Conceptualising professional communities among teachers (original) (raw)
Related papers
Professional Communities Among Teachers: A Summary of a Conceptual Framework.
CollectivED, 2018
This paper is a summary of some key points from a longer article by the same authors to be published shortly in the Polish Journal of Educational Studies. It presents via an exploration of literature in this area a possible conceptual framework for understanding the professional communities that are built when teachers work together within projects and initiatives that cross workplace and even national boundaries. This paper presents a conceptualisation of three aspects of these professional communities. These are as follows: the ways in which teachers’ self-efficacy may be shaped; the perceptions of membership that teachers may have; the types of knowledge shared. The full article that this summary paper is based on conceptualises two further aspects of community building: boundary creation and the role of individuality. This paper’s contribution to the wider academic debate is that it can potentially inform empirical research into such communities that is currently taking place, via a wide range of projects, in universities across Europe and beyond. This framework presented here is currently being used by the authors to enable them to understand communities of teachers they are working with. Please follow this link: http://leedsbeckett.ac.uk/-/media/files/research/collectived-sept-2018-issue-5-final.pdf?la=en
What Factors Influence the Formation of Teachers' Professional Communities and Why Should We Care?
2002
We describe a large-scale urban school initiative aimed at teachers' professional development with the goal of increasing teachers' mathematics content knowledge and helping them improve their practice. Believing that the formation of professional communities of teachers is crucial in supporting teachers trying to implement changes in their practice, the initiative provided opportunities for the formation of site-based supportive communities. Professional communities developed at some sites and not at others. We describe the factors, institutional and individual, in the formation of teachers' professional communities. (Author) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Educational Research, 2002
This paper presents a study of a secondary school in Queensland, Australia involved in an innovative change process called IDEAS (Innovative Design for Enhancing Achievement in Schools). This process of change centres on the action of teachers in classrooms rather than change in organisational structures. Our main findings illustrate how a group of teachers created a professional community though their participation in the process. We found that shared understanding developed through professional learning can impact on action in the classroom. However, the sustainability of this action within the organisation will depend on the established professional community's ability to create a broader 'school-wide' understanding of these new relationships. It will also require developing a new image of teacher, student and their workplace.
European Journal of Teacher Education, 2019
The past two decades research on teachers' professional development focusses increasingly on professional learning communities (PLCs). Based on a literature search a conceptual framework was developed including a comprehensive PLC-concept. Comprehensive because it takes into account the complexity of the educational context. The PLCconcept outlining 11 characteristics, is embedded in a framework, containing five external factors that influence. The framework was evaluated by interviewing educational experts. The literature search and the interviews showed a great diversity of distinct PLC characteristics and a wide range of external influencing factors. Based on expert interviews, no essential elements appeared to be lacking in the framework, moreover no other perspectives on the framework were mentioned. An additional search on recent literature confirmed the constructed framework. As yet we concluded that the developed concept is sufficiently comprehensive and feasible for conducting research on PLCs.
An expert study of a descriptive model of teacher communities
Learning Environments Research, 2012
Teachers in secondary education mainly feel responsibility for their own classroom practice, resulting in largely autonomous and isolated work and private learning activities. Most teachers teach separate classes behind closed doors and learn about teaching by teaching, often described as trial and error (Hodkinson and Hodkinson in Stud Continuing Educ 25:3-21, 2003; Int J Train Dev 8: 21-31, 2004). Moreover, teacher professional development has mostly taken place outside school, thus removing teacher learning from the workplace (McMahon in Educational management: redefining theory, policy and practice. Paul Chapman Publishing, London, pp 102-113, 1999). From the perspective of the development of collective capacity of schools, this is not a desirable situation. Teachers need to share their teaching practice and learning experiences in order to stimulate a learning culture in schools. In their work on communities of practice and school teachers' workplace learning, Hodkinson and Hodkinson (Stud Continuing Educ 25:3-21, 2003; Int J Train Dev 8: 21-31, 2004) conclude that a highly collaborative working culture is accompanied by a learning culture. Teachers learned from one another intuitively, as an ongoing part of their practice. They were happy to move in and out of one another's lesson, seeing the work that was going on. There are steadily expanding claims that teacher communities contribute to teacher development, the collective capacity of schools and improvements in the practices of teaching and schooling. Teacher community can be understood as a way to bring teachers together to share their knowledge and practices. As such, a community of teachers can be seen to offer an environment for teachers' learning. However, there seems to be no consensus on the definition and indicators of teacher communities, which are conditional for measuring teacher communities. In this article, we aim at the development of a descriptive model involving a definition,
Teacher communities as a context for professional development: A systematic review
Teaching and Teacher Education, 2017
h i g h l i g h t s Community appears to be a fuzzy concept, in literature and practice. Three different types of teacher communities (TCs) can be distinguished. The presence of different stakeholders influences the functioning of TCs. Conditions for TCs' success include leadership, group dynamics, trust, and respect.
Professional Learning Communities Approach: Implications for Policy and Practice
2020
Over the last decades researching and developing teachers‖ professional development frameworks and practices had underwent a paradigm shift. This shift was driven by the complexities of teaching and learning requirements, an increased necessity for reforming educational systems, and more need for accountability and quality outcomes (Vescio, Ross & Adams, 2007). The main feature of these new approaches is that they shift professional development beyond merely focusing on a teacher‖s simple attainment of knowledge and skills to a framework that requires teachers to deeply reflect on their own practices, to innovate new classroom pedagogy, and authentic understanding and expectations of student outcomes (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995).These new approaches of teacher professional development include a variety of practitioner-based activities such as: peer observation and assessment, working cooperatively on shared projects such as curriculum development or strategy planning, engagi...
An Emerging Framework for Analyzing School-Based Professional Community
1993
This paper attempts to blend the literature on professionalism with the literature of community, thus positing a framework for a school-based professional community. Sociologists have long distinguished between occupations--even high status ones--and professions. Among the key distinctions of professionalism are: a technical knowledge base shared among all members of the profession; membership control over entry to the profession; and a strong client-orientation which emphasizes putting client needs before personal interest. The literature on community has stressed the importance of broadly shared values and behavioral norms, a sense of responsibility for the collective good, and the need for an extended relationship of caring among individuals. Blending these two literature bases into a coherent framework for school-based professional community suggests an integrated professional-community model that combines a universally applicable knowledge base rooted in the discipline of teaching with organizational factors, such as values, climate, and caring relationships. The professional-community model assumes that knowledge of organizational settings improves performance and that a sustained focus on student learning, rather than on decision-making models or teacher-centered innovation, can prove beneficial for schools. A conclusion is that a combination of both structural and human-resource conditions are necessary for the professional community to exist. (Contains 58 references.) (LMI) This document has been reproduced as recered horn the person or organaahon cmginating a Mona changes sane been made to mcgovO reptoduchon cioalttY Pants of rrewa oprrhons stated m ims document do not necessably represent°M ast OE RI posaron or policy
A Retrospective Analysis of a Professional Learning Community: How Teachers- Capacities Shaped It
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2008
The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of setting up a learning community within an elementary school in Ontario, Canada. The description is provided through reflection and examination of field notes taken during the yearlong training and implementation process. Specifically the impact of teachers' capacity on the creation of a learning community was of interest. This paper is intended to inform and add to the debate around the tensions that exist in implementing a bottom-up professional development model like the learning community in a top-down organizational structure. My reflections of the process illustrate that implementation of the learning community professional development model may be difficult and yet transformative in the professional lives of the teachers, students, and administration involved in the change process. I conclude by suggesting the need for a new model of professional development that requires a transformative shift in power dynamics and a shift in the view of what constitutes effective professional learning.