Professional Learning Communities

Summary

Professional learning communities (PLCs) refers to a method applied to improve school performance through enhancing teachers’ collaboration and promoting student outcome. It focuses on ensuring that students gain and learn more from their teachers. This encourages the development of an effective culture that encourages continuous improvement by satisfying students’ learning needs and promoting teachers’ practice and professional learning. The culture supports collaborative expertise since it is committed to professionalism (Friedrichsen & Barnett, 2018). This paper will assess the PLC implementation for student learning and systematic intervention and evaluate the anecdotes and evidence. It will also provide a plan to improve PLCs in my school based on the observation made from high school A and my knowledge of the topic.

Current Level of Functioning for Assessing Student Learning

The overall level of functioning for student learning is effective since teachers collaborate to achieve provincial, state, and educational standards. Developing proficiency standards enable students to enhance their skills and remain focused on the learning process. This is the case because teachers work collaboratively to address issues affecting students and improve every learner’s performance. Students are given a favorable environment to learn more from their teachers (Cherrington et al., 2018). This implies that the PLCs presents an effective approach for promoting student learning through facilitating the development of a favorable culture while supporting continuous improvement. It focuses on the satisfaction of students’ learning needs through linking with the practice of teachers and professional learning. Moreover, it supports collaborative expertise and enhances commitment to professionalism. The extent to which teachers assess whether students have attained proficiency based on essential standards is high. The current PLC ensures that students are well guided and provided with the necessary information in the right way to attain effective learning.

Good performance of students in high school A offers evidence that teachers have collaborated to achieve essential standards. Every teacher has achieved the objective of PLCs by establishing a formative assessment that is in line with the requirement of both the provincial and state standards. Moreover, specific proficiency standards have been put in place to support the achievement of every skill (Friedrichsen & Barnett, 2018). Consolidated analysis of results is an indication of appropriate collaboration and teamwork among teachers to address issues affecting students and establish the most effective learning approach. The PLC team is determined to keep on making beneficial changes to boost the delivery of knowledge to students and motivate them to achieve better results.

Plan to Improve PLC on Student Learning

Creating this condition in the team requires educators to meet from time to time to share expertise, explore new concepts as well as improve their insights. They need to engage everyone to develop the most effective approach to addressing problems that are likely to limit the achievement of the set objectives. This means that there is a need to evaluate the impact of the strategy on the learning process while considering the available gaps. Improved student outcomes and instructional practices can only be achieved by making an extra effort and effective response to feedback (Lin et al., 2018). It is necessary to set clear objectives to support student learning and enhance the competence of teachers. This can influence better social, behavioral, and academic outcomes for students. Another activity that needs to be initiated is the provision of guidance and structure for the PLC time. Teachers should be supported to develop appropriate habits of practice while improving their time management. Some teachers may require assistance in setting learning goals, reviewing student data, exploring learning resources, and reflecting on the teaching practice.

All the involved stakeholders in the learning process are responsible and need to support initiating and sustaining the necessary steps. Everyone, including students, teachers, parents, school management, and the community, has a role to play in ensuring the success of PLCs. This is because effective collaboration and teamwork enhance performance and facilitate the establishment of desirable approaches and solutions to existing problems. Every step needs to be allocated realistic time to ensure that its objectives are achieved (Friedrichsen & Barnett, 2018). Several weeks would be necessary to support observations and give room for students’ responses while allowing teachers to evaluate the situation and make the necessary changes. Enabling teachers to participate in the areas that interest them would help save time instead of rotating roles every week. The effectiveness of the initiative will be assessed by evaluating the motivation of teachers and students ‘performances. An improvement in the extent of collaboration among teachers will be an indication of effective initiatives.

Current Level of PLC Functioning for Systematic Intervention

The overall functioning level for the systematic intervention is highly coordinated and effective. The system makes desirable plans to support students and promote proactive measures to offer extra assistance, including before enrolment. Determined monitoring of students ensures that desirable results are realized through the elimination of all learning obstacles. Students facing challenges must use the available support and appropriately utilize time (Cherrington et al., 2018). Offering unlimited access to systematic interventions ensures that every student is given the best environment to achieve their learning objectives. I believe that the level of functioning has been achieved because it has promoted a culture of collaboration. This is because every teacher understands that both individual and collective goals can only be achieved through working together. The extent of systematic intervention is high in schools since there is effective identification of students requiring special assistance as well as the development of interventions to support them.

Existing evidence to explain that interventions are multi-dimensional is that the plan is multi-layered, and every student receives full attention from their teachers. Systematic interventions have been made for every student regardless of the assigned teacher. Moreover, they are timely and offer personalized support aimed at promoting overall performance (Cherrington et al., 2018). The availability of alternative strategies implies that the considered plan can be changed in case it fails to generate desirable results.

Plan for PLC Improvement on Systematic Intervention

Achieving systematic interventions requires the initiation of beneficial activities to influence the achievement of the required outcome. Improved focus on results needs to be initiated to empower teachers to make the necessary adjustment in their plans and remain determined toward the achievement of established goals (Lin et al., 2018). It is important to establish an instructional approach, improve its effectiveness as well as develop measures to enhance student learning. Students’ results should be evaluated and considered as a guide during the determination of the group’s effectiveness.

Teachers will be responsible for sustaining and initiating these steps, while students will facilitate the achievement of the set goals. Teachers will be expected to improve their relationship with students through the provision of a favorable environment and by ensuring timely responses to their questions (Friedrichsen & Barnett, 2018). They should offer room for communication and support students based on the identified needs. Every step should be allocated two to three weeks to provide time for effective implementation. The initiative can be assessed by evaluating the outcome of the learning process. Improvement of students’ performance is an indication of a successful initiative.

References

Cherrington, S., Macaskill, A., Salmon, R., Boniface, S., Shep, S., & Flutey, J. (2018). Developing a pan-university professional learning community. International Journal for Academic Development, 23(4), 298-311. Web.

Friedrichsen, P. J., & Barnett, E. (2018). Negotiating the meaning of Next Generation Science Standards in a secondary biology teacher professional learning community. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 55(7), 999-1025. Web.

Lin, W., Lee, M., & Riordan, G. (2018). The role of teacher leadership in the professional learning community (PLC) in International Baccalaureate (IB) schools: A social network approach. Peabody Journal of Education, 93(5), 534-550. Web.