Science Professional Learning Communities: Beyond a singular view of teacher professional development

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 1756-1774 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Gail Jones ◽  
Grant E. Gardner ◽  
Laura Robertson ◽  
Sarah Robert
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Science Professional

scholarly journals Профессиональные обучающиеся сообщества в системе непрерывного профессионального развития учителей в России и Сингапуре

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-69
Author(s):  
Елена Фёдоровна МАТВЕЕВА
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Teacher Qualifications ◽  
Effective System ◽  
Teacher Professional

В статье поднимается проблема управления профессиональным развитием учителя в России и в Сингапуре; освещается опыт непрерывного повышения квалификации педагога в Сингапуре посредством создания профессиональных обучающихся сообществ; раскрываются особенности организации работы сингапурских профессиональных обучающихся сообществ в школах, принципы их функционирования. В сравнительном ключе актуализируются вопросы развития профессионализма педагога в России, опыт региональных практик повышении квалификации педагогов, неформального объединения педагогов, инновационных практик дополнительного профессионального образования. В итоге сравнительного анализа делается вывод о том, что опыт Сингапура по созданию и развитию системы непрерывного повышения профессионализма учителя через профессиональные обучающиеся сообщества может заслуживать более пристального внимания со стороны, как учёных-теоретиков, так и учителей-практиков и управленцев школ в России. The article touches upon the issue of management of teacher professional development in Russia and Singapore. The author refers to the experience of organization of teacher continual professional development through professional learning communities in Singaporean schools as one of the most effective in the world. The paper provides insight into their work organization and principles of operation, as well as describes the history of their development. The phases of teachers’ participation in professional learning communities in Singaporean schools are viewed within the present studies. Concurrently, the issues of teacher professional development in Russia, the emerging experience of teacher qualifications upgrading in regional practices and informal teacher communities, innovative practices of teacher complementary professional education are updated in a comparative manner. The author reveals some difficulties and achievements in this area. In the end of the comparative analysis it is stated that the experience achieved by Singapore in creating a highly effective system of teacher professional learning communities needs a more focused attention from academics, as well as from practicing teachers and school managers.

scholarly journals Union Contracts and Teacher Professional Development

2001 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Paul V. Bredeson
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Teacher Union ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
The Impact

In this article, I report the results of an investigation that examined the impact of teacher union contracts on the development of professional learning communities in schools. There are three primary sources of data used in the study: 1) 100 written teacher union contract documents; 2) structured interview data from 21 educators (school superintendents, principals, directors of staff development, and teacher union representatives; and 3) focus group interview data from educational leaders in schools. The analysis and discussion focus on five areas related to teacher professional development with implications for policy and practice: explicit language covering opportunities for teaching learning in their work; governance and decision making structures, that is, specific provisions covering wages, hours, and conditions of employment; the description of legitimate and sponsored activities for the professional development of teachers; and the resources supporting the on-going professional growth of teachers. The findings indicate that rethinking, restructuring, and organizational re-culturing in schools are initial expressions of a new unionism that has the potential to lead to the development of more powerful professional learning communities in schools.

“Critical Friendship” and Sustainable Change

2011 ◽  
pp. 32-45
Author(s):  
Susan R. Adams ◽  
Ross Peterson-Veatch
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Sustainable Change ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Teacher Professional

The central focus of this chapter will be to describe the theory and practice of critical friendship in teacher professional development, paying special attention to the ways in which participants in small professional learning communities (PLCs) create spaces in which to experience discomfort together for the purpose of sustaining their own transformation as practitioners. Using protocols (prescribed turn-taking mechanisms) as social processes to negotiate and then arrive at explicitly named norms and agreements, PLCs that use critical friendship as their goal aim to create the conditions for personal and communal transformation of both their members and their institutional contexts.

scholarly journals Problem-Based Learning for Responsive and Transformative Teacher Professional Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-25
Author(s):  
Tom J. McConnell ◽  
Joyce M. Parker ◽  
Jan Eberhardt
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Problem Based Learning ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Teacher Professional

Educational reform should include teacher professional development (PD) to help educators learn how to implement new programs. This article shares a research-tested model of PD that uses the analytic framework of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to support professional learning. Evidence suggests that PBL is effective in changing content knowledge and pedagogical practice. To teach content, facilitators engage teachers in learning activities designed using common PBL structures. Stories about authentic phenomena present problems associated with specific concepts. Learners work in groups to analyze problems, seek additional information, and construct plausible solutions. This same approach can support Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to help teachers examine and revise their own teaching. In this model, teachers collaborate to identify “problems of teaching.” The group uses PBL to analyze information and solutions. Teachers research teaching strategies, test a proposed strategy, and analyze evidence to build new understandings of teaching.

scholarly journals The Distinguished Teacher Workshop Mode of Professional Learning Communities in Guangxi

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-300
Author(s):  
YANG Maoqing ◽  
DENG Xiaoli ◽  
LIU Tian
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Operational Mechanism ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Teacher Workshop ◽  
Teacher Workshops

Distinguished Teacher Workshops are important ways for teacher professional development. Through questionnaires and interviews with over 1,000 participants, this paper reports the implementation of the Distinguished Teacher Workshops in Guangxi, China, covering their operational mechanism and initial outcomes: The empowerment of members; the strengthened internal motive of the community; and the enhanced vitality of professional development and a more sustainable development community for teachers. It is concluded that the Distinguished Teacher Workshops have shown that distinguished teachers play a leading role in teacher development in Guangxi.

scholarly journals Online Professional Learning in Response to COVID-19—Towards Robust Evaluation

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Alireza Ahadi ◽  
Matt Bower ◽  
Abhay Singh ◽  
Michael Garrett
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Perceptions ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Evaluation Approach ◽  
Online Mode ◽  
Evaluation Models ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Workshop Evaluation

As COVID-19 continues to impact upon education worldwide, systems and organizations are rapidly transiting their professional learning to online mode. This raises concerns, not simply about whether online professional learning can result in equivalent outcomes to face-to-face learning, but more importantly about how to best evaluate online professional learning so we can iteratively improve our approaches. This case study analyses the evaluation of an online teacher professional development workshop for the purpose of critically reflecting upon the efficacy of workshop evaluation techniques. The evaluation approach was theoretically based in a synthesis of six seminal workshop evaluation models, and structured around eight critical dimensions of educational technology evaluation. The approach involving collection of pre-workshop participant background information, pre-/post-teacher perceptions data, and post-workshop focus group perceptions, enabled the changes in teacher knowledge, skills, and beliefs to be objectively evaluated, at the same time as providing qualitative information to effectively improve future iterations of the workshops along a broad range of dimensions. The evaluation approach demonstrated that the professional learning that was shifted into online mode in response to COVID-19 could unequivocally result in significant improvements to professional learning outcomes. More importantly, the evaluation approach is critically contrasted with previous evaluation models, and a series of recommendations for the evaluation of technology-enhanced teacher professional development workshops are proposed.

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