What is a Professional Learning Community (PLC)? If one searches for the term online, one will find many different definitions. For example, according to a post on ISTE [1], “A professional learning community (PLC) is a team of educators who share ideas to enhance their teaching practice and create a learning environment where all students can reach their fullest potential. Most PLCs operate within a school building or across a district. They can be organized by grade level, content area or an entire teaching staff.” Also, according to Wikipedia [2], “A professional learning community (PLC) is a method to foster collaborative learning among colleagues within a particular work environment or field. It is often used in schools as a way to organize teachers into working groups of practice-based professional learning.”
For the PROSPECT project, as outlined in our proposal, a PLC is generally defined as a group of faculty and staff who actively engage in regular, collaborative discussions, seminars, and activities as to develop strategies for shared goals of teaching and learning [3,4]. For example, different PROSPECT PLCs may include advisors, staff who have insight into student financial aid and student life, faculty, and administrators from both 2-year and 4-year institutions who are all working to support the success of STEM students, particularly those who transfer across their institutions.
Cutting across these definitions are some underlying, common themes, such as “sharing ideas” and “shared goals”, “teaching” and “learning”, “collaboration” and “practice."
Benefits of a PLC include improving student learning as a direct result, enriching the teaching experience, helping disseminate, adopt, and adapt best practices in teaching, forming communities that engage teachers and staff, facilitating reflection on the various aspects of education ranging from recruitment to retention, outreach to engagement.
Now, how do we build a PLC? EducationWeek [5] offers a five-step process: (1) determine the goals of the PLC, (2) decide how to reach your goal and how to assess your progress, (3) set group norms and expectations, (4) be proactive, and (5) take advantage of technology and learning-management platforms.
References:
1 https://www.iste.org/explore/professional-development/4-benefits-action-professional-learning-community, retrieved February 28, 2023
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_learning_community, retrieved February 28, 2023
3 Addis, E. A., K. M. Quardokus, D. C. Bassham, P. W. Becraft, N. Boury, C. R. Coffman, J. T. Colbert, and J. A. Powell-Coffman (2013). Implementing Pedagogical Change in Introductory Biology Courses Through the Use of Faculty Learning Communities, Journal of College Science Teaching, 43(2):22-29.
4 Cox, M. D. (2004). Introduction to Faculty Learning Communities, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 97, pp. 5-23.
5 https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-10-strategies-for-building-a-professional-learning-community/2021/04
More details at: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-10-strategies-for-building-a-professional-learning-community/2021/04