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Building professional learning communities (PLC) has become a widely recognized strategy for school development and for student achievement. Four Finnish comprehensive schools were identified as being ready to be PLCs in a previous quantitative study, and the purpose of this study was to investigate practices of PLCs in these schools. In this paper, we used data from qualitative multiple-case study, which investigated practices of leadership, culture, teacher collaboration, professional learning, and development. The results showed that the principals had played the main role in the progression of schools as PLCs. Principals were described as visionary leaders who had started positive progression, shared the leadership, and created commitment to common goals. The results indicated also that a change of leaders can have a positive effect. Decision-making processes were participative, inclusive, democratic, and collaborative, aiming for a satisfactory level of consensus. Relationships among staff were reported as being based on mutual trust and openness, and members were encouraged to express their opinions. Common responsibility of students, peer support, encouragement, and co-teaching were practiced. Co-teaching practices were identified as an effective form of collaborative work-embedded professional learning which is related to the core principles of professional learning communities. Structural conditions were reported as barriers to schools' development as PLCs. ; Peer reviewed

Recent decades teachers at Danish vocational colleges have been met with high demands in adapting their pedagogy and practice to meet the requirements of new legislation, which require implementation of new pedagogical ideas as well as new ways of teaching and cooperating with colleagues. But teachers often find themselves lacking the necessary time to reflect on how to implement the new ideas and requirements. This condition thus represents a challenge to the success of implementing the demanded changes. In this article, we address the question of what is needed to create environments to support teachers' reflection and their professional development in VET with a specific focus at the potentials of 'professional learning communities' (PLC´s).

Many school districts are creating professional learning communities (PLCs) in which teachers are grouped for the purpose of collaboratively examining ways to improve student learning. PLCs are based on the assumption that actively engaging teachers in professional conversations will increase their knowledge and enhance student learning. This case study sought to gain insight into these conversations through the lens of deliberative democratic theory. According to this theory, if participants (i.e. teachers) offer reasoned opinion expressions and are inclusive of all group members, then they will be challenged to revise their viewpoints, leading to instructional change. The study involved observations of and interviews with three PLCs comprised of elementary, middle, and high school teachers within the same district. It was determined that these groups casually deliberated by sharing opinions on resources and teaching strategies that could be used with students. They listened to one another, shared personal experiences, asked questions, participated equally, and engaged in the topics of discussion to inform their own professional decisions. The teachers reported sharing instructional resources and strategies as a benefit of participating in a PLC, although the implementation of those resources was strongly influenced by a teacher's self-efficacy with the strategy. Teachers also reported the difficulty they experienced in deeply analyzing student data, not wanting to make a judgment about a group member's past performance. Overall, teachers stated that their perspectives were expanded based on the deliberations they held.

Effective Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) contribute to the overall improvement of student learning when a system-wide, leadership-based approach from the district and school level is applied by aligning a common vision, goal, and purpose. Despite a government-led implementation of PLCs province-wide in New Brunswick schools over ten years ago, the efficacy of PLCs in one particular New Brunswick school district has demonstrated little evidence of effectiveness or improvement. A district leadership team employed an Internal District Instrument (IDI) survey to measure areas of strength and barriers as it relates to its PLC formation and growth. Additionally, the team collected pre and post perception survey data from twenty teachers (n=20) during a summer learning session on building and sustaining PLCs. IDI survey results indicated that the district leadership team was seeking help in the domain of professional growth and development and that teachers and administrators were finding PLCs to be ineffective, to lack direction, and to fail to meet teacher-learning needs.

This article reports on the generational perspectives of two science teachers working in one urban school, a 38-year veteran and a second-year teacher. Despite numerous opportunities to work together, these teachers argued more than they collaborated. This research shows that at least some of the tension can be explained by the generational perspectives each brought with them to the classroom, perspectives that have been brought to the forefront by the recent demographic shift in the urban teacher workforce. Each teacher's generational perspective is presented within a framework of technical culture, service ethic, and professional commitment. Implications for recruitment and retention are discussed.

When it comes to gifted and talented education, once a student has been identified as gifted,educators make it a priority to push them to higher levels of thinking. Higher thinking is one of thedesires of these gifted students, however the emotional needs of gifted students can often be lost asthey are driven to focus on their academic abilities (Johnson, 2001). Often times the assumption aboutgifted students is that they come from a two parent home and that they will make good grades nomatter what. The following modified verbatim examples will show the impact of not meeting theemotional needs of gifted students. The first case study, by Kayleen Williams, points out how giftedstudents often comedown on themselves too hard when they come across their first academicchallenge (Edmunds, 2005). The following three case studies, by Emily Sketch, Nima Tahai and KristiRutter, show how gifted students often have to find a source of motivation after being engaged in giftedprograms for a relatively long period. The final case study, by Kelli Cohen, reveals how a student almostcompleted his graduate studies with unidentified social problems. They will also demonstrate thetransformation that takes place when the person within the gifted child is ministered to.

The objectives of this research were 1) to study the current and desirable state of the management for creating professional learning communities (PLCs) of schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) 2) to analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the management for creating PLCs of schools under the BMA and 3) to develop management strategies for creating PLCs of schools under the BMA. The study was mixed method research. The samples were 209 schools under the BMA. The instruments used in this study were the questionnaire and the strategic evaluation form of feasibility and appropriateness. The data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, average, standard deviation, PNIModified and content analysis. The results showed the following: 1) the current state of the management to create the PLCs of schools under the BMA was overall at a high level ( = 4.10). When considering each attribute, shared leadership and shared decision-making were the highest average ( = 4.31). The desired state of the management to create the PLCs of schools under the BMA was at the highest level overall ( =4.69). When considering each attribute, shared leadership and shared decision-making were the highest average ( = 4.72). 2) The strengths were the shared leadership and shared decision-making and the shared vision, mission and goals; the weaknesses were collaboration and shared practice, the collective learning through inquiry, reflective dialogues and application of learning and the supportive conditions respectively. The technology was considered as the opportunity and the economic, the political and the social aspects were considered as the threats. 3) Five management strategies were developed including (i) To promote collaborative culture and shared practice; (ii) To promote collective learning and application of learning; (iii) To develop teachers' capacities and to increase the effectiveness of the structural support; (iv) To raise the quality of shared vision, mission and goals; and (v) To ...

The study examined the effect of professional learning communities (PLC) on the achievement of students. PLC is about developing collaborative learning among colleagues to enhance the performance of an organization within a specific environment. Student achievement has defined the performance of students which can be evaluated with the help of tests. Data were gathered from SSTs (N=890) involving three districts (Sheikhupura, Kasur, and Lahore) through a multistage sampling technique. The study adopted the Professional Learning Communities Assessment (PLCA) scale to examine the PLC which was developed by Olivier et al. (2010). Student achievement scores were obtained from their respective schools based on BISE results of 10th grade. The study found that teachers strongly agreed that they were part of PLC in their institutions. The study also found a moderate and significant relationship between both PLC and student achievement (r=.71), and a 41% variance in student achievement could be explained with the help of PLC. Overall, female teachers were found better than male teachers, while urban teachers were better than urban teachers for being part of PLC. The recommendations were also added to the given study.

Providing high quality learning experiences outside the classroom requires professional educators and educational programme designers to continuously improve their knowledge, skills and attitudes toward teaching and learning. This chapter describes long-term professional development courses designed and implemented by botanic gardens across Europe. The programmes were established as part of a European Union funded project (INQUIRE). They were designed to encourage school teachers and botanic garden educators to establish interdisciplinary learning communities. The participants in the course were asked to make their tacit knowledge more explicit, share it and adopt positive attitudes towards theory-based instruction as well as use reflective practice as tools for improving their educational programmes. Learning in a collaborative network is a special mode of knowledge production which values knowledge that is embedded in social structures within and between individuals. To gain more insight into these structures and eventually use this knowledge to scaffold the social process most effectively, Social Network Analysis was used. This approach enables the course instructor to identify particular individuals in the group who are recognised as 'hubs' and 'authorities' by others and therefore impact the whole community. The process of making social interactions visible may help to improve professional development offers in the future.