Professional Learning Community

Introduction Today, professional learning communities are found in almost every school – public, charter, or private. They have become engrained as a critical part of the teaching process. Many school leaders credit their schools’ growth and success to their professional learning communities. We are going to discuss the professional learning community model, explore how it began, and how it has transformed over time to what we see in today’s educational setting.

What is a Professional Learning Community? While there is no universal definition of a professional learning community, there are prognostic attributes found in any true professional learning community. Professional learning communities are comprised of groups of teachers, school

Examples of these could include school improvement teams, response to intervention teams, collaborative teams, grade level teams, and data teams (Doolittle, 2008). All of these smaller groups work together to operate as a professional community with a shared vision, mission, norms, and goals. The purpose in having a professional learning community is to not only improve instructional techniques and content knowledge through teamwork and shared purpose, but also to improve the experience for students and increase achievement (Gillespie,

As Senge’s concept was tested by educators and dispersed through professional literature, his “learning organizations” became known as “learning communities” in the field of education (Hord, 2004). Through his research, Senge (1990) observed that “ultimately, a learning organization is judged by results”. This caught the attention of many in the field of education because there was so much dissatisfaction with quality of education at this time. Also fueling the popularity of Senge’s learning organizations was the need for schools to be accountable for results.

As professional learning communities began form in more schools across the country, more research was done focusing on these communities within an educational context. Milbrey McLaughlin (1993) reported in her research the most successful schools and the most effective departments within schools operated as strong professional communities that shared the following characteristics: shared norms and beliefs, culture of collaboration, reflective practice, professional growth, and mutual support and