School leadership and professional learning community: case study of two senior high schools in Northeast China

Abstract

This article presents findings of a qualitative study on school leadership and professional learning community in two high achieving senior high schools in Northeast China. The findings show that teachers participated in school-based communities of professional learning, such as Teaching and Research Groups, Lesson Preparation Groups, and Grade Groups. While the term professional learning community (PLC) was not commonplace, the actual practices of PLC characterized by collective enquiry and collaborative learning became the norm in the two schools. School leaders demonstrated strong instructional leadership and visionary stewardship for school continuous improvement. They played a critical role in developing and communicating a shared vision, shaping a culture of trust, supporting and monitoring collegial learning. Teacher leadership was evident in collaborative teams and expertise leadership was acknowledged. Emotional bonds and shared responsibility in these teams strengthened professionalism. Concerted efforts were made to create aligned structures and processes that support collective enquiry, and to develop a culture of collaborative learning that builds collective capacities. Developing and sustaining the embedded PLC process within a school seems to provide a promising infrastructure for supporting school improvement in the Chinese school context.     

Educational reforms and the practices of professional learning community in Hong Kong primary schools

Abstract

This study explored the characteristics of professional learning communities (PLCs) in Hong Kong primary schools. It investigated the profiles of the strengths of professional learning community in schools under study and particularly examined the practices in schools which were identified as strong PLCs. It extends research on PLCs in the Hong Kong context and formulates a quantitative perspective to compare and validate PLC variables across schools in Hong Kong. The Professional Learning Community Questionnaire (PLCQ) for Hong Kong schools was developed to assess the PLC practices in six different areas: leadership for teacher learning, collaborative learning capacity, student-focused orientation, a culture of sharing, mutual understanding and support, and continuous professional development. A composite construct, the Professional Learning Community Index (PLCI) expressed in quantitative terms was utilized to assess the strength of PLC in a school. The research findings show that within the schools which were identified as strong professional learning communities, both the school leaders and teachers had strong emphases on the six subscales of the PLC practices.     

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.     

Fostering collaborative teacher learning: A typology of school leadership

Previous research indicates that supportive school leadership is a key condition of collaborative teacher learning. The purpose of this study was to develop a typology of how school leaders foster collaborative teacher learning. We adopted an integrative perspective on leadership by examining both learning-centred leadership and distributed leadership practices that are supportive of collaborative teacher learning. Data were gathered by means of interviews with ten school leaders and a questionnaire that was completed by 39 teachers from six secondary schools in the Netherlands. The aim of the interviews was to identify to what extent school leaders applied learning-centred leadership and distributed leadership practices. The questionnaire measured teachers' perceptions of the role of school leaders in teacher learning. As an outcome of this study, we constructed a typology that provides insights into how school leaders foster collaborative teacher learning. Four types of school leaders were distinguished: (a) integrators of teacher learning, (b) facilitators of teacher learning, (c) managers of teacher learning, and (d) managers of daily school practice. Our findings suggest that integration of learning-centred leadership and distributed leadership practices can help school leaders to support collaborative teacher learning.     

The professional learning community as perceived by Israeli school superintendents, principals and teachers

A professional learning community (PLC) facilitates collaborative learning among colleagues at all levels in their common working environment. PLCs are particularly useful in schools, with teachers and principals meeting regularly to solve problems relating to teaching and learning. Being a means of improving student achievement, PLCs have received growing support from researchers and practitioners alike, yet some professionals are still exploring ways to develop learning networks focusing on teaching and learning issues. The purpose of this study was to examine Israeli teachers’, principals’, and superintendents’ perceptions of inhibiting and fostering factors of the PLC. In this qualitative, topic-oriented study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 teachers from elementary, middle and secondary schools and their respective principals (15) and superintendents (15). Generating themes was inductive, grounded in the perspectives articulated by participants. The principals and the teachers indicated that overload, a lack of resources and top-down commands were PLC-inhibiting factors. The superintendents saw the principal’s leadership style as a main PLC-fostering factor. Understanding how these three echelons in the school system perceive the inhibiting and fostering factors of a PLC could indicate whether and how this collaborative learning process can be nurtured and sustained in schools.     

Investigating the development of professional learning communities: compare schools in Shanghai and Southwest China

Abstract

This quantitative study investigated and compared the development of professional learning communities in schools located in two Chinese cities, namely, Shanghai and Mianyang. The two cities have significant differences in terms of educational, economic, social, and cultural development. While Shanghai is a directly controlled municipality in East China, Mianyang is a city of Sichuan Province in Southwest China. Based on the literature review and an analysis of the Chinese context, the authors developed a questionnaire to explore and compare the professional learning community (PLC) practices of schools in the two cities. Findings show that schools in Mianyang had more PLCs practices than those sampled schools in Shanghai, in terms of collaborative learning and facilitative leadership. Such differences could be explained by the educational, economic, social, and cultural differences between the two cities. Practical implications for school development in both Shanghai and Mianyang as well as suggestions for future research are provided.     

The Role of Teacher Leadership in Professional Learning Community (PLC) in International Baccalaureate (IB) Schools: A Social Network Approach

This study aims to illuminate how professional interactions among teachers form different types of teacher leadership in schools, which, in turn, shape different levels of teachers’ involvement in activities related to their professional learning community (PLC). To investigate certain patterns of teachers’ interactions that contribute to the formation of teacher leadership and thereby the development of PLC, two international schools that offer a full continuum of three International Baccalaureate (IB) programs were purposively chosen. The schools have similar numbers of students and are located in two different countries in East Asia. Using a mixed-methods research approach, the patterns of teacher professional interactions were first examined using social network analysis. Next, the degree to which teachers in the case study schools enact practices related to PLCs was assessed and compared through a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test. Further, based on findings from social network analysis, in-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with selected key participants to understand the linkage between teacher leadership and teachers’ involvement in their PLC in each case school. From the findings, we propose four conceptual types of teacher leadership that explain how teacher leadership shapes different levels of teachers’ engagement in PLC in the two case schools.     

Factors of Professional Learning Community Implementation and Effect on Student Achievement

ABSTRACT

Professional learning communities (PLCs) promote collaboration among school personnel in an effort to stimulate student learning. Using data obtained from a larger statewide initiative in Missouri, the current study examined data from 181 schools (102 elementary schools, 32 middle schools, 41 high schools, and 6 other schools, average of 428.76 students) to determine (a) the factors that can be used to assess the effects of PLCs, (b) how well PLCs relate to student achievement, and (c) the extent to which teams differentially implement the factors. An exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in two broader constructs that represented PLC attributes, collaborative leadership process and data-driven systems for learning, both of which correlated with student achievement and together provided unique variance in mathematics beyond school variables and achievement scores from before the PLC began. Directions for future research and implications for practice are discussed.     

How do professional learning communities aid and hamper professional learning of beginning teachers related to differentiated instruction?

Research has shown that adequate support from the school environment is necessary to help beginning teachers in applying differentiated instruction (DI), but how schools can aid in this process remains unclear. This qualitative study explores how professional learning communities (PLCs), an indicator of a supportive school environment, can enhance beginning teachers’ professional learning in DI. Furthermore, it examines how structural and cultural school conditions foster the development of PLCs in the schools’ organization. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with school leaders, special needs coordinators, and beginning teachers in primary schools. A comparative analysis was carried out in three schools with high (case A), medium (case B), and low (case C) levels of beginning teachers’ professional learning in DI, as assessed by changes in practice (i.e. teachers’ flexibility in adapting their classroom behaviour). The comparative analysis indicated that the three cases could be situated at different stages of PLC development. Case A had reached the mature stage, whereas case B was in the evolving stage and case C was still in the beginning stage of PLC development. Also, the analysis indicated that structural and cultural school conditions in the three cases were related to the different stages of PLC development. Finally, the results revealed that in the three cases, leadership of both the principal and special needs coordinator played a key role in the development of the structural and cultural school conditions.     

Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities (PALLIC) building relationships: one school’s quest to raise Indigenous learners’ literacy

In 2011 to 2012, 48 schools in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland participated in the Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities (PALLIC) project. Central to this project was the establishment of positive working relationships between school principals and Indigenous community leaders in order to improve Indigenous literacy rates. Professional development in leadership skills and effective literacy instruction was provided through five professional learning modules. Participants worked together to create an action plan to support the literacy achievement of Indigenous students in their schools and communities. This article presents a case study of one participating school in Northern Queensland that successfully utilised the PALLIC framework to facilitate leadership actions and activities between Indigenous community and school leaders in order to form productive partnerships for the teaching of reading. In particular, the case study highlights the way that school leaders and Indigenous leaders established shared leadership and shared ways of learning in the school for reading outcomes of Indigenous students.     

Turning the tide: creating Professional Learning Communities (PLC) to improve teaching practice and learning in South African public schools

Abstract

Poor learner performance in South African schools raises concerns related to lack of commitment and accountability from school leaders and teachers with no common vision to promote a culture of high learner performance. This paper provides a literature overview of research available on the impact of professional learning communities (PLC) on effective teaching and practices to promote higher levels of learning amongst students; the nature of PLCs; their essential characteristics, developmental stages and challenges; and an assessment of the benefits of PLC in schools and the challenges of PLC from other researchers’ observations. PLCs are necessary to encourage collaborative teamwork on essential outcomes and intervention activities in learning. Finally, I conclude by exploring how South African schools can benefit from the practices of professional learning communities which endeavour to improve teaching practices and poor learner achievement.     

当代西方教师专业学习共同体的理论与实践

随着教师专业化发展和不断提高教育质量的迫切要求,当代西方专业学习共同体理论也应运而生。在历经了共同体理论、学习型组织理论、学习共同体理论之后,教师专业学习共同体理论也逐渐完善,并在促进教师专业发展的实践中产生了非常积极的作用。成功的专业学习共同体不仅具有共享和支持性的领导、共同的价值观和愿景、共同学习和应用、共享的个人实践、支持性条件等五个特征,而且还具有专注于学习、合作的文化、聚焦于成果等基本理念。     

Examining organizational learning in schools: The role of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning

This study draws upon theory and methods from the field of organizational behavior to examine organizational learning (OL) in the context of a large urban US school district. We build upon prior literature on OL from the field of organizational behavior to introduce and validate three subscales that assess key dimensions of organizational learning that build upon and extend prior education research: psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Data from 941 teachers across 60 schools in this urban district suggest that organizational learning is an underlying condition which is expressed by teacher perceptions of subfactors of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Implications for adopting the conceptual framework and methods employed in this research for studying organizational learning and school change are discussed.     

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.     

Teachers’ views of professional learning and collaboration in four urban Lebanese primary schools

This study to investigate how teachers develop their skills and knowledge to construct enthusiastic student learning and what part school principals play in that development was carried out in four primary schools serving disadvantaged communities in Beirut. In the absence of rich research in Lebanon on this topic, western literature was used to construct a conceptual framework on professional learning and teachers’ identities; collaborative cultures and learning communities; leadership, power and school cultures. Drawing on a social interactionist epistemology, in each case study school, the views of about 10 teachers and the school principal and some students were collected through semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data were analysed thematically. Emergent findings suggest that collaborative cultures, predicated on helping students to engage enthusiastically with learning, sponsored by assertive school principals led to teachers developing a strong sense of community and positive identities through professional development.     

Collaborative Leadership and Sustained Learner Academic Performance in Secondary Schools: A Blaming Game?

Abstract

This article reports on a study that investigated how collaborative leadership can influence sustained learner academic performance in secondary schools. The key problem resounds about secondary schools that are unable either to sustain or improve learner academic performance when intervention strategies rolled out from the district offices are concluded. The literature pursued in the study covered collaborative leadership from both schools and district education offices and their impact on learner academic performance. Participants were circuit managers, subject advisors, principals and teachers. They completed open- ended questionnaires that sought to explain the relationship between collaborative leadership and sustained learner academic performance. Major findings indicated that participants (at the various levels of leadership) attribute low learner academic performance to all other involved parties except themselves. Thus, collaborative leadership within the school and between schools and district education offices is not enabling sustained learner academic performance.     

Talking about teaching in non-crisis situations: learning from a teacher support project

Facilitating schools to develop more collaborative cultures is seen as one of the major challenges in promoting teachers’ continuing professional development. This article recounts how a fifteen-month project designed to promote greater collegial learning and professional development emerged and developed within one school. Evidence suggests that a model that is voluntary and that involves teachers observing each other's classrooms and sharing insights is both effective and sustainable. Trust, supportive school leadership and external facilitation are also identified as important components in the realization of this model of teacher development.     

中国大陆教师专业学习社群的内涵与发展——基于对上海市中小学的调查研究

国际上越来越多的研究表明,专业学习社群能够促进教师专业发展及推动学校变革。本研究对专业学习社群进行概念化,并基于中国的学校背景,探索出一套教师专业学习社群的表现指标,对上海市7所中小学进行抽样调查。运用主成分分析法对数据进行分析,得到适用于中国大陆的指标体系,并进一步分析教师专业学习社群的内涵与发展状况。研究发现,所调查的学校在教师合作学习、专业能力、校长领导、结构支持方面均具有良好的表现,且组织变革障碍不大。可通过改善校长领导和结构支持,控制学校内部的组织变革障碍等途径促进教师合作学习和专业能力的发展,以进一步促进教师专业学习社群的发展。     

Leading Change for Student Achievement

This article argues that in order to meet the heightened expectations now placed on schools in a knowledge society, avoid cultural resistance to positive change by those in schools and achieve improved student outcomes (attitudinal, behavioural and academic), we need to not only engage multiple forms of leadership but also have a more complex understanding of relationships between these leaderships and a range of other school and contextual variables. Evidence employed from recent research funded by the Australian Research Council supported by a range of reviews of mainly North American literature on the effects of leadership on student outcomes helps with an identification of these variables and their relationships. Three major, sequential and aligned elements are identified for successful school reform with the leadership emphasis changing with each element. The first element relates to how people are communicated with and treated. Success is more likely where people act rather than are always reacting, are empowered, involved in decision-making through a transparent, facilitative and supportive structure, and are trusted, respected, encouraged, and valued. The second element concerns a professional community. A professional community involves shared norms and values including valuing differences and diversity, a focus on implementation and continuous enhancement of learning for all students, de-privatisation of practice, collaboration, and critical reflective dialogue, especially that based on performance data. The final element relates to the presence of a capacity for change, learning and innovation, or professional learning community. Each element and each transition between them is facilitated by an appropriate ongoing, optimistic, caring, nurturing professional development program.