The purpose of the study was to examine and evaluate the extent to which the supportive conditions (collaboration, teacher efficacy, shared leadership, and trust) were present in the district's current professional learning communities (PLCs) model, and whether teachers perceived the supportive conditions to be related to improving their instructional practices. This mixed-methods study used Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression, and focus group interviews to concurrently triangulate data to answer the research questions. The sample from this study was identified from 600 middle school teachers. Survey participants included 139 teachers and each of the four focus group interviews contained 6 teachers for a total of 24 teachers. Of the four supporting conditions analyzed, trust generated the highest mean (M = 3.41). Results from this study indicate that the supportive conditions for PLCs have a strong correlation (0.10) with the studied district's current PLC model and each specific supporting condition elicits a targeted aspect of professional learning that has a significant impact on teacher instructional practices. Recommendations for future studies include the expansion of this study to include elementary and high school participants and to extend this study to a larger scope of interested districts seeking to improve their PLC structures for improved teacher instructional practices. Expanding this research could build upon the current body of literature as it relates to PLCs, professional learning, and student achievement.

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.

Thesis advisor: Irwin Blumer / This study was conducted within a small urban high school that exclusively serves English Language Learners in the northeastern United States. The purpose of the study was to determine teachers' perceptions of learning from each other, student learning and school wide collaboration as a result of the implementation of a Professional Learning Community as a means of improving instruction. The body of related literature provided the theoretical rationale for the data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Major sections of the literature review included: the definition and elements that make up a Professional Learning Community, a review of the theoretical and recent research concerning best practices to support English Language Learners and a review of the research regarding teacher collaboration. Data were gathered from six participants through pre and post interviews, journal entries throughout the year of the study, field notes from announced and announced visits and teacher made documents collected throughout the year of the study. Key findings included participants' perceptions that: they learned both practical and adaptive skills from their colleagues, that peer observation aided teachers in improving their practice, that student learning and student motivation increased, that participants felt that they made stronger relationships with students and that collaboration increased as a result of the implementation of the Professional Learning Community. Current research asserts that schools that implement purposeful and well planned Professional Learning Communities that provide time, space and training may foster teacher ownership that can be used as a powerful vehicle for improving teaching and learning and school wide collaboration. The study findings affirmed this. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 15, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Barbara N. Martin Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Traditional, transmission methods of professional development (PD) for educators have been criticized as being ineffective, failing to provide enough time, context, autonomy, active engagement, and content information to enable educators to meaningfully shift their practice. This case study examined if and how transdisciplinary inquiry could be used as a vehicle for professional learning in the public-school system. Over six months, seven educators with diverse academic backgrounds, developed into a team, identified a shared concern, and engaged in transdisciplinary inquiry. To address the issue of concern, they created and utilized a set of mini-lessons on metacognitive strategies to help intermediate grade students, with a wide variety of learning exceptionalities, to reflect on and regulate their own learning. At the same time, the educators purposefully attended to their own learning as well as the learning of their fellow team members. Interview and focus group data suggest it was possible and productive to use transdisciplinary inquiry as the vehicle for professional learning. Participants reported that the experience facilitated educator learning, provided opportunity to apply knowledge, introduced multiple perspectives, and fostered positive relationships. Findings suggest that the transdisciplinary team acted as a complex system with cohesive and divisive forces working together with information from the environment to occasion learning within the system. Findings also suggest that the use of transdisciplinary inquiry projects as professional learning opportunities may be an effective and practical supplement to traditional PD methods currently used in the public education system. / Graduate

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.

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.

Science and mathematics education in Australian senior secondary years is experiencing declining enrolments, negative student attitudes, a shortage of qualified teachers and a curriculum that lacks relevance to contemporary life (Masters, 2006, Smith, 2003, Tytler, 2007). Such evidence calls for transformation in secondary science and mathematics education and acknowledges that teachers’ professional learning is central to achieving required transformation. Fulton Senior Secondary School is a purpose built school designed to respond to the perceived crisis in teaching and learning of science and mathematics in the final years of schooling. It is also the site in which this qualitative interpretive case study was conducted. The purpose of the research was to investigate the processes and outcomes of teachers’ professional learning in a setting that was designed to promote innovation and reform. The research, conducted over a period of six years, used grounded theory methods to answer questions about what supported and sustained teachers’ learning, and what were the outcomes of this learning for teachers, students and the school. To achieve an authentic account of the teachers’ lived experiences, I positioned myself as an insider-researcher, working intensely and thoughtfully with staff at Fulton over a period of six years. The study revealed the nature of the interactions between contextual conditions, organisational elements and relationships factors that influenced teachers’ professional learning. An explanatory model of professional learning was developed as an outcome of the theorising process. This identified the importance of alignments between: teachers’ capacities, characteristics and sense of personal agency; and specific contextual conditions, organisational elements and relationship factors. Successful alignments were identified as affordances for teachers’ learning and formed the basis of the explanatory model. In essence, the contextual conditions, organisational elements and relationship factors of Fulton provided the architecture of an explanatory model of professional learning. The teachers acted as explorers of this architecture. The research revealed that teachers brought existing beliefs and practices to Fulton, but through incidental and intentional learning, these beliefs and practices were expanded and often changed. Teachers developed deep understanding of many factors associated with effective pedagogy including: learning and learning processes; new science and mathematics content; effective curriculum design; and authentic assessment processes. The teachers were open to challenges and recognised their roles as learners in achieving the vision of the school. Their outcomes varied, but each teacher’s learning influenced both the students and the school as a learning organisation. There was considerable evidence that the investment in teachers as learners was pivotal to achieving the vision of transforming science and mathematics education in the senior secondary years at this school.

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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.