Week 5 Discussion 2 Professional Learning Communities

Week 5 Discussion 2 Professional Learning Communities

One component of the 21st Century Professional Development (Links to an external site.) framework encourages sharing knowledge with fellow faculty, using face-to-face, virtual and blended communications. When we think of sharing knowledge, we often think of using professional learning communities. In several of your courses, the concept of a professional learning community (PLC) is presented and elaborated on. A professional learning community consists of individuals with an interest in education. The focus of a professional learning community can be taking measures to ensure students learn, creating a culture of collaboration in the school, for school improvement and more (DuFour, 2004). In this discussion, you will deliberate about the use of professional learning communities as they relate to the 21st Century Professional Development (Links to an external site.) framework with an emphasis on technology.

Initial Post: Think about the 21st Century Professional Development framework and technology when working in your mock professional learning community. Next, imagine your state legislatures have asked the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office to advise them regarding the creation of a blended professional learning community across the districts within the state. As an educator who is well versed in employing critical thinking, problem solving and 21st-century skills in the classroom, you have been selected to participate with a group of other teachers to inform and persuade the Analyst’s Office of why the incorporation of technology to work collaboratively with other teachers in the state is important.

Work with your mock PLC group to come up with a supported argument based on personal experiences and scholarly literature in which you:

· Discuss how you could incorporate and implement the use of technology to create a blended professional learning community across districts within your state to share knowledge with fellow faculty on how a deeper understanding of subject matter can actually enhance problem solving, critical thinking, and other 21st-century skills.

· Discuss how creating a professional learning community can increase the ways teachers seize opportunities for integrating 21st-century skills, tools and teaching strategies into their classroom practice - and help them identify what activities they can replace or de-emphasize.

Guided Response: Respond to at least two peers. In your responses, ask a question about the 21st Century Professional Development framework with regard to professional learning communities and offer an additional resource for consideration that supports an alternative viewpoint. Though two replies is the basic expectation, for deeper engagement and learning, you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have given to you, including the instructor. Responding to the replies given to you will further the conversation and provide additional opportunities for you to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real- world experiences with this topic.

Educational Collaboration

Learning Outcomes

This week students will:

1. Evaluate how to communicate and collaborate effectively using a variety of modalities including digital-age tools that ensure the learner’s professional growth.

2. Reflect on design and implementation challenges experienced during the redesign of a prior coursework activity.

 Introduction

Week Five provides an opportunity for you to sharpen your collaboration skills as you work with your peers in mock professional learning communities (PLC). You will work in groups of two-to-three and take on the role as a teacher well- versed in employing critical thinking, problem solving and 21st-century skills in the classroom. In your mock PLC, you will write a proposal in which you persuade an analyst’s office of why the incorporation of technology is important to work collaboratively with other teachers in the state. Your redesigned assignment for this week is about professional development and the connections between 21st century support systems, specifically 21st century professional development components. Additionally, you will continue to work on your Folio and share a section of your Week Four assignment.

Required Resources

Text

Burnaford, G., & Brown, T. (2014). Teaching and learning in 21st century learning environments: A reader. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/

· Chapter 6: Leading Change in Education

Article

DuFour, R. (2004, May). What is a professional learning community?  (Links to an external site.)Educational Leadership: Schools as Learning Communities 61(8), 6-11. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org

· In this article, DuFour discusses what professional learning communities are and how we can incorporate them into our schools to ensure students learn, create a school culture of collaboration, and a focus on results. This resource will support student completion of the discussions and assignment for this week.

Web Pages

Framework for 21st century learning (Links to an external site.). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework

· The Framework for 21st Century Learning web page presents an all-inclusive view of 21st-century teaching and learning. It combines a focus on student outcomes with support systems that help students’ master skills they will need in the 21st century. Accessibility Statement does not exist. Privacy Policy does not exist.

Read the standards (Links to an external site.). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

· This web page provides information on how the standards communicate what is expected of students at each grade level. The focus of CCSS is on core conceptual understandings and procedures starting in the early grades, providing teachers a timeline needed to teach core concepts and allowing each student the time needed to master the concepts. This resource will support student completion of the discussions and assignment for this week. Accessibility Statement does not exist. Privacy Policy does not exist.

Website

Folio. (https://ashford.instructure.com/users/893/external_tools/2653)

· This website provides a Folio resource. This resource will support student completion of the final project, as well as discussions and assignments throughout the course. Accessibility Statement does not exist. Privacy Policy does not eist.

Supplemental Material

 (Links to an external site.)Hertz, M. (2015, Dec). The flipped classroom: Pro and Con (Links to an external site.). [blog] Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/flipped-classroom-pro-and-con-mary-beth-hertz

· This resource provides information related to the use of technology in the classroom as well as how the flipped classroom approach takes learning outside of the classroom for students to experience independently, moving homework help back into the classroom. This resource will support student completion of the discussions and assignment for this week. Accessibility Statement does not exist. Privacy Policy does not exist.

EDU696

Week five Instructor Guide

Welcome to Week 5! This is an activity packed week while you work in groups with class peers in a mock professional learning community (PLC) group. In Week Four, you presented the action research peer review you previously completed  in EDU 694 or ECE 660 to your peers in this class. Additionally, you assumed the role of a presenter at a professional conference and created a poster that outlined your action research peer reviewed study. This week you will continue to work on your Folio and share a section of your Week Four assignment with your peers and complete two discussion posts.

Professional Learning Communities

A PLC might consist of a group of teachers, administrators, and other school stakeholders working together on a particular initiative related to the school. The function of a PLC may vary, but universally a PLC consists of a small number of people, usually 5-15 (DuFour & Eaker, 2010). Typically, a PLC meets over a long period of time, normally a year, and everyone works together helping each member reach a goal of learning or completing an initiative.

For more information, view this less than three-minute video from SolutionTree (Links to an external site.) (2009) about PLCs in a school setting. While watching this video, think about how you could create a PLC in a school setting to help with action research. If you already have PLCs in place working on action research, consider sharing your thoughts on the video as part of your discussions responses this week or start a conversation in the Ashford Café!

Though the concept of a PLC may be generally understood by most, the impact a PLC makes in the staff community is sometimes easily overlooked. According to Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Wallace, and Thomas (2006) and Williams, Brien, Sprague, and Sullivan (2008), when PLCs are incorporated into a school’s culture, the following experiences are observed:

· There is a reduction of teachers who work in isolation.

· An increased commitment to the mission and goals of the school that increase school vigor in working with students.

· Teachers feel a “…shared responsibility for the total development of students and collective responsibility for students' success” (Stoll et al., p.27).

· There is a tendency for an increased meaning and understanding of the content that teachers teach and the roles they play in helping all students achieve expectations.

· There is a higher likelihood that teachers will be well informed, professionally renewed, and inspired to inspire students.

For students, the results might include:

· A decreased dropout rate and fewer classes "skipped" (Williams et al,. p. 31).

· Greater total academic gains than in traditional schools that do not have PLC’s.

· “…smaller achievement gaps between students from diverse backgrounds” (Williams et al., p.32).

If results such as those noted above are linked to teachers working in PLCs, it is imperative that every school create a PLC to foster such strong teacher and academic success. It has been argued that that the only legitimate use of teachers' time in the U.S. is standing in front of the class, working directly with students. However, as Burnette (2002, p. 48) noted, in studies

… comparing how teachers around the globe spend their time, it is clear that in countries such as Japan, teachers teach fewer classes and use a greater portion of their time to plan, confer with colleagues, work with students individually, visit other classrooms, and engage in other professional development activities… which is why they have such higher academic gains than any other country.

In the United States, the idea of teachers as merely facilitators of knowledge will need to change and the value of teachers in professional development communities will need to be strengthened.

Richardson’s article (2011) in Chapter 8 of the Brown and Burnaford (2014) text discusses the ideas presented above on the need to move to professional development communities in the U.S. She notes that

…educators assume collective responsibility for student outcomes. At the heart is the belief that a team of teachers working together can achieve more than one teacher working alone. So, rather than expecting a single classroom teacher to know everything that’s necessary to respond to every student’s needs, teachers work together to identify the needs and determine the response. (p. 6)

Week Five Assessments Overview

Review the full instructions for each assessment on the Week Five homepage in addition to this guidance.

Discussion 1 – Working Together to Achieve a Common Goal

In this discussion, your instructor will assign and post your mock Professional Learning Community (PLC) group of approximately two-to-three peers. Once your group has been identified, begin collaborating with the group in this discussion and in the Professional Learning Communities, Discussion 2.

Discussion 2 – Professional Learning Communities

In this discussion, you will deliberate the use of professional learning communities as it relates to the 21st Century Professional Development framework with an emphasis on technology. When working on this discussion, consider that through the PLC process, teacher isolation is reduced and through ongoing discussions an increase in understanding and application of 21st Century Skills and state standards including CCSS is likely.

 

References

Brown, T. & Burnaford, G. (2014). Masters in education capstone reader. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Burnette, B. (2002). How we formed our community. Journal of Staff Development, 23(1), 51-54.

DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (2010). Professional learning communities at work. Bloomington, IA.

SolutionTree (2009, October 9). The power of PLC’s at work  (Links to an external site.)[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEgmHHeCl4U

Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning communities. Journal of Educational Change, 7(4), 258-261.

Williams, R., Brien, K., Sprague, C., & Sullivan, G. (2008). Professional learning communities: Developing a school-level readiness instrument. Journal of Educational Change, 7(4), 221-258.