Browsing by Subject "Professional Learning Communities"
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Item Block Scheduling: Structure and Professional Community Matter(Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, 1998-09) Freeman, CarolThe question examined here is whether differences in the characteristics of professional community found in the schools related to their success in implementing block scheduling. The name block scheduling is given to a schedule that has fewer, usually four, class periods per day for approximately twice the usual number of minutes. This paper draws from data collected in a broader study conducted by the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI), University of Minnesota, on effects of block scheduling on high school teaching and learning.Item Feedback in professional learning communities: exploring teachers’ and administrators’ experiences and implications for building systemic and sustained learning(2012-10) Roloff, David JonathonAmerican educators are provided with far less time to improve their professional practice than their international counterparts, often experience professional development in short and disjointed ways, and work in systems whose structures too frequently isolate them from the practice of their colleagues. Professional learning communities (PLCs), however, recognize that improved teacher learning is essential to improved student learning and thus create structures which engage educators in regular, job-embedded, collaborative action research directly tied to their individual teaching contexts. However little is known about the specific feedback which educators in PLCs provide and the ways in which various feedback loops in educational systems assist in improving teacher practice. How does feedback made available through a PLC model impact the practice of teachers and administrators? This phenomenological study utilized a pre/post design to explore the role of feedback in the lives of two administrators and eight high school English educators at a central Wisconsin high school. The findings discuss the ways in which participants gave and received feedback prior to their involvement in PLCs and how feedback changed as their school and district adopted a PLC model. The study identified five major themes: 1) the need to build trust to encourage an open sharing of practice; 2) reduced isolation, improved collaboration and increases in the amount of and teachers' desire for additional feedback; 3) a shift from covering content to assessing student learning through instructionally-sensitive data sources; 4) the need to consider feedback and power implications when mandating structures, increasing transparency and enhancing accountability so as to improve feedback and reduce frustration; and 5) critical considerations in systemic structures including fostering collaboration, making feedback meaningful, and addressing the key issue of time. The study concludes with recommendations for teachers, administrators, district policy makers and researchers, pointing to ways in which those working in educational systems can develop feedback structures which heighten teacher learning.Item A study of Professional Learning Communities in International Schools in Bangkok, Thailand.(2011-02) James, James HerbertTeacher collaboration and professional development are crucial components to any school improvement process. In an international school context differences among teachers emerging from culture, language, training, and environment can present a unique view of how teachers collaborate and learn together. The purpose of the study was to determine school administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions of the maturity level of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in selected Thai International Schools. The school staff identified this perception of maturity when they completed the PLC Questionnaire (SPSaLCQ). Research questions included those exploring teacher and administrator perception of PLC as well as comparing perceptions of both groups against teacher experience, gender, number of years as a teacher and school age level they taught. The research study included a mixed method approach used to assess perceptions and to gain deeper understanding of school situations from English-speaking international schools located in Bangkok, Thailand. This study consisted of an electronic, web-based survey and in-person structured interviews. There were a total of 55 schools surveyed. All participants were teachers or administrators at international schools located in Bangkok. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the responses and determine how the data were formed by different subgroups of the sample. The survey data helped to inform the researcher about the interviews and process. All the analyses were calculated using SSPS. The research findings indicated that schools could be assessed to measure their maturity as a PLC. Three major findings from the analysis indicated that administrators typically assessed a higher level of maturity than did staff, staff perceived it was administrative structure in place by policy that helped determine implementation of a PLC, and perceptions of PLC maturity do vary according to demographic variables.