Professional Learning Communities: Creating a Foundation for Collaboration Skills in Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

Introduction According to Schmoker (2005), Powerful proven structures for improved results already exist. They begin where group of teachers meet regularly as team to identify essential and valued student learning, develop common formative assessments, analyze current levels of achievement, set achievement goals, and then share and create lessons and strategies to improve upon those levels. Professional learning communities in schools provide the structure that must exist within school in order to become effective. University faculty members in the undergraduate teacher education program at Samford University recognize the ability to collaborate and participate in professional learning communities as critical skills that all teachers in the 21st century must possess. Collegiality is important for teachers and can be directly linked to effective schools. (Glatthorn & Fox, 1996) Therefore, the basis for the skills needed to function within collegial professional learning community must be developed through intentional, scaffolded experiences in an effort to overcome teacher isolation that lead to the attrition of first year teachers. It cannot be assumed, however, that beginning teachers come prepared to take responsibility for their own professional growth. Moreover, these crucial skills must be viewed as foundational, and developed before teachers begin their practice. Reflecting on Richard DuFour's research in collaboration, it is understood that there are marked differences in Professional Learning Communities (PLC) and other cooperative teams. These are not traditional but groups established to determine what students will be learning and how to respond when they do not learn. To assist in the development of these specialized collaborative skills in pre-service teachers, faculty in Samford's teacher education program created scaffolded experience to support candidates as they engage in variety of authentic experiences. Dufour's guiding questions for teachers working in Professional Learning Communities were discussed prior to the development of the model: * What do we want each student to learn? * How will we know when each student has learned it? * How will we respond when student experiences difficulty in learning? In addition to consulting the research, faculty explored ways to develop model that would be aligned with EDUCATE Alabama. EDUCATE Alabama is a formative system designed to provide data about teacher's current level of practice within Continuum based on Alabama Quality Teaching Standards (AQTS). As the process implies, the system is learning collaborative. Data are used by the evaluator and teacher to set expectations, goals, and plans for teacher professional growth and learning. AQTS Standard (5) addresses the importance of teachers who can impact student achievement by engaging in professional learning for self improvement, collaborate with colleagues to create and adopt research based best practices. Samford's teacher education candidates participated in model that supported the development of these skills where they were given the opportunity to explore research in best practice as well as collaborate in small groups to analyze student work as well as other projects in safe and controlled environment. Candidates in the model, participated in professional learning community for two semesters prior to student teaching. Each candidate developed Professional Learning Plan (PLP) after completing self-rating scale based on AQTS (Alabama Quality Teaching Standards) indicators. The candidates were grouped according to self identified areas of weaknesses and assigned faculty mentor to guide sessions and provide resources for individual professional growth. Instruction in group dynamics, stages of professional learning, and effective problem solving strategies was given periodically in whole group format. …

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