RSA1: Learning Communities: The starting point for professional learning is in schools and classrooms

RSA1:  Learning Communities:  The starting point for professional learning is in schools and classrooms

Link to online resource:  http://www.learningforward.org/docs/august-2011/lieberman324.pdf?sfvrsn=2

It seems the idea of improving schools by developing Professional Learning Communities is “the new black.”  One of the most important strategies to improve student achievement is to form a professional learning community (PLC).  Lieberman and Miller (2011) contend that although learning communities vary in form and context, they share some fundamental core beliefs and values.  Both resources describe what learning communities are, what they do, and how they develop.

Authors, Lieberman and Miller (2011), discuss five diversified research studies that provide evidence that professional learning communities in schools are a critical element in professional development and student achievement. Likewise, DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many emphasize that “teachers must work together interdependently in in order to impact their classroom practice in ways that will lead to better results for their students, for their team, and for their school.”  In other words, a simple yet critical shift must take place--from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. 

Learning communities develop in their own way with their own context, but should reflect some essential practices.  Lieberman and Miller (2011) generated this list of common practices that create successful communities:

1. Meet regularly and take time to build collegial relationships based on trust and openness.
2. Work hard to develop a clear purpose and collective focus on problems of practice.
3. Create routines and rituals that support honest talk and disclosure.
4. Engage in observation, problem solving, mutual support, advice giving, and peer teaching and learning.
5. Purposefully organize and focus on activities that will enhance learning for both adults and students in the school
6. Use collaborative inquiry to stimulate evidence-in-formed conversations.
7. Develop a theory of action.
8. Develop a core set of strategies for connecting their learning to student learning.

Both resources mention some challenges.  DeFour, DeFour, Eaker and Many (2010) suggest that there is a problem with the setting of traditional schools, as does Lieberman and  Miller.  It is very hard to sanction professional learning community values in a bureaucratic culture, but a necessary task.  Another challenge presented has to do with time.  Lieberman and Miller (2011) state that “there is no fast track to developing an authentic learning community.”  It takes time to learn from each other using processes of inquiry, problem solving, and reflection.

References

Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (2011). Learning communities: the starting point for professional learning is in schools and classrooms. JSD, 32(4), 16-20. Retrieved from http://www.learningforward.org/docs/august-2011/lieberman324.pdf?sfvrsn=2

DuFour, D., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. (2nd ed.). Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.