week 7

From slender changes to huge differences in every walk of life, the 21st century has marked a whole new era for the education field as well. The advocates of continuous improvement do not feel satisfactory success in a halted environment. Thus, prefer new ways of doing things and incorporating better options into the usual work to produce even better results. This by far has been proved to be the reason behind many fruitful results. The change proposed can be of two forms. One is tinkering in which a portion or part of the thing is fixed, however, the other form, systematic change encapsulates a whole new paradigm (Charles M Reigeluth, 1994).

Since the dawn of time, the education process has been witnessed. Every age had learners and educators. As the time passed by, much of the alteration has been done to the societies, cultures, races, identities as explained by the term evolution. This demands a change in the educational paradigm too. People have now become concerned about the learnings students get these days. According to (Changing Education Paradigm, 2017), the two reasons that call for a need t change the education system are:

Economic conditions that seem uncertain in the coming ages. Countries worldwide are in the process of finding a better way of education so that the new generation easily apt to the changing economic demands of the next era. The very ancient goal of education is to work and earn. People nowadays are looking for ways to enrich the education process so much that the next generation would effectively work and keep the economic balance of the country. In this debate, one must keep in mind that the change and demand of next era are not at all known and very vague but still in the run for economic welfare countries are making every single effort to be able to survive the demands of economic uncertainty.

The second reason that (Changing Education Paradigm, 2017) has explained is the cultural identity of people. The culture and social norms of a society are sacred to its people. With the boom of globalization ad. Westernization many of the cultures are threatened and might diminish of the pace continues to be this fast. A demand for changing the education system is to make it possible to transfer the cultural heritage to the next generation but at the same time excelling the globalization is a necessity.

The main focus of this report, Professional Learning Communities, is a distinct progress in the field of education. A completely new paradigm of education and learning which emphasizes the involvements of communities into the learning and education process. Since the prior times, there has been much debate about the needed change in the educational practices to reap better results. (Abbott) Has mentioned in his work the intervention of technological advancements in the educational practices to yield better learning.

The two terms of ‘education’ and ‘learning’ contain the essence of the whole paper. However, there is a sleek difference between the two terms but from the perspective of a student, they can make immense differences. By definition, education is the process of parting knowledge, beliefs, and norms to other people. It is the process of giving the peace of mind, the knowledge with some person is transferred to others.

However, learning is when a person adopts the knowledge and beliefs that are gathered from others. Education is a dry process and yields no satisfactory result in shaping the individuality. Learning is what is a necessity for the present era and people nowadays demand education to be more learning specific instead of a means of imparting one’s knowledge.

The traditional education is long instilled in our society and has been observed in practice from decades. This conventional education is actually the teacher-centered way of education. A teacher is provided with the content and objective rules of education and the whole process revolves around the instructor. The students are taught academic courses like mathematics, science and social studies. The delivery of lectures is more of facts from the pre-designed course a teacher is provided with. This results in gaining an education of academics, but the individuality and creativity of students are lost.

Therefore, this method of education is termed teacher-centered. The students are required to memorize the textbooks and are examined on the same basis. Teacher follows the exact criteria for grading i-e providing the ‘accurate’ information as mentioned in the textbooks. The following figure is an illustration of a typical learning cycle in the traditional educational approach.

The very opposite of the conventional approach is the student-centered education where the focus of the process is the student itself. It is a practical and better way of education that takes into consideration the learning and knowledge of the students. This method of education denies cramming through the objective textbooks and memorization. It puts an emphasis on the creativity and individuality of each student. The learning ratio is increased as the students’ involvement in the process increases.

Though with the advent of technology people assumed that technological advancements and sophistication at such a rapid pace that they would definitely be taking the education system by a storm and in no time the human teachers would be considered raw to the learning process. But as witnessed by the time, the most possible use of these advancements has depicted that these assist the teachers in their traditional work practices (Abbott)

In addition to the usage they provide for the academics, the technological intervention has led to making the education process more and more fun and increases interest by the students has been observed. The involvement of technological gadgets in activities and screens and videos in learning ensure a better learning environment of the class. Better and more engaging the environment of a class would be, better are the chances for the inclination by the students.

Up until this era, there was huge reliance and consideration of the in-class environment. People looked out for ways to achieve the most adequate course and exploiting the possible options to improve the learning by students. Technology is one of the assets that could make a remarkable shift in the paradigm of classroom learning.

Referred to as blended learning, the face to face learning aided by the use of technology has proved to be effective in instilling the learnings of the students. This method utilizes the teacher time in a reasonable way and improves the productivity of the students. These methods actually aimed at improving the in-class environment for students, so they may be inclined to the educational process.

Palpable to the name, professional learning communities are the groups of personnel related to education that intend to share their experiences of education with a motive of learning from one another. This can be related to the fact that in the education field, a person is continually in a learning phase and in order to adapt to altering demands of every new generation he is continuously learning the art of educating people. In the past, however, this change was a bit different. The teachers and their learning weren’t much considered and if any person wished to disseminate his experience or required assistance, the better option was to email than a face to face connection.

The professional learning communities are thus introduced to assist teachers and professors to bring in new ideas and clear the loopholes in the present education system. The educators in the previous era were stuck to the conventional practices of teachings. These practices don’t bring into account the necessity of improving one’s knowledge in order to impart the learning to the learners. The professional learning communities may be called with distinct names in different parts of the world. The same idea might be presented by word ‘collaborative learning’ or ‘learning groups’ in different locations.

The effectiveness and achievements of the professional learning communities tend to serve both the students and teachers. Though the communities are designed solely for teachers, they have been proved to assist both of them in a positive way.

The basic individuals attending these learning communities are the teachers. Through the exchange of thoughts, experiences, and know the people assist each other. Teachers may find help in how to explain a tough topic of science or how to elaborate certain twisted concepts of science, so the students may find learning interesting and understand the concepts in their academic courses. Teachers and instructors are gathered with an aim of sharing and gaining experiences by others’ experiences and exploiting the learned principles in their way of teaching to make the learning up to date.

The whole effort into this is put to consequently aid the students in their learnings. In the majority of cases, the agenda of these communities are selected by having a thorough look at the difficulties and issues faced by the students in their academics. These problems are then addressed by the experts of the field and assist the teachers in ways to tackle with a challenge of handling students’ issues and providing an appropriate solution for those problems. The main reason is behind arranging these learning communities is the students’ learning experience. Some areas of academics may be difficult for students and teachers may not easily deliver the concepts. In such scenarios the teachers are provided with the alternate ways of delivering the same topic and teachers are convinced enough to consider using the better methodology for the class and thus ultimately students are benefited of the learning communities.

In these communities, the participants have some shared attributes i-e characteristics that are common to all the members of a group. They may all be the teachers that teach grade nine or they may belong to a common subject ‘mathematics’ or ‘science’. These shared attributes define the agenda of learning. For example, if the grouping is done grade wise then the idea and learning would emphasize the effects of in-class activities on personal developments of students. Teachers would be guided about the leadership skills and abilities to instill better attitudes and behavior of the students. The experts may bring to light the demands of such age of students and how to polish the internal abilities of students at such age.

On the other hand, if the partitioning occurs subject wise, the agenda would include ways to better explain a concept or problem of the subject. Each student will have a science background irrespective of the grades. There would be a discussion on the better way to explain a theory of science or about elaborating certain tough concepts of science. Leaders may also suggest the better way to have a learning-focused science class by ways to increase class participation by the students.

The participation in these learning communities is usually voluntary and free. Teachers and educators may opt to attend or skip a learning community. However, some school administrations have made it necessary for all of their staff to join the community. This totally depends on the administration and there is usually no strict rule for the participants.

The professional learning communities take place in the presence of three components. The three components are the necessary ingredients of the learning community. Explained as follows

The professionals are the experts that lead the learning communities. They are experts or leaders with a passion to disseminate their learnings and experiences, so others may benefit from them. The learning communities are commenced by these people who mediate control and lead the learning community.

Learning:

Learning is actually the material and lecture gained by the teachers. It outlines the activities of the learning communities.

The individuals are the people coming together in order to engage in a meaningful environment and aim to learn and grow through these communities. These individuals may be the educators or professor or people connected to the education field by some means.

The constructivist theory put forward by Piaget, explains that learning is an active process and a person learns through his experience. This constructive process of learning is based on its experiences and active participation by the mind. People tend to relate this theory to education and learning. Efficient learning involves experiences and active participation in constructive learning.

The professional learning communities act on the same theory and provide experience-based learning to the individuals. These communities ensure the work settings and environment according to constructivist theory in order to maximize the learning of individuals.

There are numerous dimensions of a professional learning community. Some of these can be explained as follows:

The professional learning community is laid upon some predefined set of beliefs or norms in order to achieve a common mission. The practices involve aligning the efforts to the vision of the community.

The communities are run by professional with expert leadership and strategic skills. However, across the community, the authority, power of decision making and other strategical roles have been distributed across the community.

The professional learning communities are guided and governed by some norms and practices that the participants adhere to. These may expect ethical behaviors by the participants, being an active member of the team, listening to the others’ patiently, respecting other’s opinions etc.

The meetings involve predefined agendas that are developed by the experts. These agendas are designed considering the requests by the individuals or according to the student’s needs.

These are the set of guidelines that help the discussion stay aligned and not deviate from the original track of the discussion. The managers make sure that the discussion is more factual and concrete rather than vague or general. Everybody in the community is expected to adhere to and follow these protocols.

These characteristics of professional learning communities play a significant role in the effectiveness of the learning community. Following these guidelines increase the chances of better outcomes of the learning community.

In spite of being very beneficial to the teachers and students, the professional learning communities are faced by a number of challenges that may hinder its chances of success. With proper handling of these challenges, the PLC’s can mark significant changes to the education fields. Some of these challenges are explained below:

A new paradigm or education is possible only through the change in each individual. The teachers involved the professional learning communities advocate the amendment explained but the chances of their acceptance and confirming these changes depend greatly on their lives and careers. Due to these fluctuating responses to change these learning communities may not reap the best results each time.

Another challenge faced by the professional learning communities is the diversity of opinions in the group. Although the individuals have some shared attributes there is much space for variance in numerous ways. These differences may render hindrances in the success of the communities. Communities where people tend to observe better cooperation and mutual respect have an increased chance of gaining better results of the community learning.

One of the major influences of community learning is the size of the institute. Smaller school’s employees have better face-to-face time, present better cooperation and thus prove the best results of such learning communities. On the other hand, large schools have a diversity of employees, different units within an organization may reduce the likelihood of proper management. Thus, the large size is presented as a challenge to PLCs.

The learning infrastructure of a society can also impact the professional learning community. Places with advanced learning infrastructure and well-developed education system can contribute to the betterment of these programs. In less developed areas, however, these programs are quite difficult to sustain and find hurdles to achieve their success. Building the right infrastructure is, therefore, necessary part prior to arranging such communities.

The external environment also influences the effectiveness of the learning communities. The external environment may be the policies led by the government or the regulations of the society. Pressure groups and ethnicity may shape the communities’ strategies.

The professional learning communities provide a new insight into the education and learning fields. Due to a number of issues and loopholes in the present system the people look about for ways to create a better methodology for the learning. The basic reason for incorporating professional learning communities is to enhance the productivity of teachers by sharing experiences and exploiting new dimensions of education. Students’ progress is believed to become better with such programs. However, there are some challenges for such programs that need to be addressed to ensure its success.

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