Northcentral University
Rodriquez Mitchell
Professional learning communities is a term mostly used in schools which indicates a collection of educators or professional who meet on regular basis to share their skills and collectively work to improve the teaching techniques and skills and ultimately improve the performance of the students (Gray & Tarter, 2016). The goal of the PLC cuts across the education sector both the teachers and the students. It aims at improving the expertise of the teachers by collaboratively studying and exchange of knowledge and professional discussions. On the other hand, it boasts the aspirations of the teachers in achieving higher targets. As a result, students are able to show better performance and firm leadership.
The thesis of this paper, is to scholarly analyse the findings on the data from the article papers that were collected. This is to critically understand the teaching sector and the collaborative communities that have been formed and how they can be improved for better outcomes. The articles under considerations are, Enabling school structures, collegial trust and academic emphasis: Antecedents of professionals learning, enhancing self-efficacy in elementary science teaching with Professional Learning Communities and Teacher's perceptions and implementation of professional learning communities in a large Suburban School. The three articles are to work together in widening our knowledge and understanding the factors affecting the PCLs and how they problems can be improved in future.
The antecedent of the collaborative communities is to study the roles of ESS, academic significance and confidence in the improvement of the Professional Learning Community. However, its aim was to find the relationship between the application of CL by elementary schools and the implementation of PLCs and other blocks that prevented the use of CL (Peppers, 2014). From the study undertaken, it has been noted that Collaborative learning has been greatly neglected and underused in classrooms in the recent past and the implementation of collaborative techniques has been a great challenge. The only possible solution to the problems identified was teacher efficacy and application of PLCs (Peppers, 2014).
Self-efficacy of the teachers played a big role ensuring that teachers utilized the differentiated instructions. According to the article on Enhancing self-efficacy in elementary science teaching with Professional Learning Communities, the research was conducted to find out the correlations between the collaborative learning by classroom teachers, self-efficacy of the teachers, participation in PCL, possible blocks in implementation of CL and the understanding of CL(Mintzes et al, 2013). From the study, it was clear that there is moderate participation of PCL and the implementation of collaborative learning. The increase in the use of CL was attributed to the increased and continual use of participation in PLCs. PLCs gave teachers time for self-reflect, pooling of ideas and building of each other through as professionals and also modification of the lessons.
However, further investigations on the article enhancing self-efficacy in elementary science with professional learning communities on the self-efficacy of the science teachers and the understanding and teaching of the subject under considerations (Mintzes et al, 2013). However, the model directs its focus on improving the way the teachers took teaching and especially towards the science subject. This worked at ensuring that the teachers developed self-confidence and being able to deliver the best to the students. Nevertheless, they were to invoke the students in critical thinking and improvement of performance.
The article Enabling school structures, collegial trust and academic emphasis: Antecedents of professionals learning, the enablement of the school structures, academic and collegial trust greatly contributed to the development of PCLs and the structure had a greater impact (Gray & Tarter, 2016). When the enabling structures are well developed, the PCL is also possible to improve and the teachers are able to trust the principal more. Actually, the development of enabling structures is the basis of the development of PCLs. The study reveals clearly that enabling structures has more effect than trust.
The PCLs is a very important model which brings the teachers together and enable them to share knowledge and skills (Mintzes et al, 2013). It brings about collaboration of the staff, students, teachers and the administrators to work in harmony and unity and to work towards achieving a common goal.
REFERENCES
Gray, J., Kruse, S., & Tarter, C. J. (2016). Enabling school structures, collegial trust and academic emphasis: Antecedents of professional learning communities. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 44(6), 875-891.
Mintzes, J. J., Marcum, B., Messerschmidt-Yates, C., & Mark, A. (2013). Enhancing self-efficacy in elementary science teaching with professional learning communities. Journal of science teacher education, 24(7), 1201-1218.
Peppers, G. J. (2014). Teachers' perceptions and implementation of professional learning communities in a large suburban high school (Doctoral dissertation, Capella University).