By Stephanie Hirsh
There’s no question that many education leaders have bought into the idea that investing in professional learning communities (PLCs) or learning teams is a valuable move. It seems that not a week goes by without a local news story about a school district changing its schedule so teachers and other educators can collaborate to address student challenges during the work day. At Learning Forward, we are firm believers in the value of such an investment. The first standard of our Standards for Professional Learning is Learning Communities, and it states, “Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students occurs within learning communities committed to continuous improvement, collective responsibility, and goal alignment.”
Yet I sometimes hear questions from frustrated educators who have made this shift and aren’t seeing a return on the investment. Teacher surveys show that this concern isn’t uncommon. For example, in the survey Teachers know best: Teachers’ views on professional development teachers overwhelmingly rated their satisfaction with professional learning communities as quite low. Yet at the same time, they responded that when it is well structured, the benefits of collaboration are clear.
I know that educators or teams are eager to turn their frustrating experiences into positive ones where they improve practices and help students to achieve at higher levels. Teachers’ time is precious and they don’t want to waste effort on initiatives that don’t work. To begin a team turnaround, I encourage teams to examine three critical questions.
1. Are we all clear on our purpose as a learning team?
While education leaders or school systems absolutely adopt a practice like PLCs with the best of intentions, those who are participating in them may not fully understand why they are meeting. When teams clarify their purposes, they are in a better position to achieve them. Ideally school leaders will contribute to clarifying team purposes while encouraging team members to lead goal setting based on their understanding of educator and student needs.
As educators set team goals, they are more likely to make progress when they attend to their own learning goals in tandem with student learning goals. Despite their name, professional learning communities often skip this step, leaving the adult learning to chance.
Ideally a learning team uses a cycle of continuous improvement, which means they have access to student and educator data to examine. They use the data to set student and educator learning goals. Then they determine a learning agenda, which leads to an implementation step and then deliberate progress monitoring.
Steps to take: As a first step to clarifying team purposes, examine available student, educator, or school data to identify needs and gaps. Ask school leaders to help the team make connections between their learning team purposes and school and district priorities so all learning is aligned.
2. Do we have the skills or culture to intentionally collaborate?
Grade-level or subject matter teacher teams are a meaningful venue for examining specific student learning challenges. With a range of educator voices on the team, members have access to broad expertise as well as perspectives about how to identify additional expertise or knowledge. At the same time, educators are not necessarily knowledgeable about how to collaborate well. They may not have experience in facilitating or engaging in collaborative learning. And while some schools are transforming how they work, traditional school structures and cultures don’t nurture open doors or invitations to collaborate. Many teachers may be wary about sharing their concerns or challenges if they don’t believe their PLCs are part of a growth-oriented culture.
Steps to take: One option for teams with little collaboration experience may be to request short-term assistance from an instructional coach or school leader who can facilitate and model effective collaboration skills. To address culture concerns, teachers who are at a high level of readiness to collaborate might consider inviting another teacher or two to observe their classrooms as a step to reduce isolation and initiate conversation about practice.
3. Do we have the support we require to succeed?
Effective learning teams need more than time set aside for learning. In addition to a clear purpose and collaboration skills as outlined above, teams need ongoing acknowledgement that their work has value and may require a range of resources, from access to learning materials to district or external expertise. The time teams have is sacred for their learning and isn’t available for administrative matters unrelated to their purpose.
Steps to take: Invite school leaders to observe or participate in team meetings to demonstrate the intentional work of the team and explicitly request support and explain why it is needed to advance the work of the team. Publicly celebrate even small wins to maintain support for the team’s work.
I hope these first steps will help PLCs to perform at higher levels. The potential for learning teams is so high – the expertise that already resides within schools is so high and effective collaboration is the ideal means to spread that expertise from room to room so that all students experience the best teaching and learning a school has to offer.
Written by: Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director, Learning Forward