Professional Learning Communities - Introduction

As we continue to focus on improvement of teaching and learning at our school, we will begin the work of developing "Professional Learning Communities." PLCs at Hopewell will primarily be structured by content, so that in department and grade-level content teams we can examine our practice through collaborative planning, examining student work, analyzing data, and peer-to-peer feedback.  The following are the "big ideas" at the core of PLCs*:

#1 - Ensuring that students learn
As a professional learning community, the team considers:

What do we want each student to learn?

How will we know when each student has learned it?

How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?

#2 - A culture of collaboration
The powerful collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities is a systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice. Teachers work in teams, engaging in an ongoing cycle of questions that promote deep team learning. This process, in turn, leads to higher levels of student achievement.

#3 - A focus on results
PLCs judge their effectiveness based on results. Every teacher team participates in an ongoing process of identifying the current level of student achievement, establishing a goal to improve the current level, working together to achieve that goal, and providing periodic evidence of progress.

Working collaboratively provides the opportunity for us to share ideas and learn from each other.

*Dufour, Richard,

Educational Leadership

May 2004 | Volume 61 | Number 8
Schools as Learning Communities Pages 6-11
What Is a "Professional Learning Community"?