and mentors about the student teachers’ professional development as well as a need for a more systematic integration of learning in the two learning contexts.     

The impact of leadership and management on the construction of professional identity in school learning mentors

This paper explores the perceptions of school learning mentors with respect to their professional development and emerging professional identity. Although tentative, the emergence of two distinct professional identities is reported in this study: first, an instrumental technical identity characterized by compliance; and second, a creative professional identity characterized by an active involvement in the creation of one’s own professionality. Emerging differences in identity appear to be influenced by feelings of security in school learning mentors’ role definition and sense of purpose and by the power differential they perceive between themselves and qualified teaching staff. The findings have implications for the present workforce remodelling agenda in England and Wales, intended, in part, to facilitate the work of teachers via greater professionalization of learning support assistants. It is suggested that the leadership and management of schools hosting learning mentors and other learning support assistants should further consider their approach to the professionality of this important group of workers if frustrated identity claims, dissatisfaction, poor morale and their exit from the education service is to be avoided.     

Development to learning: semantic shifts in professional autonomy and school leadership

In the digital age, technology is playing an important role in changing the nature of professionalism. Newer forms of professional learning stand in contrast to more traditional forms of professional development. The shifting paradigm has implications for school leaders in all contexts. This study sought to qualitatively examine how a sample of eight school leaders worked to support professional learning in their school communities and leverage tools in areas such as content aggregation, media creation, blogging and social media. In one-on-one and focus group interviews, participants discussed how technology is changing professional learning in their context and reflected on how their leadership has evolved in response to perceived challenges. Findings suggest that school leaders are aware of the importance of supporting professional learning through multiple device platforms, online networks and opportunities to play, and experiment with technology. Current issues identified include the need to shift from “buyer” to “driver” mindsets and to respond to the increasing role of popular thinkers whose ideas are amplified through online channels, such as social media.     

Elements affecting the development of professional learning communities in schools

This article focuses on the development of professional learning communities (PLCs), which are communities within schools, composed of voluntary participating teachers facilitated by school principals with a specific task to accomplish as part of a larger innovation project. Four PLCs were observed during 3 years by using questionnaires and participatory research. The questionnaires revealed that PLCs differed in their group characteristics, collective learning processes and outcomes. Through participatory research, we explored seven elements affecting the development of PLCs, namely, task perceptions, group composition, tensions between roles, beliefs about alignment, reflective dialogues, socialisation and ownership. Beliefs about alignment, ownership and socialisation had sufficient impact on the development of the PLCs. A case study including two contrasting PLCs indicated interrelations between task perceptions and ownership by members and between ownership and socialisation activities. Regarding implications, this research suggests to explicitly create and facilitate reflective dialogues and ownership over time for PLCs to flourish.