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Book ChapterDOI

Professional Learning Community

Louise Stoll
- pp 151-157
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TLDR
In many countries, policymakers view its potential for the capacity building needed to implement educational reform, while researchers are trying to gain greater nuanced and contextualized understanding of professional learning community as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract
There is increasing consensus that the term professional learning community broadly refers to an inclusive and mutually supportive group of people with a collaborative, reflective, and growth-oriented approach toward investigating and learning more about their practice in order to improve students’ learning. In many countries, policymakers view its potential for the capacity building needed to implement educational reform, while researchers are trying to gain greater nuanced and contextualized understanding of professional learning community. This article probes the meaning and purpose of professional learning community, membership, identified characteristics, levels of impact, and process and processes of development.

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Dissertation

The administrator role in professional development in international schools:perspectives on planning, implementing, evaluating and resourcing

TL;DR: In this paper, a survey of administrators from international schools in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East was conducted to explore and provide answers to the main research question: “What are the views of administrators on how professional development is planned, implemented, evaluated and resourced in international schools?
Book ChapterDOI

The Innovative School as an Environment for the Design of Educational Innovations

TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze teachers' engagement in Design Based Research (DBR) in the context of the Innovative School (ISC) model, which emphasizes the development of students' learning and learning environments, teachers' professionalism, leadership and partnerships.
Journal Article

A Retrospective Analysis of a Professional Learning Community: How Teachers- Capacities Shaped It

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the process of setting up a learning community within an elementary school in Ontario, Canada, through reflection and examination of field notes taken during the yearlong training and implementation process.

An improved mentoring model for student teachers on practicum in primary schools in Zimbabwe

Ishmael Jeko
Abstract: As part of a drive to improve the quality of teachers, Zimbabwe introduced a schoolbased mentoring model in 1995, a move which regrettably seems not have borne fruit. Therefore, this study sought to propose an improved mentoring model for initial teacher training for primary school teachers. Efforts to improve the current mentoring could, however, be facilitated if they were informed by an empirically-based understanding of the shortcomings of the existing mentoring system for student teachers and teachers. In order to attain the above objective, this study adopted a multisite case study design, guided by the interpretive paradigm. A core of nine primary schools, drawn from the rural, urban and peri-urban areas of the Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe, was purposively selected to participate in the study. In the participating schools, key participants were student teachers and mentors, while school principals participated when they had time. A secondary group of primary schools were also identified to be used as validation of findings in a wider setting. An in-depth literature study on teacher education and mentoring was also carried out and this, combined with empirical data, illuminated the issues being investigated. The empirical data were primarily gathered through focus group and face-to-face individual semi-structured interviews, while participant observation (used in conjunction with informal unstructured interviews) and questionnaires were used to verify and triangulate data collected through the interviews. To safeguard the ethical integrity of the study, ethical approval from the relevant university committee, as well as the official consent of educational authorities, was obtained beforehand, as was the informed consent of individual participants. The research established that the support rendered to student teachers in the participating primary schools was largely inadequate and of a shallow mode, focusing primarily on facilitating the mastery of technical skills and the provision of psycho-social support, while being sorely deficient in empowering the student teachers with the skills and attitudes to reflectively and critically engage with their own and others‟ teaching practices. The mentoring was taking place in the context of field experience, organised
Book ChapterDOI

A Case Study of Peer Instruction

Leo Porter, +1 more
References
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Book

Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity

TL;DR: Identity in practice, modes of belonging, participation and non-participation, and learning communities: a guide to understanding identity in practice.
Journal ArticleDOI

Professional Learning Communities: A Review of the Literature

TL;DR: The capacity is a complex blend of motivation, skill, positive learning, organizational conditions and culture, and infrastructure of support as mentioned in this paper, which gives individuals, groups, whole school communities and school systems the power to get involved in and sustain learning over time.
Journal Article

The persistence of privacy: autonomy and initiative in teachers professional relationships.

TL;DR: This paper examined formas destacadas de colegialidad and analiza sus perspectivas de alterar las condiciones fundamentales de privacidad in la ensenanza.
Book

Professional Communities and the Work of High School Teaching

TL;DR: This paper found that departmental cultures play a crucial role in classroom settings and expectations, and that social studies teachers described their students as "apathetic and unwilling to work" while English teachers described the same students as bright, interesting, and energetic.