Provides specific information on how to transform schools into results-oriented professional learning communities, describing the best practices that have been used by schools nationwide.
In a professional learning community (PLC), teachers are organized into teams, committed to meeting on a regular basis to study their teaching strategies and the effects of those strategies on the students in their classrooms. The teacher teams can be of varied form and composition. Whatever the organizational structure, the teams have one goal – that is to improve teaching so that student learning is improved. Policy developers, legislators, and educational leaders have encouraged the adoption of collaborative professional learning teams as a school reform model for improving schools. In this book we describe the results of studies of professional learning communities in real schools and the effects of the teams on student learning. Much of the time school innovations are not examined in depth. Instead authors and developers simply advocate that they be used. In this book, school principals and administrators describe how their teachers used the PLC teams to improve student learning in their schools. In other words, this book presents actual research on the effects of the use of PLCs rather than testimonials.
Schools can and do affect student achievement, and this book recommends specific-and attainable-action steps to implement successful strategies culled from the wealth of research data.
This 10th-anniversary sequel to the authors’ best-selling book Professional Learning Communities at WorkTM: Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement merges research, practice, and passion. The most extensive, practical, and authoritative PLC resource to date, it goes further than ever before into best practices for deep implementation, explores the commitment/consensus issue, and celebrates successes of educators who are making the journey.
Busy administrators will appreciate this quick read packed with immediate, accessible strategies. This book provides the framework for understanding dynamic relationships within a school culture and ensuring a positive environment that supports the changes necessary to improve learning for all students. The author explores many aspects of human behavior, social conditions, and history to reveal best practices for building healthy school cultures.
This book samples recent and emerging trust research in education including an array of conceptual approaches, measurement innovations, and explored determinants and outcomes of trust. The collection of pathways explores the phenomenon of trust and establishes the significance of trust relationships in school life. It emboldens the claim that trust merits continued attention of both scholars and practitioners because of the role it plays in the production of equity and excellence. Divided into four parts, the book explores trust under the rubrics of learning, teaching, leading and bridging. The book proposes a variety of directions for future research. These include the simultaneous investigation of trust from the prospectives of various trusters, and at both the individual and group levels, longitudinal research designs, and an elaboration of methods.