RSA 1: Learning Communities: The Starting Point for Professional Communities is in Schools and Classrooms

http://www.learningforward.org/news/getDocument.cfm?articleID=2311

The readings for Module 2 describe the importance of a PLC having a focus of learning for students, embedding systematic interventions to respond to student learning, and creating a collaborative culture within the team of teachers. Within this, Dufour, Dufour, Eaker & Many (2010) present the idea that teachers must “engage in a systematic process in which they work together, interdependently, to analyze and impact their professional practice in order to improve individual and collective results”(p. 120). In this process, teachers must work towards a collaborative goal and must rely on each other to “accomplish a goal that none could achieve individually” (Dufour, et al., 120).

Learning Communities: The Starting Point for Professional Communities is in Schools and Classrooms was published in the August 2011 Journal of Staff Development. Within this article, the authors took five research studies that touch on the validity of learning communities, and narrowed down eight key practices relative to the successful learning communities. Based on their research, Lieberman and Miller (2011) also address the challenges associated with learning communities, and give ways to prevent these challenges from occurring.

The ideas that Lieberman and Miller set forth relate closely to the ideas within the Module Two readings. Lieberman and Miller (2011) write that successful learning communities “work hard to develop a clear purpose and collective focus on problems of practice” (p.19). It is within a learning community that this purpose should be thoughtfully created and then should be addressed in the work of the learning community. This correlates with the ideas presented by Dufour, Dufour, Eaker & Many in that the goals and purposes of a learning community should be held up by the teachers or members of the learning community.

References

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work (2nd ed., pp. 59-154). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (2011). Learning Communities: The Starting Point for Professional Learning Is in Schools and Classrooms. Journal Of Staff Development, 32(4), 16-20.

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). (2003). Sustaining school improvement: Professional learning community, 1–4. Retrieved from http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/LeadershipOrganizationDevelopment/5031TG_proflrncommfolio.pdf