encouraging professional learning communities (plc) dr. paul hennissen

Encouraging Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

Dr. Paul HennissenZuyd University of Applied Sciences (NL)

Bergen, 2012 June 15

Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012

What do we know?

• Great teachers can change a student’s life• Excellent teaching is the foundation of our

best schools• Can we realise this?

• Strong communities of teachers


Content of the presentation

1. Introduction2. Research Questions3. Method4. Findings5. Conclusion & discussion


Introduction

• World-wide economic and cultural changes demand high levels of quality of education and of teaching.

• In the past decade we have experienced the limits of formal, externally driven, professional development and school innovation. (Timperley e.a., 2007)

• Sustained change asks for individual and collective learning processes of teachers and teacher educators.

• PLCs offer a context for these learning processes.• PLC = community of permanent research and

improvement (Hord, 1997).


PLCs: an idea or reality?

• PLC: professionalism, learning, community• PLC a promising and popular concept.• We still know little about PLCs en how to

encourage it.• How can we encourage schools as PLC on a

concrete level?• Which interventions lead to a sustainable

school development?


Research Questions

• How can the development of schools into PLCs be described?

• Which interventions contribute to the realization of a PLC?

• Which role of the school leader is effective in this process?


Theoretical Framework3 Basic Capacities (Mitchel & Sackney, 2000)

Personal capacity

Interpersonal capacity

Organisational capacity: supportive


7 dimensions (Verbiest, 2011)

Personal capacity

- (re) constructing knowledge

- apply knowledge


- shared values and vision

- collective learning Organisational capacity: supportive

- structural conditions

- cultural conditions

- leadership conditions


Method: context

• CoP-project (Communities of Practice)• Combined development and research• Between end 2010 and 2013• Six schools were supported in their

development into PLCs.• The support of the schools consists of six

seminars for the schools’ representatives and consultation.


Quantitative

• Quantative data (questionnaire, Verbiest2011)• Each staffmember gives an answer how he

perceived the dimensions of PLC in school?• For each school a percentile score was

calculated compared with 167 other schools.• A test score that is greater than 63% of the

scores of schools taking the test, is said to be at the 63th percentile.


School AGroup (n=167)

Scale Average SDPercentile Average SD

Personal capacity

- (re) constructing knowledge

- apply knowledge


- shared values and vision

- collective learning Organisational capacity: supportive

- structural conditions

- cultural conditions

- leadership conditions


School AGroup (n=167)

Scale Average SDPercentile Average SD

Personal capacity

- (re) constructing knowledge 3,066 0,294 36 3,121 0,396

- apply knowledge 2,900 0,340 57 2,742 0,442


- shared values and vision 2,978 0,391 30 3,073 0,446

- collective learning 2,832 0,323 52 2,815 0,388Organisational capacity: supportive

- structural conditions 2,957 0,324 46 2,922 0,399

- cultural conditions 2,978 0,328 38 2,990 0,435

- leadership conditions 3,122 0,414 75 3,003 0,399


Qualitative

• Qualitative data: Semi-structured interviews with school leader & group of teachers

• Opinion regarding the development of their school as a PLC and role of the school leader

• Guidelines for interviews based on 7 dimensions

• Full descriptions, encoded and described in terms of 7 dimensions of PLC.


Set up


Findings

• In the context of this paper only some main findings till now are summarized.

• Research question 1: How to describe the development?

• The scores of each school will be related to the scores of a group of 167 other schools: percentile score.


Percentile score schoolScale A B C D E F

Personal capacity

- (re) constructing knowledge 78 63 16 63 63 63

- apply knowledge 84 28 28 57 57 57


- shared values and vision 74 30 30 59 59 59

- collective learning 84 36 36 52 66 36

Organisational capacity: supportive

- structural conditions 75 25 46 46 25 46

- cultural conditions 66 38 15 38 38 38

- leadership conditions 65 29 36 60 65 70

Average percentile schools 75 36 3054 53 53


Findings 2

• Research question 2: which interventions contribute to the development of PLCs.

• This is not easy, because it is not always clear at the outset what the intensions are.

• And almost every intervention can influence more than one capacity at the same time.

• But we see intervention that contribute to the innovation agenda of the school.


Interventions that encourage PLCs

• Stimulating and modelling professional culture• Re-organisation of the primary process• Creating interdependance between teachers in the

primary process• Coaching teachers’ learning processes• Connecting capacity building with the innovation

agenda of the school• Re-organisations of the structures for prof.

development and meetings, aimed at collective learning.


Conclusion

It is possible to • charactise schools with the 7 dimensions of

PLC-concept;• differentiate between schools;• encourage professional learning communities.


Questions

• What contributes to PLCs in schools?• Is the role of the school leader crucial?• What can researchers do to encourage PLCs?


Thank you for your attention.If you want more information, please mail me

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

encouraging professional learning communities (plc) dr. paul hennissen

Documents

development of schools

sustainable school development

school leader

school innovation

schools representatives

scores of schools

school agroup n

professional development