Professional Learning Communities
HPREC is providing schools across the
region, state, and in Colorado systematic professional development on building
effective Professional Learning Communities.
A professional learning community is a
structure that provides an opportunity to develop the capacity of school
personnel to function as a learning organization, as a learning community of
continuous inquiry and improvement. Richard DuFour challenges schools to shift
their focus on learning for learning to become the preoccupation of the school,
where all members of the community examine the efforts and initiatives of the
school through the lenses of their impact on learning.
“Professional learning communities are
our best hope for reculturing schools. A common belief is that changing the
structure of schools – how they are organized – is the primary way to change
behavior. But changing the structure of schools is not enough. Changing the
structure without altering the belief system will not produce fundamental
changes” (Eaker, DuFour, and DuFour, 2002, p. 9). While the PLC focuses on
achieving these characteristics, they also continually ask four critical
questions:
(a) What do we want students to learn?
(b) How will we know if they have
learned it?
(c) What are we going to do if they have
not learned it?, and
(d) What will we do when they already
know it (DuFour, Eaker, & DuFour, 2002).
Schools that function as professional
learning communities are always characterized by a collaborative culture in
which teachers no longer work in isolation; the staff work together and
participate in decision-making. All members of the community are called upon
to be contributing members of a collective effort to improve the school’s
capacity for helping all students learn at high levels (Eaker, DuFour & DuFour,
2002).
For more information on HPREC's
Professional Learning Communities project, contact: Elisabeth Nixon @
575.445.7090.
For more information on Professional
Learning Communities, visit:
Solution Tree:
Professional Learning Communities.
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