Real World Professional Learning Communities

Real World Professional Learning Communities

Author: Daisy Arredondo Rucinski

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-12-08

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1475822820

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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.


Professional Capital

Professional Capital

Author: Andy Hargreaves

Publisher: Teachers College Press

Published: 2015-04-24

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0807771708

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The future of learning depends absolutely on the future of teaching. In this latest and most important collaboration, Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan show how the quality of teaching is captured in a compelling new idea: the professional capital of every teacher working together in every school. Speaking out against policies that result in a teaching force that is inexperienced, inexpensive, and exhausted in short order, these two world authorities--who know teaching and leadership inside out--set out a groundbreaking new agenda to transform the future of teaching and public education. Ideas-driven, evidence-based, and strategically powerful, Professional Capital combats the tired arguments and stereotypes of teachers and teaching and shows us how to change them by demanding more of the teaching profession and more from the systems that support it. This is a book that no one connected with schools can afford to ignore. This book features: (1) a powerful and practical solution to what ails American schools; (2) Action guidelines for all groups--individual teachers, administrators, schools and districts, state and federal leaders; (3) a next-generation update of core themes from the authors' bestselling book, "What's Worth Fighting for in Your School?" [This book was co-published with the Ontario Principals' Council.].


Global Perspectives on Developing Professional Learning Communities

Global Perspectives on Developing Professional Learning Communities

Author: Nicholas Sun-Keung Pang

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-03-13

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1351206184

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This book discusses distinctive features of the professional learning community concept, practices and processes across six different education systems in the Asia-Pacific region, namely Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and the United States. It provides a platform for an exchange of different perspectives and offers alternative possibilities of theorizing professional learning communities across different socio-cultural contexts. Contributors provide valuable insights for policy makers, education researchers and educators in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere to deal with critical questions about the improvement of teaching and learning and school improvement in a globalizing world. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Education.


PLC+

PLC+

Author: Douglas Fisher

Publisher: Corwin

Published: 2019-05-16

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1544385781

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What makes a powerful and results-driven Professional Learning Community (PLC)? The answer is collaborative work that expands the emphasis on student learning and leverages individual teacher efficacy into collective teacher efficacy. PLC+: Better Decisions and Greater Impact by Design calls for strong and effective PLCs plus—and that plus is YOU. Until now, the PLC movement has been focused almost exclusively on students and what they were or were not learning. But keeping student learning at the forefront requires that we also recognize the vital role that you play in the equation of teaching and learning. This means that PLCs must take on two additional challenges: maximizing your individual expertise, while harnessing the power of the collaborative expertise you can develop with your peers. PLC+ is grounded in four cross-cutting themes—a focus on equity of access and opportunity, high expectations for all students, a commitment to building individual self-efficacy and the collective efficacy of the professional learning community and effective team activation and facilitation to move from discussion to action. The PLC+ framework supports educators in considering five essential questions as they work together to improve student learning: Where are we going? Where are we now? How do we move learning forward? What did we learn today? Who benefited and who did not benefit? The PLC+ framework leads educators to question practices as well as outcomes. It broadens the focus on student learning to encompass educational equity and teaching efficacy, and, in doing so, it leads educators to plan and implement learning communities that maximize individual expertise while harnessing the power of collaborative efficacy.


Leading Research in Educational Administration

Leading Research in Educational Administration

Author: Michael DiPaola

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1617354465

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Leading Research in Educational Administration: A Festschrift for Wayne K. Hoy is the tenth in a series on research and theory dedicated to advancing our understanding of schools through empirical study and theoretical analysis that was initiated by Wayne and Cecil G. Miskel. This tenth anniversary edition honors and celebrates the research leadership Wayne has provided in the field of educational administration through his distinguished career. The festschrift is organized around the analysis of school contexts and includes constructs Wayne and his protégés have studied and researched: climate, trust, efficacy, academic optimism, organizational citizenship, and mindfulness. It concludes with the work of colleagues on the salient contemporary issues of innovation, power, leadership succession, and several others focused on improving schools. Chapter authors all have close connections to Wayne - former students and their students, as well as colleagues and friends.


Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work®

Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work®

Author: Richard DuFour

Publisher: Solution Tree Press

Published: 2009-11-01

Total Pages: 592

ISBN-13: 193400989X

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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.


A Decade of Research on School Principals

A Decade of Research on School Principals

Author: Helene Ärlestig

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-11-13

Total Pages: 547

ISBN-13: 3319230271

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This book provides a unique map of the focus and directions of contemporary research on school leadership since 2000 in 24 countries. Each of these directions has its own particular cultural, educational and policy history. Taken together, the various chapters in the volume provide a rich and varied mosaic of what is currently known and what is yet to be discovered about the roles and practices of principals, and their contributions to the improvement of teaching and the learning and achievement of students. The particular foci and methodological emphases of the research reported illustrate the different phases in the development of educational policies and provision in each country. This collection is an important addition to existing international research that has shown beyond any reasonable doubt that the influence of school principals is second only to that of teachers in their capacity to impact students’ progress and achievement and to promote equity and social justice.


Mentoring as Collaboration

Mentoring as Collaboration

Author: Mary Ann Blank

Publisher: Corwin Press

Published: 2008-07-08

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1452261210

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"This is the book for administrators who want to retain their novice teachers and strengthen their pedagogical abilities to ensure student success. Blank and Kershaw provide the complete guide to planning, initiating, managing, and solving the dilemmas associated with mentoring." —Dave F. Brown, Coauthor, What Every Middle School Teacher Should Know "Blank and Kershaw have put together a handbook that should be on the desktop of anyone managing an induction program, preparing mentors, or serving in a mentoring role themselves." —Kenneth R. Howey, Research Professor University of Cincinnati Transform intermittent one-on-one teacher mentoring into systematic, school-based new teacher support! High-quality mentoring can have a direct, positive impact on instructional and student success when school-based teams of administrators and teacher leaders work together to promote shared ownership for new teacher success. Mentoring as Collaboration shows school and district leaders how to develop a collaborative, team-based mentoring program that helps retain new teachers, improve student achievement, and boost school performance. Mary Ann Blank and Cheryl A. Kershaw present a practical, field-tested model that clearly defines roles, expectations, and experiences for new teachers, mentors, and school leaders and builds on the research on effective teaching, leadership, and organizational development. Administrators and teacher leaders in any school or district can use this comprehensive how-to guide to: Develop, assess, and sustain mentoring programs Attract and retain talented teachers Develop teacher leaders Create energized learning communities With step-by-step guidelines and real-world scenarios, this resource provides all the structures, policies, and practices that school and district leaders need to establish a systematic mentoring program to help beginning teachers develop confidence, competence, and professional skills.