Prepared & Presented by;

ELS. Madawi A. Al-Obathani

#TESOL_YANBU_2014

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

COMMUNITIES

“BEST PRACTICES FOR ENHANCING

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT”

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES AT SCHOOL

PLCS

• Mission, Vision, Values and Goals.

• Collaborative Teams Engaged in Collective Inquiry.

• Changing Your School’s Culture.

• Planning a PLC-Model School.

IN TIMES OF DRASTIC CHANGE, IT

IS THE LEARNERS WHO INHERIT THE FUTURE.

THE LEARNERS USUALLY FIND THEMSELVES

BEAUTIFULLY EQUIPPED TO LIVE IN A WORLD

THAT NO LONGER EXISTS.

-- ERIC HOFFER, 1972

FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS

• We can make a difference.

• Schools can be more effective.

• “People Improvement” is the key to school improvement.

• Significant school improvement will impact teaching and

learning.

As a group, take 2 minutes and discuss what

is the professional learning community ?

WHAT IS THE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

COMMUNITY?

DEFINITION • Simply, PLCs are “Professionals coming

together in a group – a community – to

learn” (Hord, 2008, p. 10).

A PLC IS ... • PROFESSIONAL?

“Every teacher is a leader; Every leader is a

teacher.”

• LEARNING?

In a PLC School, learning applies as much to teachers,

administrators, and parents as to students.

Focus on instruction, curriculum and assessment

• COMMUNITY?

Support

Cooperation vs. competition

Focus intensely on the mission, vision, goals, and values.

Improvement of the whole vs. striving to get ahead individually.

A sense of purpose all staff embraces and commits to.

• It’s not all about me!

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS…

• Emphasize learning.

• Emphasize active student engagement and significant content.

• Focus on student performance and production.

• Collaborate with colleagues.

• Function as leaders.

MISSION:

The “WHAT”.

• What do we want to occur?

• What do we expect all students to know and be able to do?

• What is our response when they don’t?

VISION:

The “There”.

• How we will get from here to there?

• The dream school you would design for your own child or grandchild!

• The way things “should be”.

MISSION VS. VISION

YOU’VE GOT TO BE CAREFUL

IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE

YOU’RE GOING ‘CAUSE YOU

MIGHT NOT GET THERE! YOGI BERRA

WHAT KIND OF PLACE

DO I WANT

MY SCHOOL TO BE

FIVE YEARS FROM

NOW?

THE FOUR PILLARS OF PLC

MISSION

Why do we exist?

VISION

What kind of school are we trying to create?

VALUES

What attitudes, behaviors, and commitments

must we demonstrate in order to create the

school of our vision?

GOALS

Which steps should we take first?

What is our timeline?

What evidence will we present to demonstrate our progress?

COLLABORATIVE TEAMS ENGAGED IN

COLLECTIVE INQUIRY

YOU CANNOT HAVE STUDENTS AS

CONTINUOUS LEARNERS AND

EFFECTIVE COLLABORATORS,

WITHOUT TEACHERS THAT HAVE

THE SAME CHARACTERISTICS.

MICHAEL FULLAN, 1993

SEPARATED BY THEIR

CLASSROOMS AND PACKED

TEACHING SCHEDULES,

TEACHERS RARELY WORK OR

TALK TOGETHER ABOUT

TEACHING PRACTICES.

LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND, 1995

SIX STRATEGIES FOR CREATING

TEAM TIME

• Creative scheduling

• Using paraprofessionals

• Parent volunteers

• Schoolwide activities

• Theme and team-teaching

TEAM MEETINGS

• Agendas and prepared materials

• Note-taking

• Sticking to the task

COLLECTIVE INQUIRY

• Looking closely at the underlying causes of the school’s challenges.

• Inquiry into the relationship between your present situation and the way you’d like things to be at your school.

• Based on the premise: “No one is as smart as “all of us”.

:IS NOTCOLLECTIVE INQUIRY

• Jumping to conclusions

• Jumping on another bandwagon

• Making Assumptions without forming and testing hypotheses

• Placing Blame on any group in the community

BY EMPHASIZING NEEDED CHANGES

IN THE CULTURE OF THE SCHOOLS

AND THE DAILY PRACTICE OF

PROFESSIONALS, THE REFORM

MOVEMENT CAN CONCENTRATE ON

THE HEART OF THE SCHOOL---THE

TEACHING AND THE LEARNING

PROCESS.

KAREN SEASHORE LOUIS, SHARON KRUSE AND

MARY ANN RAYWID, 1996

1. Shared Mission, Vision, Values, Goals

2. Collective Inquiry

3. Collaborative Teams

4. Action

Experimentation

5. Continuous

Improvement

6. Focus on Results

THE “CULTURE” OF A

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY

Share Concerns

Own the Problem

Solve the Problem Together

SHARE – OWN - SOLVE

FIRST STEPS

• BUILD VISION - MAKE IT VISIBLE

• SELECTS THE TEAM

• ESTABLISH A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• TRAIN STAFF IN PLC

• PRACTICE INQUIRY

• START SMALL

• CELEBRATE YOUR FIRST “WIN”

MEETING NORMS

• Start and end on time

• Attendance

• Agenda

• Roles

• Meeting times

• Stay on the agenda

• Make meetings worthwhile

• BE brief and directive

• Include all in decision making

• Provide a way for everyone to contribute

ROTATE ROLES

• Facilitator

• Recorder

• Timekeeper

• Visionary

• Inquirer

• Resource

• Closure

• Reporter

• Refreshments

AGENDA

Team Name Date of Meeting

Present Absent

1. Call to Order

2. Reports

3. Discussion

4. Decisions

5. Assignments

6. Next meeting

PLCS USING SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

1.Shared vision and goals.

2.Shared values.

3.Mutual trust and respect.

4.Openness to differences

5.Collaboration.

6.Sharing of knowledge.

7.Collective learning.

PLCS USING SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

1.Subjective Knowledge.

▪E.g., reflection, dialogue.

2.Objective Knowledge.

▪E.g., book chapter, journal article, books.

3.Practical Knowledge.

▪E.g., live demonstrations, recorded demonstrations,

lesson plans, teaching materials, learning materials.

PLCS USING SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

• Social Media Tools must enable:

• Individual reflections.

• Collective dialogues.

• Sharing of lesson demonstrations and observations.

• Sharing of reading materials.

• Sharing of teaching and learning materials.

PLCS USING SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

• Real or virtual PLCs?

• Mixture is ideal.

• Openness and trust comes from knowing the people in real life followed by participation in virtual PLCs.

• Advantages of virtual:

• Saves time. Knowledge can be shared synchronously.

• Optimize participation. The virtual space also every participant to contribute to virtual PLCs.