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What are Professional Learning Communities?
Professional learning communities (PLCs) are an approach to school improvement where groups of teachers work collaboratively at the school level to improve student outcomes.
Professional learning community (PLC) schools start from a simple idea: students learn more when their teachers work together.
Building a PLC is a proven way for schools to increase student learning by creating a culture that is:
focussed on continuous improvement by linking the learning needs of students with the professional learning and practice of teachers
committed to professionalism
fuelled by collaborative expertise.
The 10 principles of effective PLCs
The 10 principles of effective PLCs
Found in all effective PLCs are 10 principles that bring together the best available research on school improvement:
Student learning focus: School improvement starts with an unwavering focus on student learning.
Collective responsibility: For every child to achieve, every adult must take responsibility for their learning.
Instructional leadership: Effective school leaders focus on teaching and learning.
Collective efficacy: Teachers make better instructional decisions together.
Adult learning: Teachers learn best with others, on the job.
Privileged time: Effective schools provide time and forums for teacher conversations about student learning.
Continuous improvement: Effective teams improve through recurring cycles of diagnosing student learning needs, and planning, implementing and evaluating teaching responses to them.
Evidence driven: Effective professional learning and practice are evidence-based and data-driven.
System focus: The most effective school leaders contribute to the success of other schools.
Integrated regional support: Schools in improving systems are supported by teams of experts who know the communities they work in.
Source: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/management/improvement/plc/Pages/default.aspx#link32
Atul Gawande speaks about how a simple checklist reduced complication rates in surgery by 35%, death rates by 47% and saved the health industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
Why a checklist?
Why a checklist?
In a profession where change is constant and the responsibility is intense, the humble checklist can foster clarity and confidence on improvements as we work to create the best learning environments for students.
We also sometimes forget or skip steps that may not seem integral to how we successfully implemented a strategy if enough time elapses before you use it again.
Checklists can help with memory recall and clearly set out minimum steps necessary in a process. Good checklists are explicit. They offer the possibility of verification but also instil the discipline of higher performance.
You have now begun your very own Personalised Playbook of strategies that are tried and tested (by you!)
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