RSA1: Professional Learning Community in Relation to Effectiveness

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RSA1: Professional Learning Community in Relation to Effectiveness

The focus of module two is that in order for a professional learning community to be successful, all schools need to have a common goal. The focus of a PLC is student achievement, which results in students and teachers using common curriculum and assessment to ensure growth and success.

Educators in a PLC work together collaboratively in constant, deep collective inquiry into the questions, “What is it our students must learn?” and “How will we know when they have learned it?” The dialogue generated from these questions results in the academic focus, collective commitments, and productive professional relationships that enhance learning for teachers and students alike. (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010).

This passage suggests that with focus on answering these two questions that revolve around students learning, not only do students succeed, but it forces teachers to teach more thoughtfully and with purpose. According to the reading these questions are and ongoing responsibility of the staff to constantly assess and reassess. When a staff keeps their focus on common curriculum and uses the guiding questions they have a more authentic environment for students and faculty. When that environment for student learning is driven by common assessment and staff realizes using this data is an ongoing process, we see students’ achievement increase.

Professional Learning Community in Relation to Effectiveness was published in October 2010 in the Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. This article follows a study of nine schools in Iceland, all of different cultural backgrounds and differing home lives. These nine schools have all implemented professional learning communities regardless of resources and backgrounds. Within these separate buildings there has been improved student success. An effective professional learning community “has the capacity to promote and sustain the learning of all professionals in the school community with the collective purpose of enhancing pupil learning.” (Stoll, 2006). The article suggests that the improvements in professional learning communities, improve the schools’ level of effectiveness. They found the basis of the professional learning communities effectiveness to be the ongoing discussions that occur between staff in a building and/or district and buildings that were not having these ongoing effective conversations were not reaching high levels of student achievement. With shared responsibility and ongoing discussions and learning students and staff alike begin raising achievement and learning levels.

The findings in the online article I read this week support the information in this week’s required readings. Module two focused on creating a focus on student learning and in order to do that, teachers must work collaboratively to create common assessments. The online article and required readings further prove that a common goal ensures the high achievement of all students in a building. Changes are not the same as improvement and there is not improvement if the students are not positively affected. (Sigurdardottir, 2010, p. 408). If staff keeps this thought in mind while functioning as a professional learning community, buildings  and students alike will reach the proven level of success that every building strives for.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for

professional learning communities at work (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree

Press.

Scandinavian Journal of Research. (2010). Professional Learning Community in Relation to School Effectiveness, vol. 54. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5c7c876d-704c-4f42-8886-4a26f388e158%40sessionmgr111&vid=6&hid=123