The Professional Learning Community: a web of

support
By John Hellner

In the education sector, the Professional Learning Community (PLC) provides a pathway
to a learning organisation: one which comprises people taking an active, reflective,
collaborative, learning-orientated, and growth-promoting approach toward the
perplexities, challenges and conundrums of teaching and learning.

The face of the PLC

A creative non-fiction, composite portrait of the PLC on the ground might sound like
this:

Bernadette: No one seems like the boss of anyone else. We all work together and
depend on each other so much we now share responsibility for each other and the
schools success. Everyone in each faculty is involved in troubleshooting, investigating
and researching site based problems, which in turn are presented to the staff. The ideas
or proposals are posted on the in house electronic forum.

Maggie: Everyone is involved with mentoring and coaching each other. We have
informal mentoring one on one. We also get together as a faculty and discuss anything to
do with our teaching practice. Different people chair the meetings each time and
everyone is asked to contribute their ideas and experiences. I like the democratic idea.

Wayne: In my school, everyone uses the phrase Better Than Before BTB for short.
Straight away when I came here, the boss said thats what we believe here: mistakes and
failure are how we learn, so take risk, try things, get involved with colleagues, were all
in this together. Its the same as we expect from our students really.

Pohe: I particularly like two practices at this school. Firstly, everyone shares
everything: resources; planning; teaching methods; developing and moderating
assessment materials we even team teach some of the smaller senior classes like a

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composite class idea. Each of us spends a couple of minutes at regular meeting times to
tell what we have shared: share and tell like when I was in primary school. As a
result, we have no professional secrets; we trust and respect each other.

Jane: Everyone belongs to a little pod of trusted friends, across ages, experiences
and curriculum. Someone on the staff came up with the idea it is the core of our
appraisal system. Each group selects an issue relevant to them and they read and discuss
the implications and applications of professional literature and research associated with
the issue. Its theory on the one hand, but also how the theory can help us teach better on
the other hand.

Joanne: The number one purpose of the school is to improve student outcomes and best
classroom practice is viewed as the pathway to that purpose. We decided the most
effective method for us to improve our practice is through visiting and viewing each other
teach. We video tape parts of lessons and discuss what happened with a group of critical
friends as we call them it focuses on sharing ideas.

As a first year teacher, I learned a lot about what I was doing and other ways of thinking
about my students and my classroom. I also came to appreciate the wide range of
teaching styles on our staff.

Owen: At the end of the day, when the work is done, we look back and say look what
we did. What we should really say is look what the leadership team enabled us to do.
None of what we do could be done without them providing the environment for it all to
happen: maybe thats what school leadership is about.

Ashley: I work with Owen. Hes right. The admin team provides us with resources,
training and funding theyre pretty creative and pretty opportunistic in how they go
about it Im going to a three day mentoring course soon and I will report back to the
rest of the staff and train them.

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Most staff meetings and PD days are allocated to staff presentations, proposals and
discussions, on professional matters and real school problems. From all of this we come
to a consensus vision and purpose we all share. We are expected to take advantage of the
opportunities it is our appraisal system: its about growth.

Benefits: teachers

Current literature makes a strong case for the growth and development of teachers as
members of a Professional Learning Community. The benefits for teachers flow on to
students and to the school: educations equivalent of the trickle down theory.

The research offers a broad cornucopia of positive results for teachers, from the tangible
effects such as: reduced isolation; job satisfaction; higher morale; less absenteeism;
making teaching adaptation for students to the less tangible and less measurable:
commitment to school mission and to systemic changes; shared responsibility for student
success; new and powerful knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learners; increased
meaning and understanding of curriculum and the teachers role; professional renewal and
inspiration.

When teachers feel supported in their own ongoing learning and classroom practice they
feel more committed and effective than teachers who do not feel supported. PLC teacher
members prove more willing to venture into the unknown, to engage in long term inquiry,
to take calculated risk, and to share what they learn. In comes as little surprise to find
policy studies on PLCs concluding they can provide educators with purpose,
collaboration, commitment and community.

As a consequence of working in a satisfying and rewarding professional environment,

teachers feel empowered as professionals and take responsibility for their own learning.
Teachers feel more positive about staying in the profession and recruitment and retention
issues lessen within PLC schools.

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Other studies and systematic reviews report on the positive impact of collaborative
environments in changing teachers attitudes. Teachers report greater confidence; greater
commitment to trying something new and to change in general; and, enhanced self-
efficacy they believe more in their power to make a difference in pupil learning.

The only qualifying remark on the effectiveness of the collaborative environment in a

PLC for teachers seems to be that the positive outcomes sometimes only emerged after
periods of relative discomfort in the change process things often got worse before they
got better.
Benefits: Students

The teachers attitudinal shift, reflected in a renewed love of professional learning

afforded in a PLC, is caught by students not taught. When teachers become internally
motivated learners they can better model the joy of learning for their students. Research
suggests that ultimately, greater teacher effectiveness in schools with PLCs impacts on
student results. Dropout rates drop, student absenteeism declines and achievement gaps
between students from different backgrounds diminish. Other studies note some
unanticipated student outcomes in terms of a change in attitudes and beliefs, more
motivation and active participation in classroom. Almost anti climatically, PLCs and
collaborative teacher enquiry link to improved student academic performance.

Benefits: Schools

Teacher growth and enhanced student outcomes interweave to further institutional

adaptivity and reculturation, focused on pupil learning. The creation of new
organisational knowledge and behaviours serves as the drive shaft for continued
collaboration, which proves important in sustaining the changes. Rather than being a one
off reform initiative, the PLC becomes the supporting structure for schools ongoing
transformation through their own internal capability.

Win Win

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Current evidence clearly indicates gains for teachers, students and schools in PLCs. The
change begins with the growing teacher professionalism fostered in a PLC and inexorably
translates to positive student outcomes. In the end, like the proverbial snowball rolling
downhill, the impact grows and grows in a self perpetuating cycle of continuous
improvement.

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