Develop professional learning communities as a strategy for building capacity for sustainable improvement¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 2 studies (1 review, 1 theoretical), q1–q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review's forward-looking recommendation is that schools and systems develop professional learning communities as their route to capacity building: "Developing professional learning communities appears to hold considerable promise for capacity building for sustainable improvement." The strategy treats PLC development as an implementable organisational activity aimed at sustaining learning over time, and the review notes its spread as "a 'hot topic' in many countries."

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• PLC development must be linked to the components of capacity, including organisational conditions, culture and infrastructure of support

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• teachers
• school leaders
• school systems

Target Learning Goals¶

• sustainable school improvement
• collective teacher learning

Affordances¶

• Plc Vehicle For Capacity Building

Claims¶

• Developing professional learning communities appears to hold considerable promise for capacity building for sustainable improvement [+W]
• Educational reform's progress depends on teachers' individual and collective capacity and its link with school-wide capacity for promoting pupils' learning [+W]
• Participating in scoring performance assessments builds teacher capacity in several ways [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional Learning Communities: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Educational Change. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-006-0001-8