The authors investigate how conversational routines, or the practices by which groups structure work-related talk, function in teacher professional communities to forge, sustain, and support learning and improvement. Audiotaped and videotaped records of teachers’ work group interactions, supplemented by interviews and material artifacts, were collected as part of a 2-year project centered on teacher learning and collegiality at two urban high schools. This analysis focuses on two teacher work groups within the same school. While both groups were committed to improvement and shared a common organizational context, their characteristic conversational routines provided different resources for them to access, conceptualize, and learn from problems of practice. More specifically, the groups differed in the extent to which conversational routines supported the linking of frameworks for teaching to specific instances of practice. An analysis of the broader data set points to significant contextual factors that h...

Attending to Problems of Practice: Routines and Resources for Professional Learning in Teachers’ Workplace Interactions:

/pdf/investigating-the-links-to-improved-student-learning-final-34s921xmzj.pdf

Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning: Final Report of Research Findings

Inclusion began in the United States and Europe as a special education initiative on behalf of students with disabilities as early as the 1980s. Now, more than two decades later, schools in these countries are changing as educators, parents, politicians and communities try to prepare for the new challenges and promises of the twenty‐first century. Advances in technology, the global economy and politics, changes in what “counts” as knowledge, and the skills and abilities demanded by the businesses and industries of the future all combine to render obsolete much of what schools have been up until now. The new educational conversation centers on how to design schools and student learning for a future that many educators find nearly impossible to even imagine. How students with disabilities and special education continue to fit into this future is the ongoing challenge of inclusion. While much progress has been made, trends point to some troubling results especially for minority students, and students with so...

International trends in inclusive education: the continuing challenge to teach each one and everyone

This article outlines the progress and impact of professional learning communities within, between and across schools, as part of the implementation of whole system reform in Wales. It describes the way in which professional learning communities are being developed to support improvement and change across the education system in Wales. The article focuses on a group of schools that piloted a model of professional learning communities that subsequently have become a key part of the reform process in Wales and it highlights some of the challenges faced by the schools in establishing and sustaining professional learning communities. The article concludes by suggesting that professional learning communities offer one way of generating changed professional practice that can positively contribute to system-wide improvement.

Professional learning communities and system improvement

Teacher communities as a context for professional development: A systematic review

The guide can be used by individuals, small groups, or an entire faculty to identify key points, raise questions for consideration, and identify steps that might be taken to promote the professional learning community (PLC) concept in a school or school district. The guide is arranged by chapters, enabling readers to either work their way through the entire book or focus on the specific topic that is addressed in a particular chapter. We believe this guide will prove to be a valuable asset for a school or school district that has undertaken the journey to becoming a PLC.

Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work: New Insights for Improving Schools

This study guide is a companion to the book On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning Communities, edited by Richard DuFour, Robert Eaker, and Rebecca DuFour. On Common Ground presents the insights and expertise of some of the leading educational thinkers and authors in North America today. Their collective work provides both a sound conceptual framework and specific, practical strategies for improving student achievement by developing the capacity of educators to create professional learning communities within their schools and districts.

/pdf/on-common-ground-the-power-of-professional-learning-4140f05lsy.pdf

On common ground : the power of professional learning communities

Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes

Study Guide This study guide is a companion to the book Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to the First Year by Parry Graham and William M Ferriter By focusing on the successes and challenges inherent in the process, Building a Professional Learning Community at Work is designed to help teachers and administrators accomplish the difficult task of building a professional learning community from the ground up

/pdf/building-a-professional-learning-community-at-work-a-guide-2kww1v6kc6.pdf

Rebecca DuFour

Papers

Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work: New Insights for Improving Schools

On common ground : the power of professional learning communities

Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes

Building a Professional Learning Community at Work™: A Guide to the First Year

The School Leader's Guide to Professional Learning Communities at Work