Professional
Learning Communities (PLC)
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Idea #1: Ensuring That Students Learn
·
The core
mission of formal education is not simply to ensure that students are taught but
to ensure that they learn.
When a school
functions as a professional learning community teachers have a coordinated
strategy to respond when students do not learn. The staff designs
strategies to ensure that struggling students receive additional time and
support, no matter who their teacher is. In addition to being systematic
and school wide, the professional learning community’s response to students who
experience difficulty is
* Timely.
The school quickly identifies students who need additional time and support.
*
Based on intervention rather than remediation. The plan provides
students with help as soon as they experience difficulty rather than relying on
summer school, retention, and remedial courses.
*
Directive. Instead of inviting students to seek additional
help, the systematic plan requires students to devote extra time and
receive additional assistance until they have mastered the necessary concepts.
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Idea #2: A Culture of Collaboration
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Educators who
are building a professional learning community recognize that they must work
together to achieve their collective purpose of learning for all.
Therefore, they create structures to promote a collaborative culture.
·
The powerful
collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities is a
systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their
classroom practice.
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Idea #3: A Focus on Results
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Teachers stop
using averages to analyze student performance and begin to focus on the success
of each student.
Three
crucial questions that drive the work of those within a professional learning
community:
1)
What do we want each student to learn?
2)
How will we know when each student has learned it?
3)
How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?
The answer to
the third question separates professional learning communities from traditional
schools.
