This dissertation in practice presents a research-based model for staff development utilizing the elements of a professional learning community. The focus of this problem of practice was determined through an analysis of one high school's reading data indicating that 36% of the student body was reading below grade level according to the state assessment test for reading. Researchers have noted that reading demands for college and careers have increased (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2011; Barton, 2000; Common Core State Standards, 2014). If students do not develop reading proficiency to graduate with a high school diploma, they are at risk of limited career choices without college and possible unemployment. Drawing upon a review of related literature in reading education, adolescent literacy, disciplinary literacy, and staff development, a professional learning community model was proposed to address improvement in teacher capacity by demonstrating the knowledge, dispositions, and skills of pedagogical knowledge of the Common Core State Standards (Florida Department of Education, Language Arts Florida Standards, 2014) and the use of close reading techniques to increase reading comprehension of U.S. History students. This design utilizes the five elements of the DuFour (2010) model of a professional learning community including (a) focus of learning; (b) collaborative culture; (c) collaborative inquiry; (d) commitment to continuous improvement; and (e) results oriented mindset. A logic model further delineates the priorities, program plan, and intended outcomes for the implementation of this model.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher perceptions of Collaborative Inquiry embedded in a Professional Learning Community during departmental collaboration time and to explore the elements deemed most important to creating and/or maintaining this collaboration model at Lennox Charter High School. Teachers at Lennox Charter High School participated in this study. This mixed-methods case study triangulated survey, focus group, interview, and observation data to examine departmental collaboration and to define the elements most important to maintaining and improving Collaborative Inquiry at Lennox Charter High School. These elements were explored through the lens of research on Professional Learning Communities and Collaborative Inquiry. Specifically, data were examined with respect to the five themes of PLC work. These themes included context, challenge, capacity, commitments, and balancing content and process. A close examination of the data with respect to these themes revealed key take-aways for Lennox Charter High School; namely, that the school needed to bolster the data analysis aspect of Collaborative Inquiry, limit the scope of collaborative work, and endeavor to retain effective teachers so that teams had continuity and could more effectively engage veteran teachers in collaborative work. Using these recommendations would allow Lennox Charter High School to improve professional collaboration, engender meaningful teacher learning, and support equitable student achievement.

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are an important vehicle for teacher reflection and collaboration. The team leader of the PLC plays a critical role in the effectiveness of a PLC in improving instruction and student learning. However, there is less research around how the team leader facilitates the work of the PLC to improve instruction. This paper reports on a self-study investigation conducted by the team leader who used a modified approach to the PLC process focused on student mathematical thinking. The self-study consisted of analyzing video conversations of three PLC meetings to understand the nature of the leadership and how it changed over time. Based on analysis, there was evidence of the different roles the team leader played across the PLC meetings. Additionally, the roles changed over time as the needs of the team changed. Implications for PLC team leaders include how different roles are utilized to affect teacher discussion on instruction.

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The role of the principal has become increasingly complex and challenging. Recent emphasis has been placed on the role of principals as leaders who can build a culture of learning in schools to close the student achievement gap. Outside factors such as fast-growth in Texas have caused schools to change and grow quickly, which increases the learning demands placed on principals as they seek to develop the knowledge and skills needed for effective leadership. Developing and sustaining a professional learning community is a powerful strategy that has been found to improve teaching and learning, however developing professional learning communities requires skilled leadership. Limited research exists regarding how principals learn to implement and sustain professional learning communities within fast-growth districts, therefore, with this phenomenological qualitative research, I explored the lived experiences of seven principals within one fast-growth district in Texas to explore how they learned to develop and sustain a professional learning community.

The steady and consistent growth of online learning and the rapid development of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis and blogs have led to innovative methods of training and instruction. As a result, continuing research is needed to develop and validate instructional design theories and models that support teaching and learning in today's technology-rich learning environment. The goal of this research was to refine the Creating Online Learning Communities for Adults (COLCA) instructional design (ID) theory by using the theory to design an online faculty development course. A formative research design guided the investigation. Formative research seeks to identify improvements for an instructional design theory based on a designed instance of the theory, in this case an online faculty development course in Web 2.0 tools and techniques. This research is a designed case applying the COLCA instructional design theory to an online faculty development course. Data sources included course documents and observations, email messages, and participant interviews. These data were used to determine which methods prescribed by the COLCA ID theory work well, what methods could be improved, and in which specific situations each method works best. As an original contribution to the discipline of information technology as applied to teaching and learning, this study sought to improve upon an instructional design theory currently in its early stages of development and informs the design of online learning communities for adults. This research is important to continued growth and advancement of contemporary instructional design theories that provide support for emerging technologies, adult learners, and online learning methods that facilitate the development of online learning communities and communities of practice.

This thesis investigates the experiences of Children’s Centre leaders of the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) who find themselves in a newly developed role and lacking a professional identity. Its aim is to explore the developing professional identities of NPQICL participants from their own perspectives, focusing on ways in which their professional identities are developing and how, correspondingly, these might be better supported on the NPQICL. Clarification of core ideas embedded in these aims theoretically and conceptually reveals that professions are publicly shaped in line with established traditions, and therefore often prescribed. Processes of professional development are correspondingly seen as largely publicly organised processes of professional learning and/or acculturation. However, a key area for research is the interface between publicly shaped expectations of those learning to be professionals and the particular needs and expectations of course participants themselves especially with regard to how they see themselves as Children’s Centre leaders. Because this area is fluid, uncertain and shaped partly by professionals themselves it is hard to investigate. A flexible Adaptive Theory research design is selected along with an array of conceptual tools (orienting concepts and a conceptual cluster) which can be modified, discarded or replaced according to the demands of data collected. Using a relatively open-ended data collection device also allows a wide range of potentially revealing data to be ‘storied’ for analysis in order to preserve their individualised nature. Although a process of subjective self-conceptualisation in role can be used to explain how NPQICL participants adapt to expectations from the wider professional community and social context, there is a need to explain how public influences and individual co-constructions of professional identity shaped by professionals themselves are synthesised in individual responses to fluid, uncertain professional identities. The research aims are met by modelling the process of developing a professional identity on the NPQICL as an ‘autobiography’. This conceptual device brings together public and individual influences into a synthesis and allows insight into the experiences of individuals. It explains some of the success of the NPQICL course and some of its dynamics including how the development of Children’s Centre leaders’ identities can be supported in a professional learning programme.