Teaching Secondary Science in Rural and Remote Schools: Exploring the Critical Role of a Professional Learning Community

Author(s):  
Debra Panizzon
Author(s):  
Ron Blonder ◽  
Ruth Waldman

The authors analyze chemistry teachers' discourse in a WhatsApp group. This online communication platform is used for continually studying the communication behavior of leading chemistry teachers who are members of a professional learning community (PLC). They describe the network of chemistry teachers' PLC in Israel, which provides the context for the study. WhatsApp enables sustained ongoing, intensive interaction, and sharing of knowledge that is practical, directly related to the members' needs, and is participant driven and constructivist in nature. A theoretical perspective of teachers' knowledge and professional development (PD) was developed in 2015 by Gess-Newsome, which was applied to examine the mechanism underlying teachers' knowledge development.


Pythagoras ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Million Chauraya ◽  
Karin Brodie

The growing perception of professional learning communities as an effective professional development approach needs to be supported with knowledge of how such communities create learning opportunities for teachers. Activities in professional learning communities are underpinned by collegial conversations that foster learning, and in this article we analysed such conversations for learning opportunities in one professional learning community of mathematics teachers. Data consisted of audio-recorded community conversations. The focus of the conversations was to understand the thinking behind learners’ errors, and teachers engaged in a number of activities related to learner errors and learner reasoning. Our analyses show how opportunities for learning were created in identifying the origins of learners’ errors as well as learners’ thinking underlying their errors. Results also showed that the teachers had opportunities for learning how to identify learners’ learning needs and in turn the teachers’ own learning needs. The teachers also had opportunities for deepening their own understanding of the conceptual meaning of ratio. The learning opportunities were supported by the following: having a learning focus, patterns of engagement that were characterised by facilitator questioning, teacher responses and explanations, and sharing knowledge. Such mutual engagement practices in professional learning communities resulted in new and shared meanings about teachers’ classroom practices. Our findings also show the critical role of a facilitator for teacher learning in professional learning communities.


2014 ◽  
pp. 1946-1962
Author(s):  
Eunice Sari ◽  
Cher Ping Lim

This chapter describes the role of the online learning community named OLC4TPD (Online Learning Community for Teacher Professional Development) in building professional capacity of Indonesian teachers. OLC4TPD was contextually built to address the challenges of teacher professionalism in Indonesia, which has contributed significantly to students' learning outcome. As an independent informal online learning community, OLC4TPD plays a unique role in schools' professional learning community. The authors investigate the role of OLC4TPD from different pillars that hold the professional learning community edifice. The four pillars are (1) collaborative teamwork, (2) teacher capacity, (3) leadership capacity, and (4) professional development. The chapter explains this unique role by showcasing several authentic examples on how OLC4TPD has improved professional capacity of teachers and teacher educators in an Indonesian context.


Author(s):  
Eunice Sari ◽  
Cher Ping Lim

This chapter describes the role of the online learning community named OLC4TPD (Online Learning Community for Teacher Professional Development) in building professional capacity of Indonesian teachers. OLC4TPD was contextually built to address the challenges of teacher professionalism in Indonesia, which has contributed significantly to students’ learning outcome. As an independent informal online learning community, OLC4TPD plays a unique role in schools’ professional learning community. The authors investigate the role of OLC4TPD from different pillars that hold the professional learning community edifice. The four pillars are (1) collaborative teamwork, (2) teacher capacity, (3) leadership capacity, and (4) professional development. The chapter explains this unique role by showcasing several authentic examples on how OLC4TPD has improved professional capacity of teachers and teacher educators in an Indonesian context.


Author(s):  
Ron Blonder ◽  
Ruth Waldman

The authors analyze chemistry teachers' discourse in a WhatsApp group. This online communication platform is used for continually studying the communication behavior of leading chemistry teachers who are members of a professional learning community (PLC). They describe the network of chemistry teachers' PLC in Israel, which provides the context for the study. WhatsApp enables sustained ongoing, intensive interaction, and sharing of knowledge that is practical, directly related to the members' needs, and is participant driven and constructivist in nature. A theoretical perspective of teachers' knowledge and professional development (PD) was developed in 2015 by Gess-Newsome, which was applied to examine the mechanism underlying teachers' knowledge development.


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