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Encouraging Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Dr. Paul Hennissen Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (NL) Bergen, 2012 June 15. What do we know ?. Great teachers can change a student’s life Excellent teaching is the foundation of our best schools Can we realise this? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Encouraging Professional Learning Communities (PLC)
Dr. Paul HennissenZuyd University of Applied Sciences (NL)
Bergen, 2012 June 15
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
What do we know?
• Great teachers can change a student’s life• Excellent teaching is the foundation of our
best schools• Can we realise this?
• Strong communities of teachers
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Content of the presentation
1. Introduction2. Research Questions3. Method4. Findings5. Conclusion & discussion
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Introduction
• World-wide economic and cultural changes demand high levels of quality of education and of teaching.
• In the past decade we have experienced the limits of formal, externally driven, professional development and school innovation. (Timperley e.a., 2007)
• Sustained change asks for individual and collective learning processes of teachers and teacher educators.
• PLCs offer a context for these learning processes.• PLC = community of permanent research and
improvement (Hord, 1997).
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
PLCs: an idea or reality?
• PLC: professionalism, learning, community• PLC a promising and popular concept.• We still know little about PLCs en how to
encourage it.• How can we encourage schools as PLC on a
concrete level?• Which interventions lead to a sustainable
school development?
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Research Questions
• How can the development of schools into PLCs be described?
• Which interventions contribute to the realization of a PLC?
• Which role of the school leader is effective in this process?
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Theoretical Framework3 Basic Capacities (Mitchel & Sackney, 2000)
Personal capacity
Interpersonal capacity
Organisational capacity: supportive
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
7 dimensions (Verbiest, 2011)
Personal capacity
- (re) constructing knowledge
- apply knowledge
Interpersonal capacity
- shared values and vision
- collective learning Organisational capacity: supportive
- structural conditions
- cultural conditions
- leadership conditions
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Method: context
• CoP-project (Communities of Practice)• Combined development and research• Between end 2010 and 2013• Six schools were supported in their
development into PLCs.• The support of the schools consists of six
seminars for the schools’ representatives and consultation.
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Quantitative
• Quantative data (questionnaire, Verbiest2011)• Each staffmember gives an answer how he
perceived the dimensions of PLC in school?• For each school a percentile score was
calculated compared with 167 other schools.• A test score that is greater than 63% of the
scores of schools taking the test, is said to be at the 63th percentile.
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
School AGroup (n=167)
Scale Average SDPercentile Average SD
Personal capacity
- (re) constructing knowledge
- apply knowledge
Interpersonal capacity
- shared values and vision
- collective learning Organisational capacity: supportive
- structural conditions
- cultural conditions
- leadership conditions
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
School AGroup (n=167)
Scale Average SDPercentile Average SD
Personal capacity
- (re) constructing knowledge 3,066 0,294 36 3,121 0,396
- apply knowledge 2,900 0,340 57 2,742 0,442
Interpersonal capacity
- shared values and vision 2,978 0,391 30 3,073 0,446
- collective learning 2,832 0,323 52 2,815 0,388Organisational capacity: supportive
- structural conditions 2,957 0,324 46 2,922 0,399
- cultural conditions 2,978 0,328 38 2,990 0,435
- leadership conditions 3,122 0,414 75 3,003 0,399
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Qualitative
• Qualitative data: Semi-structured interviews with school leader & group of teachers
• Opinion regarding the development of their school as a PLC and role of the school leader
• Guidelines for interviews based on 7 dimensions
• Full descriptions, encoded and described in terms of 7 dimensions of PLC.
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Set up
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Findings
• In the context of this paper only some main findings till now are summarized.
• Research question 1: How to describe the development?
• The scores of each school will be related to the scores of a group of 167 other schools: percentile score.
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Percentile score schoolScale A B C D E F
Personal capacity
- (re) constructing knowledge 78 63 16 63 63 63
- apply knowledge 84 28 28 57 57 57
Interpersonal capacity
- shared values and vision 74 30 30 59 59 59
- collective learning 84 36 36 52 66 36
Organisational capacity: supportive
- structural conditions 75 25 46 46 25 46
- cultural conditions 66 38 15 38 38 38
- leadership conditions 65 29 36 60 65 70
Average percentile schools 75 36 3054 53 53
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Percentile score schoolScale A B C D E F
Personal capacity
- (re) constructing knowledge 78 63 16 63 63 63
- apply knowledge 84 28 28 57 57 57
Interpersonal capacity
- shared values and vision 74 30 30 59 59 59
- collective learning 84 36 36 52 66 36
Organisational capacity: supportive
- structural conditions 75 25 46 46 25 46
- cultural conditions 66 38 15 38 38 38
- leadership conditions 65 29 36 60 65 70
Average percentile schools 75 36 3054 53 53
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Percentile score schoolScale A B C D E F
Personal capacity
- (re) constructing knowledge 78 63 16 63 63 63
- apply knowledge 84 28 28 57 57 57
Interpersonal capacity
- shared values and vision 74 30 30 59 59 59
- collective learning 84 36 36 52 66 36
Organisational capacity: supportive
- structural conditions 75 25 46 46 25 46
- cultural conditions 66 38 15 38 38 38
- leadership conditions 65 29 36 60 65 70
Average percentile schools 75 36 3054 53 53
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Findings 2
• Research question 2: which interventions contribute to the development of PLCs.
• This is not easy, because it is not always clear at the outset what the intensions are.
• And almost every intervention can influence more than one capacity at the same time.
• But we see intervention that contribute to the innovation agenda of the school.
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Interventions that encourage PLCs
• Stimulating and modelling professional culture• Re-organisation of the primary process• Creating interdependance between teachers in the
primary process• Coaching teachers’ learning processes• Connecting capacity building with the innovation
agenda of the school• Re-organisations of the structures for prof.
development and meetings, aimed at collective learning.
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Conclusion
It is possible to • charactise schools with the 7 dimensions of
PLC-concept;• differentiate between schools;• encourage professional learning communities.
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Questions
• What contributes to PLCs in schools?• Is the role of the school leader crucial?• What can researchers do to encourage PLCs?
Paul Hennissen - Bergen 2012
Thank you for your attention.If you want more information, please mail me