Schools as a professional learning communities Tartu City Estonia October 21 st 2015 Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir [email protected]

Schools as a professional

learning communities

Tartu City EstoniaOctober 21st 2015

Anna Kristín Sigurðardó[email protected]

Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir

Agenda

• Core concepts• Definitions• Characteristics of PLC• Collaboration• Relationship with school effectiveness• Teachers professional dialogue• Discussions

Outcome and well being

Teacher / methods

Learning community

Leadership

Effects on students‘ outcomes and well being

School

Many factors outside the school have effects, such as students background,educational authorities, networks, researchers and professional associations.

A few related concepts:• Professional learning community• Learning Organization/ Organizational learning • Collaborative learning / Collective learning• Schools that learn

Learning community

• Aims at building up a capacity for continuous school development

• A creation of knowledge, based on collaborative reflection into daily work.

• Student achievement is emphasised at all levels• Characterised by open approach in ways of

working. • Not a linear process – rather as a cycle or a

spiral


System thinking

Learning organisation

The fifth discipline

Peter Senge, 1990, 1999,2000, 2003

Personal mastery; which drives people to expand their ability;

Team learning; which is the fundamental learning unit;

Shared vision;which gives people a sense of the direction; it provides the focus and energy for learning.

Mental models; which are taken for granted; beliefs;

The cycle oforganisationallearning

Professional learning community

• Supportive and shared leadership; • Shared values and vision focusing on pupil learning;• Collective learning; • Supportive conditions and • Shared personal practice Shirley Hord (1997,1999,2004)

starfar á rannsóknarmiðstöð

menntamála í suð-vestur

ríkjum Bandaríkjanna.

www.sedl.org

http://www.sedl.org/

Professional learning community

• A professional learning community consists of a group of professionals sharing common goals and purposes, constantly gaining new knowledge through interaction with one another and aiming to improve practices.

• It is a cycle where learning is normally embedded into the daily work; teachers gain new knowledge, try it out in practice, and from the experience gain yet more knowledge.

• They do this in interaction with each other, by working collaboratively.

• This cycle is strongly influenced by: structural factors, which can foster collaboration or hinder it; cultural factors, which are people’s beliefs and values; and leadership style, which greatly affects both the culture within the school and the structure.

(Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir, 2010)


Professional learning communityThe continuous cycle of learning within a professional community around inquiry and reflection on students’ learning

Inquiry and reflection into daily practice

New knowledge

Shared values and vision

Shared leadership

Collaborative

learning

Organisational arrangement

Support collaboration

Social climate support

collaboration.

Mutual supportSingle loop learning – double loop learning

Changes in practice

Revision of process

New approach

Reflective dialouge


Professional learning communityThe continuous cycle of learning within a professional community around inquiry and reflection on students’ learning

Inquiry and reflection into daily practice

New knowledge

Shared values and vision

Shared leadership

Collaborative

learning

Organisational arrangement

Support collaboration

Social climate support

collaboration.

Mutual supportSingle loop learning – double loop learning

Changes in practice

Revision of process

New approach

Reflective dialouge

Single-loop and double-loop learning

Core concepts in theories about learning organisation, developed by Argyris and Schön.

Single-loop learning helps you to stay on track and achieve your original goals.

Double-loop learning helps you set new goals and puts you on a new track towards them



Shared visionSenge 1990

1. No shared vision.

2. A vision – but not shared.

3. A shared vision that leads decisions.

pupils

outcome


• Learning community is about collaborative learning at all levels

Source: OECD, TALIS 2013


Weak collaboration is never effective, but strong collaboration could even be worse if it is not about the „right“ actions. Teachers could strengthen each other in ways of working that are not successful.

McLaughlin and Talbert (2006)

Teachers could share nonsense to each other rather than real knowledge.

Hargreaves og Fullan, 2012

Critical dialouge

Inquiry into data

Shared responsib

ility

“right” action

“wrong” action

badly executed well executed


External knowledge

Participants knowledge and Work experinces

New knowledge suitable for this context

Seeking solutions

Anna Kristín SigurðardóttirAnna Kristín Sigurðardóttir

collaboration

Teachers professional earningenvironment ina 20th century schools

Sigurðardóttir, 2006, 2010


Invisible “walls”



Teachers collaborationdialogue at formal preparation meetings

• What do they discuss and how?• Are they an opportunity for professional

development?• Could the discussion lead to any kind of

school improvement? • Are they used for mutual support or

encouragement?



Collaborative meetings …

• Teachers did not challenge each other on ethical issues or question teaching methods.

• No example of complement from colleague was observed.

• Criticism was on general aspects rather than own ways of working.

• Ideas about different ways of working were not always appreciated by colleagues. Sigurðardóttir, 2006, 2010


Collaborative meetings …• Were used for consultation about different practical issues

such as textbooks, sharing photocopied workbooks and timing of trips.

• The discussion focused more on textbooks than pupils learning.

• Different teaching methods or possible ways to improve students outcome was rarely discussed.

• Occasionally teachers raised problems concerning pupils

behaviour and sometimes gained sympathy from colleagues



• t2: It is April and May, and then it is let’s say, two verses that they need to memorize

• t3: That is two poems per month, so that …, it makes about four poems, yes• t1: Four poems that we let them memorize …• t2: Then comes here on page 35, “Vorið góða grænt og hlýtt”• t1: It is traditional to take that• t3: Let’s just do that, both of them and “Fallin spýtan” • t2: That one to memorize• t1: And “the fallen wood” to work with, I would like that• t3: Yes, do you agree• t2: memorize (writes down) and both verses. • t3: Do you let them memorize one at a time or both together?• t1: I only order one at a time.• t3: So do I. (group

E)

Sigurðardóttir, 2006

Anna Kristín SigurðardóttirAnna Kristín Sigurðardóttir

• s: (to me) They are making a book of poems, see, with their own poems.• t2: Mine started to make the book today.• t3: So now they are choosing poems they want to have in their own

book.• t2: One girl has now twenty something poems.• t1: It is amazing, … when I tell them to choose their best poems … to

make 10 poems and choose five to seven. Then they want just to make perhaps six or seven, choose five and then make three bad poems. Then they feel that they have chosen the five best.

• t2: A few of them just took the first ones.• t1: Yes, they don’t quite get the idea of choosing and evaluating and

criticising themselves. …• t2: I thought I would never manage to teach them, you know, about

rhythm …but now they all had got it. (group D)



Culture of collaborative learning - values

Why changewhat is already

good?

You can always do

better.

Siggi can not learn anything, he does not belong to this school.

Siggi isn’t have any progress at all. That is unacceptable, what can

we do?

Everyone is titled to learning / progress

Culture of collaborative learningWillingness to share ideas and support colleagues.

Ohh, these people – always

making fuss

To work with Gunnu!

No - thanks

I will not hand the work of my

lifetime, over to some newcomers –

and that for nothing.

What a great idea!

I love to work with new people.

Willingness to accept new ideas from colleagues.


Culture of collaborative learning - values

• Data are available about pupils progress.

• Everyone can contribute.

• It is alright to makes mistakes.

• You are encouraged and supported to experiment in teaching.

• A creation of knowledge – “it is okay to invent the wheel”

• “I can influence decisions concerning my work”


Discussions in two teams in the intervention school

Team 1: Mathematics• Interdependency, the

task could not be done without collaboration

• Focus on pupils• Radical ideas about

teaching and learning

• Challenging dialogue

Team 2: Icelandic• The task split into

units• Focus on ways of

working • Traditional ideas

about teaching and learning

• Team members did not challenge each other



What are the main obstacles collaboration?

• Teachers value their autonomy• Collaboration without success• Lack of time• The arrangement of work can hinder • Teachers isolation• Lack of interdependency

Most important is to reduce teachers’ isolation in their work.

Isolation decrease possibilities for: • sharing of knowledge• sustainability in initiatives• equal quality in work in the whole school • that best practice is used• flexibility for individual needs

Isolation increase workload and stress

• The professionals learn in a similar ways as the students. Therefore it is important to improve teachers’ learning environment.

Teacher knowledge –building cycle

What knowledge and skills do our students need to meet important

goals?What knowledge and

skills do we as professionals need to

meet the needs of our students?

Deepen professional

knowledge and refine professional

skills.

Engage students in new learning experience.

What has been the impact of our

changed actions on outcome we value

for our students

Muijs, Kyriakides, van der Werf, Creemers, Timperlay, Earl, 2014, p. 247

Collaboration with critical discussions – focus on student

learning. Examples:

– Action research– Lesson study– Coaching – Data chat– Walking around– .....


20th century school

Does the physical environment matter?

Thank you

References

• Hargreaves, A. og Fullan, M. (2012). Professional capital: Transforming teaching in every school. New York og Toranto: Teacher College press.

• Hord, S. (2012). Reclaiming our teacher profession. The power of educators in learning community. New York: Teachers College press.

• McLaughlin, M.W., & Talbert,J.E. (2006). Professional communities and the work of high school teachers. Chicago: The University of Chigago Press.

• Muijs, D., Kyriakides, van der Werf, G. Creemers, B, Tomperlay, H. og Earl. L. (2014). State of the art – teacher effectiveness and professional learning. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 25(2), 257-281.

• OECD. (2014). Talis 2013 results: An international perspective on teaching and learning. OECD Publishing. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264196261-en.

• Senge, P. (1999). The fifth discipline. London: Random House.• Senge, P. (2000). Schools that Learn. A fifth dicipline fieldbook for educatioar, parents, and everyone who cares

about education. New York: Dubleday.• Stoll, L. og Louis, K.S. (Ed). (2007). Professional learning communities. Divergence, depth and dilemmas.

London: Open University Press.• Sigurðardóttir, A. K. (2006). Studying and enhancing the professional learning community for school

effectiveness in Iceland. Unpublished PhD thesis. Exeter: The University of Exeter.• Sigurðardóttir, AK. (2010). Professional learning community in relation to school effectiveness. Scandinavian

Journal of Educational Research. 54/5: 395-412.

Documents

Schools as a professional learning communities Tartu City Estonia October 21 st 2015 Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir [email protected]