Meaningful Collaboration: Professional Learning Communities

"It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed."

                                                                                     --Charles Darwin

In some ways, our Professional Learning Community (PLC) was very effective, and in other ways the time was not well spent. Why?

As I think about meaningful, productive collaboration, I recognize some structures that worked well and others that were compromising with regard to effective collaboration.

One effective process was our focus on persuasive writing. There were many reasons why this collaboration worked well. First, it was obvious that the curriculum director had put significant planning time into the endeavor prior to the collaboration. She had carefully thought out the process using backwards design related to a meaningful, shared teaching goal: developing student writing. Therefore when teachers started the collaborative learning experience, a road map was in place.

Next, the leader used a loose-tight structure by leaving plenty of room for teacher voice and process. Since she planned the learning early, she was able to access significant blocks of collaborative planning time outside of the one-hour-a-week PLC. She carefully targeted that time for a teachers-only effort so the numbers were good for collaborative work.

In addition, a consultant was hired to inform the process. The consultant provided well-researched expertise and professional learning time for all the educators involved. Teachers used school-day time for this learning and substitutes were provided to run the classrooms.

As Hattie's book recommends, the learning took on a thoughtful process of teaching, assessing, and revising all along the way which made this a student-centered, responsive process--a process that resulted in significant student growth, confidence, and skill.

Other PLC efforts were less successful due to the following issues:

• Not enough lead time or planning.
• Too many people.
• Not enough time for meaningful work.
• Too many and too varied goals and efforts.
• Less teacher voice and more old-time top-down structure.
• Lack of a consistent, invested facilitator or team leader.
• Inconsistent attendance so the group varied from week to week which impacts trust and team.

So how do we make teacher collaboration and PLCs more effective?

PLCs thrive when the effort includes meaningful questions, a team leader, adequate time, just right numbers, optimal learning design, assessment, and a students-first focus. 

Meaningful Conflicts and Question Targets

First, it's important that the PLC doesn't become the panacea for all communication and endeavor as this dilutes potential positive effect. The PLC purpose and focus should be carefully thought out at the beginning of the year (or even prior to the start of the teaching year), and this process should target one, two, or at most three main focus areas of effort and endeavor. Also, with optimal learning design in mind, the PLC focus should be a focus on main conflicts or questions related to student learning. For example, the persuasive writing unit focused on the question, "How do we improve students' persuasive writing?" Then, as with any good learning design, the process used to improve student writing easily transferred to other writing genre which made this a valuable learning event.

Team Leader for PLC Facilitation, Communication, and Assessment

Next, a PLC effort is stronger when there is one main facilitator--in a sense a team leader, one who orchestrates the PLC effort each week. It's best if this facilitator is an administrator, someone who has the role of lead learner, and someone who has an investment in the educators' work and effect. Like any good educator, the team leader would begin by establishing a strong relationship with all members of the PLC. He/she would work to model effective teaching/learning strategies throughout the PLC effort by employing optimal learning design, leaving lots of room for teacher voice and choice, keeping a students-first focus, and utilizing lead time and planning to effect optimal results. Just as educators are responsible for student learning, the PLC facilitator would be responsible for effective, engaging professional learning. Like a cheerleader, the PLC facilitator would also work to keep the communication timely and encouraging. The PLC facilitator would also be responsible for assessing the PLC's effectiveness with transparent, timely formative and summative assessments. At present, in our system, multiple leaders attend multiple PLCs. This takes lots of time and also creates some confusion with regard to PLC efforts. If one leader were assigned to each PLC, then the PLC leaders could meet and share thoughts and ideas at other times as one way to build the overall PLC process. 

Time

When we consider the potential educators today hold for optimal education, it's clear that one hour a week for collaborative planning, learning design, assessment and effort is not enough. We need to rethink time ratios in schools today. Since we know that collaborative work benefits student learning, we need to make ample time for that work.

Numbers and Consistency

Too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many teachers spoil the PLC. I've heard that five with two more or less is a good size group for planning and action. We need to make sure that our PLCs do not have too many people and too little consistency for good relationships and good work.

Assessment and Learning Design

Our PLC efforts should replicate the best learning design because as educators we are working and learning together to best effect student learning. Also, as in any good learning design, our efforts should be assessed with regular formative assessment and timely summative assessment. The learning design and assessments should be an inclusive process that includes the voice of all educators belonging to the PLC.

Students First

Overall the PLC should always keep a students-first focus. This focus centers the collegial groups work and effort in positive, enriching ways.

PLCs are a process that promote collaboration, and collaboration is essential in our teaching/learning environments. When educators collaborate well, they learn about the positive effects of collaboration and they model and promote those collaboration effects in the classroom. 

Optimal collaboration benefits from good structure and administrative support. The move from old-time factory model schools that fostered lots of isolation and independence to learning communities that promote team and collaboration is a big change, a change that has substantial promise if done well. 

Let me know if you have any thoughts related to this post. I am very interested in this topic, and I welcome your ideas, stories, and experience.


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