Improving Teacher Effectiveness: Professional Learning Communities

While reflecting and writing my professional development plan, I had an interesting article land in my email from NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) pertaining to the matter called “STEM Teachers in Professional Learning Communities: From Good Teachers to Great Teaching” released by The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) (http://www.nctaf.org/documents/NCTAFreportSTEMTeachersinPLCsFromGoodTeacherstoGreatTeaching.pdf). The report summarizes a two-year National Science Foundation (NSF) funded study called STEM Teachers in Professional Learning Communities: A Knowledge Synthesis (“Knowledge Synthesis”). This teacher effectiveness and professional development study, which analyzed nearly two hundred research articles and reports, concluded that professional learning communities (PLCs) (collaborative learning teams of educators) have significant positive impacts on teacher practice. More specifically, the study found that:

• Participating in learning teams can successfully engage teachers in discussions about the subjects that they teach.
• Teachers participating in PLCs better understood the content and felt more prepared to teach the content.
• Teachers participating in PLCs improved their practice by using more research-based methods, “paying more attention to students’ reasoning and understanding, and using more diverse modes of engaging students in problem solving.”

As far as the effects of PLCs on student achievement, the verdict is still out. NCTAF reported that the research in this area is just emerging. However, existing studies show positive effects. In any case, this research indicates that PLCs have significant impacts on professional development and a more wide-spread use of PLCs could help improve education and make our country more competitive on a global scale.

            There were a few quotes from the article that spoke so strongly about the necessity for collaboration between educators that I must share them here.

We now have compelling evidence that when teachers team up with their colleagues they are able to create a culture of success in schools, leading to teaching improvements and student learning gains. The clear policy and practice implication is that great teaching is a team sport. Performance appraisal, compensation, and incentive systems that focus on individual teacher efforts at the expense of collaborative professional capacity building could seriously undermine our ability to prepare today’s students for 21 st century college and career success. Every school needs good teachers—but a school does not become a great place to learn until those teachers have the leadership and support to create a learning culture that is more powerful than even the best of them can sustain on their own.

To meet the needs of today’s learners, the tradition of artisan teaching in solo‐practice classrooms will have to give way to a school culture in which teachers continuously develop their content knowledge and pedagogical skills through collaborative practice that is embedded in the daily fabric of their work. Teacher collaboration supports student learning, and the good news is that teachers who work in strong learning communities are more satisfied with their careers and are more likely to remain in teaching long enough to become accomplished educators.

            This article particularly caught my attention because it was one of my professional development goals to form a collaborative relationship with one or more teachers for peer evaluation and a spring board for ideas. This article supports the need for me to fulfill this goal and aspires me to reach another goal, to develop and implement PLCs in the school(s) where I teach.

In reflecting on this study, it also struck me as ironic that there is currently a big push for collaborative learning in the classroom, yet teachers are not doing the same. The synergy of collaborative educators is not being realized. Improving teaching quality is the single most important investment we can make to prepare today’s students for college and career success and research has shown that PLCs improve teacher effectiveness. We need to work together to ensure that every child is prepared for life.

Check out the article!

http://www.nctaf.org/documents/NCTAFreportSTEMTeachersinPLCsFromGoodTeacherstoGreatTeaching.pdf