In an era of school reform it should not be uncommon for educators to review every strategy or tool to initiate changes that will result in increased student achievement and school improvement. The rhetoric is that the changes begin with the federal government, state board of education, local school board, superintendent, and central office, but the reality is that the changes must begin at the doors of the school. In the school, the changes must begin with the staff, students, and the parents. The school community must become alive with learning among the staff, students and parents. The school staff must see themselves as a community of learners, where the entire school learns together. The term used to describe a school where the faculty sees themselves as a community of learners is a "professional learning community" (Hord, 2004, p. 1). The purpose of this study is to determine how one school can become a professional learning community through the implementation of whole faculty study groups and peer observation. Professional learning communities do exist, but the manner in which they are created is nebulous. This study sought to evaluate a senior high school staff as they underwent the process of creating a professional learning community through the development of whole faculty study groups and peer observation. A questionnaire was given to the staff before, during, and after the implementation of peer observation and whole faculty study groups. A comparison was made of the results from the questionnaires over time. Critical incidents create the basis for an action research case study methodology. The critical incidents were ascertained through focus groups.

The purpose of this study was to investigate assistant principals', teachers', and principals' perceptions of their schools as professional learning communities. The researcher examined how assistant principals, teachers, and principals viewed their schools as characterized by each of the five dimensions of professional learning communities: (a) shared leadership, (b) a shared vision, (c) collective learning and its application, (d) shared personal practice, and (e) supportive conditions. Each of the schools selected for this study was in the 5th year of implementation of an intensive school improvement process aimed at enhancing, sustaining, and improving student learning. A comparative case study design was employed to investigate differences in the perceptions of assistant principals, teachers, and principals in the schools. The units of analysis for this study included one high school and its feeder middle school in the Commonwealth of Virginia that served as demonstration sites for a federally funded grant addressing literacy improvement for all students. The School Professional Staff as Learning Community Questionnaire (SPSLCQ) (Hord, 1996) was used to collect quantitative data; subsamples of administrators and teachers at each school were interviewed to add qualitative data to the study. A composite model gleaned from the literature on professional learning communities served as the conceptual framework for this study and consisted of five interrelated dimensions of professional learning communities: (a) shared and supportive leadership, (b) shared values and vision, (c) collective learning and its application, (d) shared personal practice, and (e) supportive conditions. Assistant principals, teachers, and principals were asked to describe their world, their work, and their experiences in their schools to create a picture of the schools as professional learning communities. Findings from the two sites are reported for each of the five dimensions of the professional learning community model. Findings for each of the five dimensions of the professional learning community model were analyzed and interpreted for each school as well as findings that compared the schools across each dimension. Conclusions are provided for each of the five dimensions of the professional learning community model. Recommendations for practice and future research are presented for each of the conclusions. / Ed. D.

The American education system must utilize collaboration to meet the challenges and demands our culture poses for schools. Deeply rooted processes and structures favor teaching and learning in isolation and hinder the shift to a more collaborative paradigm. Professional learning communities (PLCs) support continuous teacher learning, improved efficacy, and program implementation. The PLC provides the framework for the development and enhancement of teacher collaboration and teacher collaboration develops and sustains the PLC. The interpersonal factors that influence collaboration make it difficult to implement and preclude the use of any systematic directions to develop a PLC successfully. However, research has identified emerging strategies that could guide the development of collaborative cultures for school improvement. The researcher designed this case study to describe collaboration in the PLC of an elementary school. The study focuses on collaborative behaviors, perceptions, influences, barriers, and strategies present in the school. The researcher utilized the Professional Learning Community Organizer (Hipp & Huffman, 2010) in the analysis of the data. Hipp, Huffman and others continued the research started by Hord (1990) and identified PLC dimensions and behaviors associated with those dimensions. The PLCO included behaviors aligned with the initiating, implementing, and sustaining phases of each dimension of a PLC. Structure and process, trust and accountability, and empowerment emerged as important themes in the observed PLC. The sequential path to teacher empowerment began with the development of structure and process. Teachers developed trust in each other by demonstrating accountability required by those structures and processes. Trust provided opportunities for risk taking and leadership to emerge. The teachers and administrators demonstrated their commitment to the vision and worked collaboratively for the learning success of all students. The data provided evidence of administrators and teachers making decisions to solve problems and improve instruction based on the vision. The PLC of the elementary school observed demonstrated development at the implementing and sustaining levels. The teachers and administrators worked collaboratively over time to improve teacher practice resulting in improved student learning. The opportunity to utilize the PLC for continuous growth by challenging the new norms and embracing risk taking remains. / Ed. D.

In a local suburban K-8 school in California, administrators and teachers were concerned when more than half of the fifth- and seventh-grade students indicated on the California Healthy Kids Survey that they do not feel safe at school. Researchers have noted that using a professional learning community (PLC) model in schools may assist with addressing bullying. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore teachers' and administrators' responses to incidences of bullying and the PLC processes used to address such incidents in their school. The conceptual framework for this study was Hord's dimensions of the PLC. Data were collected through individual interviews with 8 fifth- through eighth-grade teachers and 2 administrators. The collected data were open coded and analyzed to reveal themes that addressed the research questions. The findings indicated that teachers and administrators expressed a need for more opportunities for collaboration, required additional professional development to address bullying, and had varying views on strategies to address bullying situations. Recommendations include providing more collaboration time and additional training for teachers and administrators on responses to bullying within a PLC. This study may affect positive social change by providing research findings supporting the preparation of teachers and administrators at the study site to address bullying situations by following more closely the processes of a PLC. This information might positively affect school climate and students' feelings of safety at the school.

This dissertation is concerned with exploring the context of a rural professional learning community and the interactions between the context and participants, both teachers and facilitators. An interpretive, qualitative, instrumental case study, the format of data collection and analysis used an instrumental case study approach and interviews, classroom observations, field notes, and artifacts. Participants included four teachers across three different rural locales and two facilitators. Data on the six study participants was collected over the 2013-2014 school year. Findings from this study add to research on the understudied rural context as well as work of in-service educators and teacher educators working within and across these communities. First, this study elucidates nine components of the rural context: students, standards, and student learning needs; teachers and teacher learning needs; practices, curriculum instruction, assessment, and the learning environment; organizational culture; organizational structures and leadership; national, state, and local policies; resources; history of professional development; and parents and community. Additionally, this study identifies new roles for professional development facilitators and explores classroom the teaching practices in rural science classrooms. Finally, this dissertation highlights the importance of rural communities on the interactions of facilitators and participants who work in a rural context. Attention to the roles and interactions between facilitators, teachers and the rural context is of utmost importance towards understanding and ultimately improving professional development experiences for these predominantly isolated educators. This work has the potential to directly impact current and future STEM students and ultimately the STEM workforce by improving professional development for science educators and ultimately science students. Therefore, attention to who is working in and around these communities as well as what is happening within the context of the professional development of rural educations is of particular interest for all those working to improve science education. / text

When a school experiences a sudden change in demographics the impact can be difficult to comprehend. Effective professional development is essential in order for teachers to comprehend the changes and facilitate school improvement. This research explores the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of middle class teachers in a town which experienced a dramatic shift in the demographics of students; many middle class students left the school and many students who qualified for free and reduced lunch moved in. The teachers who experienced this demographic shift struggled to understand the changes developing in their school. In order to develop knowledge of the frameworks of poverty, the teachers participated in a two-year professional development process known as professional learning communities (PLC). The first year of PLC training concentrated on the frameworks of poverty and the second year of the research study concentrated on improving instruction. Throughout the two-year case study, a triangulation approach of consisting of interviews, observations, and document analysis was utilized to determine what changes occurred in the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of teachers. The findings of the research study determined that while the perception of poverty was relatively quick to change, developing a change in the attitudes and behaviors of teachers took much longer. Changes in teacher attitude and behavior to poverty were evident in the second year of the PLC process. The findings of the research study also determined that the PLC process provided a sustained format of professional development that allowed experienced teachers the opportunity to share experiences and learn from each other. Based on the findings of this study, a recommendation was made that the PLC process be considered as a viable professional development tool to train teachers on the impact and frameworks of poverty due to the detrimental impact poverty has on student achievement. Through a sustained effort in training, the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of teachers can be changed to identify and meet the needs of students. It is the recommendation of this study that the PLC process be used to change how teachers teach students of poverty.

This case study examined the principles of a professional learning community (PLC) in an elementary school setting and their impact on instructional practices and effect on the reading achievement of English Language Learner (ELL) students. The cohort of students in this study was followed from grades three through five. The data sources included a principal interview, a focus group discussion with teachers, classroom observations and the Standards of Learning reading scores for ELL students. The data from transcripts were analyzed using triangulation and coding techniques. The results of this study are a narrative description of a professional learning community used to impact instructional practices and reading achievement, the perceptions of a principal and teachers, and classroom observations. The data from interviews and the focus group suggest that teacher and principal perceptions of the professional learning community and its principles support their instructional practice. There appeared to be no consistent pattern of performance of individual scores during the study period. The PLC principles of collaboration, collective inquiry and continuous improvement were identified most often to be perceived as effective in the delivery of instruction. Staff development and providing adequate planning time for teachers are recommended as essential practices to a professional learning community. / Ph. D.

Professional learning communities are receiving attention in research on in-service teacher professional development. Arguments for professional learning communities emphasize teacher learning as a long-term, continuous, developmental and collaborative process. Such learning is viewed as necessary for supporting sustained improvements in teachers’ teaching practices and learners’ learning. The study reported in this thesis drew on these ideas to investigate how mathematics teachers learned in a professional learning community, and how their learning influenced changes in their teaching practices and identities. The study was a pilot for a larger, on-going project at the University of the Witwatersrand. Using the ideas of situated learning theory and data-informed practice, the case study involved a professional learning community of five mathematics teachers and the researcher. The study was conducted in one township high school in Gauteng, South Africa. The professional learning community participated in a year-long professional development intervention, which consisted of a set of developmental and structured professional learning activities. The activities involved analyzing learner errors in mathematics, identifying learners’ learning needs, planning and teaching innovative lessons for addressing the learning needs, and reflecting on how the lessons supported learners’ learning. The study investigated how teacher participation in the opportunities for learning was linked to shifts in their teaching practices and identities. The results show changes in teachers’ practices and their identities. Two teachers made shifts in their mode of teaching, task selection and implementation, and in their ways of engaging with learners’ ideas. Two other teachers made shifts in task selection. The shifts were sustained by one teacher in her teaching of the post-intervention lessons. All the teachers shifted in their ways of identifying themselves as members of communities. During and after the intervention, the teachers identified themselves as members of the professional learning community, and expressed visions of progressively learning together and improving their practice together. The shifts in teaching practice and teacher identity are explained by the opportunities for learning in the professional learning community. The results show how the links among teacher learning, teachers’ teaching practices and teacher identity were supported or constrained by features of the professional learning community.

In response to increasing demands placed on public education, professional learning communities (PLC) have emerged as a means of providing teachers with opportunities to collaborate together. Collaboration has been shown to improve teaching practices and lead to better student outcomes. Many collaborative teams, however, struggle to reach their collaborative potential. Trust has been shown to be an important factor contributing to the success of collaborative efforts. Few studies exist that empirically assess the relationship between team functionality and team trust. This study examines the relationship between these two constructs. A measurement tool was developed by the author to measure PLC team functionality based on five domains of functionality. Team trust was measured by a preexisting tool developed by Costa & Anderson (2010) based on four dimensions of trust. Multiple regression analyses were performed to assess the strength of the relationship between PLC team functionality and team trust. Control factors such as team stability, years of teaching, and principal support were included in the analysis. Findings showed a positive, significant relationship between the five domains of PLC team functionality and the four dimensions of team trust. While individual relationships between domains of functionality and dimensions of trust varied, between 46%-60% of variability in team functionality was explained by team trust. This study demonstrates the importance of trust in collaborative efforts of PLC teams as well as highlights a more complex relationship between the two constructs than previously understood in the literature.

As accountability for public schools continues to increase, educators are continually seeking the best practices in order to assure successful academic achievement, particularly in mathematics. This study focused on the popular reform movement of establishing professional learning communities (PLCs) within the schools, and combined it with a frame of reference from the math teaching context. The purpose of this study was to gain the perceptions of principals and math teachers in successful 5A high schools about the role of the professional learning communities in their schools. For several decades, educators have been trained and continue to be trained on the effective use of professional learning communities in all levels of education. Utilizing a PLC concept requires additional efforts by the school leadership and the teachers. By gaining insight into the perceptions of those in the field, the researcher was able to find common themes, analyze them, and develop recommendations for practice and further research. This qualitative research focused on reviews of literature beginning with early reform movements of forty years ago, which spawned the PLC movement to practitioners and researchers today. Participants were selected from highs schools with a Recognized or higher rating by the Texas Education Agency, and that were also acknowledged for their high performance in mathematics. Three large Texas high schools were chosen, and interviews conducted with twelve participants, three principals and nine teachers. The perspective was narrowed to the field of mathematics because this subject continues to be challenging for so many students as reflected on Texas state scores. After analysis of interviews with the three principals and nine math teachers, five common themes emerged from the data. Structure/time, leadership, collaboration, effective components of the PLC, and professional development were analyzed in the findings. It was evident that these educators saw value in the process of working within a professional learning community and advocate the continuation and development of such a work structure within their schools. The perceptions of these participants validated the research found in the literature supporting PLC's as an appropriate school reform strategy.