If you’ve worked in education for a while you are probably familiar with PLC’s. Depending on where you work, your experience with PLC’s could vary widely. In some schools, PLC’s are a great experience for educators. In others, educators are wondering why they have to attend PLC’s at all. Let’s talk about it, shall we?
What is a PLC? This question will prompt different responses from a wide range of educators. The answer is based on personal experience in different educational settings. Solution Tree defines a PLC as an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve.
DuFour, R.,Eaker,R.,Many, T. (2006)
Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities At Work, pg. 2-4.
If you were to visit twenty different campuses, there’s a possibility that you will see twenty different versions of PLC’s. How PLC’s are executed depends on the campus Principal’s vision. Is there a right way to design PLC’s? It depends on who you ask.
Most educators treat PLC’s as a meeting. They meet at a certain time, on a certain day, and oftentimes sit in the same seats. The team collaborates and once the meeting is over, they go back to their classrooms to provide instruction the best way that they know.
While this could be a productive way for teams to operate, is it the best way? Are the instructional needs of students being met? Are teachers getting better at their craft? Are campus and grade level goals being met?
A PLC is more than just a weekly meeting. It is not simply comprised of one grade level. A PLC should be a campus wide entity. Collaboration should be an ongoing occurrence, not just minimized to a certain window of time. Everyone on a campus is responsible for the education of our students, from the bus drivers to the workers in the cafeteria, and everyone in between.
A true PLC should engage in a cycle of analyzing data, setting goals, and individual and collective growth. There should also be room for productive conflict. New ideas can be birthed from respectful disagreements. PLC’s also need strong facilitators.
Educators are incredibly talented. In order for our schools to be effective, we must lean on the collective expertise of everyone that serves our students. When done right, PLC’s can achieve amazing things. Remember, it’s all based on the four questions that should guide our instruction;
What do we want all students to know and be able to do?
How will we know if they learn it?
How will we respond when some students do not learn it?
How will we extend the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency?
My Life In Education… 