Sharing a powerful IDEA: learning organizations collaborating to innovate and design engaging applications in STEM education

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-12
Author(s):  
William L. Sterrett ◽  
Rauf I. Azam ◽  
Mahnaz Moallem ◽  
Jess Boersma ◽  
Ahsan Bashir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Schools ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning Community ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Underrepresented Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teachers And Students

Purpose This study sought to better understand how to support and plan for a collaborative effort that brought educators together from three universities in the United States and Pakistan. This project sough to foster collaborative relationships between the two countries by expanding knowledge, collaboration, and capacity in middle schools in the Punjab region of Pakistan with a particular focus on underrepresented students and middle grades STEM instruction. Design/methodology/approach This study was informed through the use of formative survey data gathered from the workshop participants throughout the course of the week. The researchers conducted pre and post surveys of 22 participants using Likert scale items. Findings This project provided insights regarding curriculum alignment, engaging communication, teacher-centered formative data. These findings offered insights on how to grow as reflective practitioners and researchers, and how to form a robust multi-national professional learning community. Research limitations/implications The survey data were gathered from participants who willingly sought professional development in one region of Pakistan. The sample was small (four participating middle schools and one local university) and thus the findings cannot be necessarily generalized to a greater population. Practical implications This project provides practical insights of how teams can work together in regard to building a professional learning community. Teams can plan with intentionality, foster various modes of discussion, and empower both teachers and students to inquire, solve problems, and share their insights. Social implications The STEM topics in this study are important across continents. Navigating time constraints and distance is feasible through communication, attention to objectives and clarity in goals, and a desire to learn outside of one’s usual comfort zones. Originality/value This project was unique in the time and space in which it was designed and implemented, yet it offers value in fostering ongoing collaboration through various modalities and in being intentional in the planning process.

Some aspects of school seen as a Professional Learning Community

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-249
Author(s):  
Adela Bradea
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
School Boards ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Participative Management ◽  
Joint Research ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Implementation Period

AbstractEach school is part of the community and at the same time, a provider of education services. This makes school a Learning Community for both teachers and students. While in the case of students this is a mission accomplished, in that of teachers’ things seem to be a bit more difficult. The latter ones should see themselves as members of a Professional Learning Community (PLC), where each teacher should cooperate with the other to achieve common goals, engage in common research activities for the progress of their school, take part in evaluating school results and propose plans to improve them etc. This research aimed to identify teachers’ perception of the role of school as a Professional Learning Community, to identify how school boards support and encourage this idea through participative management and to identify lines of joint research in which teachers are involved. The instrument used was a questionnaire having 30 close-ended items, administered to pre-university teachers from Bihor county, Romania. The implementation period was January to June 2016. The results show that there is collaboration between the same subject area teachers, who form committees to discuss, analyse and propose solutions. The research has also showed that more effort is required to improve collaboration between more experienced teachers and those who are at the beginning of their career, to improve collaboration between different subject area teachers by getting them to engage in joint projects, but above all, there is a need for a greater involvement of teachers, of school boards in managing schools so that participative management is achieved.

School culture and leadership of professional learning communities

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 682-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
School Culture ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Shared Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Policies And Procedures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore supportive and shared leadership structures at schools as a function of school culture policies and procedures. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative study was conducted at three secondary schools in the Midwestern USA. Administrators and teachers were interviewed, professional learning communities observed and artifacts collected to explore school culture policies, procedures and leadership in the implementation of professional learning community practice. Findings – This study concludes that school leaders must provide supportive and shared leadership structures for teachers in order to ensure a positive school culture and effective professional learning communities that impact school improvement. Leaders in schools must work directly with teachers to create policies and procedures that provide teachers the leadership structure to directly impact school improvement through professional learning community collaborative efforts. Originality/value – This study builds on the school culture and professional learning communities literature by exploring existent policies and practices in schools as unique cases. Much of the literature calls for specific case studies to identify issues in the implementation of effective practice. This study is important to the community as specific cases that may inform educational leaders on mechanisms that may be leveraged to ensure successful implementation of policies and procedures outline in school culture and professional learning community literature.

scholarly journals Effects of data feedback in the teacher training community

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-50
Author(s):  
Tamar Tas ◽  
Thoni Houtveen ◽  
Wim Van de Grift
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Training ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Teaching Skills ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Academic Year

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to answer the question, what progress student teachers make during one academic year, while being trained in a professional learning community, using objective classroom observation, using lesson preparation templates that match their developmental stage and stage-focused mentor feedback. Design/methodology/approach The teaching skills of the student teachers (n=101) were measured at the start and at the end of the academic year. For the measurements, the standardized and psychometrically tested International Comparative Analysis of Learning and Teaching observation instrument is used. Findings The student teachers achieved a small growth on the basic teaching skills and a medium growth on two of the three advanced skills for teachers. Research limitations/implications Because of the lack of a control group, causal conclusions cannot be made. This research provides knowledge on the actual observed level of teaching skills of student teachers trained in a close collaborating professional learning community. Originality/value Little is known about the actual growth of observable teaching skills of student teachers in elementary education. Teacher training colleges and internship schools in the Netherlands are in search of better ways to collaborate more closely in order to improve the quality of teaching of their student teachers. These findings can inspire teacher training communities to improve their own teaching quality and the teaching quality of their student teachers.

scholarly journals Promoting pre-service teachers' engagement in an online professional learning community

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Enas Mohammad Alwafi ◽  
Chris Downey ◽  
Gary Kinchin
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Knowledge Construction ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Online Activity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Repeated Measures Design ◽  
Experimental Group

PurposeThis study investigated the role of experienced practitioners in promoting pre-service teachers' knowledge construction and social interaction in an online professional learning community.Design/methodology/approachA repeated measures design with control and experimental groups was adopted. Two practitioners supported pre-service teachers in the experimental group to discuss issues around teaching practice. Social network analysis (SNA) and content analysis (CA) were used in the analytical approach.FindingsCA revealed that the practitioners increased pre-service teachers' levels of knowledge construction and high-cognitive discourse. SNA showed that the practitioners enhanced pre-service teachers' professional ties. Though collaboration in high-level knowledge building occurred predominantly in peers in the same discipline, the presence of the practitioners facilitated the development of more cross-disciplinary ties in the experimental group.Practical implicationsThe practitioners can be considered as a pedagogical tool to enhance pre-service teachers' engagement in the process of professional learning. This study suggests that in order to enhance the collaboration among pre-service teachers from different departments, the online activity should be designed to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration.Originality/valueThe study contributes new knowledge about the ways in which practitioners can enhance the collaboration among pre-service teachers in an online PLC. It also provides insight on how to combine CA and SNA, to examine professional learning.

Enhancing preschool-kindergarten educator implementation of interactive reading instruction through vertical teaming: Exploring collaborative enquiry

2020 ◽  
pp. 146879842097852
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Kotas ◽  
Julia Bridi ◽  
Sarah M Garrity
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning Community ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reading Practice ◽  
Interactive Reading ◽  
Transitional Kindergarten ◽  
Using Data

Using data from a 2-year empirical project in an urban school within the United States, this article describes how educators of preschool, transitional-kindergarten and kindergarten (PreK-TK-K) altered perceptions and practices as a result of participating in a purposefully crafted professional learning community using collaborative enquiry. Emergent thematic findings highlight shifts in educator understanding and application of interactive reading practice and alignment across classrooms of young learners. This vertical professional learning community provided space and time where educators constructed meaning through collaborative enquiry, video observations and reflection, which informed educator thinking and enriched student interaction for literacy learning.

Lesson Study for Learning Community through Mind Mapping in Biology at Senior High School

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Marheny Lukitasari ◽  
Sony Makruf Nurfaedah ◽  
Ningtyas Murni Pertiwi ◽  
Sri Utami
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Reproductive System ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Mind Mapping ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Human Reproductive ◽  
Academic Year

The study aimed to describe the performance of the learning community (LC) involving teachers and students. In the learning, mind mapping (MM) was used in the material of the human reproductive system through the activities of Lesson Study (LS). The study was conducted at MAN 2 Kota Madiun, in the odd semester of the 2018/2019 academic year. The study was conducted for eight discourses. The performance of LC data was collected using the Professional Learning Community (PLC) sheet. The result showed that LC performance increase by the time of discourse implementation. At the end of the study, LC performance reached 84.78% and 97.82% for the lowest and highest values, respectively. This result interprets that LS activities lead LC with very good criteria. The conclusion of the research showed that LC through the use of LS-based mind mapping on the material of the human reproductive system was good.

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