Professional Learning Communities

Answers by Anne Jolly

What is a professional learning community? Haven't school faculties always been professional communities, really? What's different about the PLC idea we hear so much about today?

The term “Professional Learning Community” (PLC) more or less defines itself. It’s a community of professionals who engage in regular, collaborative learning. School faculties have always been communities of professionals . . . but not necessarily professional learning communities. Typically, school meetings focus on administrative issues, grade level issues, and departmental issues. Those meetings are necessary, but they are not professional learning community meetings. The focus for PLCs is on the word “learning.” Specifically, what PLCs bring to mind are communities of educators who work together on an ongoing basis to learn more about teaching and improving student learning. And keep in mind that these communities are not just groups – they are teams of interdependent adults who support one another.

PLCs require teachers to make a significant commitment of time and energy. Is there research to support their effectiveness?

Great question! In fact, an increasing volume of research validates that PLCs are indeed effective and worth promoting. For example, in schools operating as genuine PLCs, teachers showed increased confidence, motivation, and work satisfaction. They also demonstrated a greater collective responsibility for student learning. In such schools, PLCs increased the knowledge base of the faculty and made a significant impact on their work in their classrooms.

Teachers in PLCs showed stronger beliefs that they can make a difference in students’ learning, and a greater commitment to changing their practice and trying new approaches. Students also showed enhanced motivation and improvements in performance. Not surprisingly, gains in student learning consistently occurred when a faculty engaged in ongoing collaborative study, learning, and reflection about instruction; and regularly examined the impact of teaching on student thinking and learning.

In some circles, professional learning communities have developed a negative reputation. Why do you think that is? What would you say to teachers or others who don't see the value?

At the surface level PLCs seem a deceptively simple idea: “Meet together and work on instruction.” How hard can that be? Well, the fact is that PLCs are hard work, especially if adequate preparations are not made in advance of kicking off this initiative. For example,

• Do the school structures and organization promote collaboration? Do teachers have built-in time for teamwork on a regular basis?
• Is the principal totally on board? Is (s)he is ready and willing to provide continuing support and give high visibility to the teams’ work? And does the principal know good and effective ways of doing that?
• Does the entire administrative staff know what teams are supposed to accomplish, so that the teams will not get co-opted for other purposes?
• Do teachers know how to work collaboratively? Do they know what to do during a team meeting? Once they’re eyeball to eyeball, what next?
• Do teams have access to resources they need to increase their knowledge, skill, and teaching effectiveness?
• What ongoing incentives and supports are in place to keep the momentum rolling? For example, have any non-teaching responsibilities been lifted from teachers’ plates to make room for this new, important responsibility?
• Do teams know how to assess their progress as both team members and classroom teachers? Do they know how to assess the impact of new instructional strategies on students? •
• Are mechanisms in place for sharing the work of the teams school wide?

In some cases, people become disenchanted with PLCs because they are looking for a quick fix for this year’s test scores. PLCs represent a long-term commitment to quality. They are not a process for quickly ratcheting up test scores – although this collaborative investment in higher quality teaching will result in increased learning on the part of students.

In a nutshell, the school organization, structure, and environment must be supportive and promote collective learning on the part of staff. All staff members need knowledge and skills for working within professional learning communities. Most importantly, school and district leaders must understand the scope of the change with which they are dealing. Becoming a PLC is no easy task. They must commit to this initiative over the long haul, support it, and successfully deal with the inevitable resistance to this new way of doing business.

My primary message to the disenchanted would be: Becoming a true Professional Learning Community takes time, patience, and persistence . . . three things that are often in short supply. But take heart! Professional learning communities are well worth the considerable effort that goes into creating and developing them. No other school initiative builds such capacity to engage in ongoing learning and improvement for students and adults.

Your book is titled "A Facilitator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams." Do you see a difference between a "team" and a "community"? And what's the goal of your book?

In my mental model (and in Richard DuFour’s words), teams are the building blocks of communities. Small teams of teachers work together on a regular basis to learn and improve instruction. They share their work with other teams and connections and commonalities begin to grow among teams. A sense of schoolwide community and collaboration develops. Students as well as adults begin operating in a climate of support. The PLC encompasses the entire school.

Since teams are the foundation of PLCs, the goal of A Facilitator’s Guide is to provide some tools for building successful teams. Typically, workshops and presentations focus on the “what to” of establishing PLCs. Consequently educators know what to do but not necessarily how to do it. For example, teachers may know that they are supposed to get together and improve instruction in areas of student need. So they make the necessary preparations and find themselves sitting across the table from one another. Now what? How do they begin? How do they have a productive meeting that accomplishes something? How do they keep the meeting on focus and on track? How do they determine if they are making an impact? How do they keep the momentum going? The goal of A Facilitator’s Guide is to provide some tools and tips to fill in the “how to” gap.

Realistically, do you think there's a future for PLCs, in a time when teachers feel a lot of pressure to "teach to the test" and follow a strict curriculum guide? Do teachers have enough flexibility and decision-making responsibility to make PLCs worthwhile?

I think, realistically, that PLCs are the best hope for the future of education, precisely for the reasons you mentioned. . . to counteract those pressures to “teach to the test” and adopt formulaic approaches to teaching. Today we have an entire generation of teachers whose primary experience with teaching has been to focus on aligning their teaching with standardized test objectives. These teachers need opportunities to focus on what they devoted their lives to do – teach students meaningful material in meaningful ways. The professional teams in which teachers work are designed to build leadership at all levels and promote decision-making where it makes the most sense – at the classroom level. So, yes, teachers have more flexibility and decision-making responsibility in a school that operates as a professional learning community than in a traditional school. Remember – PLCs are designed to develop a strong community of teachers with a solid base of expert knowledge and skills. When such teachers work together to prepare students for productive and useful lives, the test will take care of itself.

Think about this: our education system is the most important institution in our nation. It’s the glue that holds our citizens together, It builds and transmits our heritage, common culture, and values across racial, ethnic, and socio-economic lines. An institution that valuable is worth the effort of working together to continually improve, and I believe that PLCs are the single best opportunity for improving teaching and learning.

To read more about dealing with PLC burnout, please visit http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2007/04/04/22tln_jolly_web.html.