Professional Learning Communities: Fostering Educator Growth and Student Success

How do education systems foster continuous growth when there are so many differing roles and specializations of key players who are part of a student’s learning experience? The wealth of knowledge among individuals can remain siloed because school structures and schedules don’t often allow for easy communication and collaboration. One tool that can support educators in developing productive systems of collaboration is the Professional Learning Community. 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. Not every educator is sold on the idea of yet another meeting, but when done right, PLCs reap huge benefits for both students and teachers.

Defining Professional Learning Communities

A Professional Learning Community, or PLC, is a group of individuals who work together to learn from one another, analyze student outcomes, troubleshoot challenges, or develop solutions that support student learning. The reasons for establishing a PLC are varied and usually center around the need to bring in multiple perspectives on an issue or question that a school wishes to examine. A professional learning community (PLC) is an extended learning opportunity involving a group of colleagues in a particular field or workplace. The group members meet regularly to collaborate (work with one another), share their expertise, learn from experts, and raise the skill and knowledge levels of the whole group.

The focus of a PLC is on learning rather than teaching, with a strong emphasis on developing each member as a professional so that each individual is positioned to contribute to the overall success of the organization. Although PLCs can be found in a variety of settings, such as corporations and professional/trade organizations, they originated and often are found in academics (schools).

The very essence of a learning community is a focus on and a commitment to the learning of each student. When a school or district functions as a PLC, educators within the organization embrace high levels of learning for all students as both the reason the organization exists and the fundamental responsibility of those who work within it. In order to achieve this purpose, the members of a PLC create and are guided by a clear and compelling vision of what the organization must become in order to help all students learn. They make collective commitments clarifying what each member will do to create such an organization, and they use results-oriented goals to mark their progress.

The Purpose and Characteristics of PLCs

The purpose of a professional learning community is, first and foremost, to promote learning. PLCs foster collaborative learning, or situations in which two or more people attempt to learn something together. PLCs also promote professional development, or the advancement of professional skills, of all group members. In school settings, PLCs focus on enhancing the skills of teachers and support staff so that students can become more successful learners. Such PLCs may work together over the course of several years to implement improvements throughout the school.

Research suggests that PLCs are only as effective as the organizations in which they are established. Organizations with successful PLCs tend to have the following characteristics:

Shared vision, values, and goals
Willingness to collaborate
Willingness to share experiences
Focus on outcomes or results
Supportive leadership structure

To create a successful professional learning community, a company or organization must have a shared vision of itself as a learning-focused entity that is committed to the improvement of staff. The organization must be clear about what it is and where it is headed. Its vision must be understood and shared by the individuals who work there.

Part of a shared vision is the expression of the organization's values, or the underlying principles for which the organization stands. The organization must clearly express its goals, or what it is working to achieve. Although high-level goals may be stated in abstract terms, these goals also will be translated into achievable, measurable objectives that support work standards and expectations.

In school settings, teachers and administrators focus on student learning. They share a commitment to improving instructional practices and conditions that promote student comprehension of learning materials.

Organizations with successful PLCs believe in the principle of collaboration. They agree that individuals can achieve more together than they can alone.

In the PLC itself, the group as a whole benefits from the contributions of each individual participant. A division of labor in which each staff member has a personal interest in their role is most effective. Collaboration, during which participants talk about their work experiences and receive feedback from their peers, allows participants to share responsibility for common learning. It gives the group members a way to work together toward their common goal. Collaboration may take place either face to face or through the use of virtual communication tools.

Along with a willingness to collaborate, participants of a PLC must be willing to share their own experiences with the group. For educators, this willingness to share experiences may mean open, honest discussions about teaching practices, or it may involve participants observing one another at work. The goal is to help participants evaluate their own effectiveness and to expose others to new ideas for meeting the needs, interests, and skills of students.

PLCs focus on outcomes, or end results. For teachers, this means a continual improvement in instructional practices and more successful experiences for students. Research conducted in the early 2000s found empirical evidence for the effectiveness of schools' PLCs based on student achievement.

For other types of workers, a results focus may consider different aspects of worker performance, decision-making ability, or overall organizational results.

To be successful, a professional learning community requires a supportive leadership structure. For educators, this means school administrators that are committed to shared decision making and are willing to provide opportunities for teachers to act in leadership roles. Additionally, the organizational leadership must support a culture of learning. The school leadership must be willing to allow participants to utilize their collective strengths and talents to improve conditions for teachers and students.

Read also: Insightful Learning Explained

In other types of organizations, a supportive leadership encourages participation in learning experiences and allows employees to apply what they have learned in the workplace.

Who Participates in a PLC?

A PLC can be made up of teachers, administrators, or staff. The composition of the PLC is dependent on the focus and goal of the group. For example, if a PLC is created around a new district initiative, all stakeholders in the initiative might be involved.

In other instances, a PLC might be formed by a group with a common interest in an issue they identify that falls under a broader umbrella.

The key feature of PLC membership is that everyone can learn from and contribute to the group’s goals in meaningful ways. Here are some examples of PLCs structures:

Building-level PLC focusing on a school-wide initiative, such as integrating technology resources into their instruction, might include teachers, technology staff, and instructional coaches.
District-level PLC examining the roll out of whole child skill development practices across buildings and grade levels, might include assistant principals, teachers, and school counselors.
Department-level PLC focusing on a goal such as improving assessment scores, might include all teachers in a specific content area.

Establishing a focus for the PLC and determining who takes part is an important first step in creating an effective collaboration. Before the work begins, group members determine each person’s role and responsibilities as it relates to the PLC’s goal. It is also important to note that PLCs can be dynamic groups that change from time to time as the focal point of analysis changes.

Benefits and Challenges of Establishing PLCs

There is great power in talking through ideas and solutions with a group of colleagues. But sometimes bumps can occur in the process. To think through the potential benefits and pitfalls, consider these points:

Pros

Many hands make light work. By sharing the workload of analysis and problem-solving, many students can benefit from the individual efforts of a productive team.
Educators are supported and encouraged in their work when they receive collegial support-which has been shown to improve teacher retention.
PLCs are cost effective and flexible. The small group format enables more person-to-person discussion and is easier to schedule.
The collaborative nature fosters creative and innovative ideas. Bringing varied voices and perspectives to a PLC helps generate new insights.

Cons

PLCs can seem like one more extra task that busy educators have to put on their list.
Without a clear focus, a PLC can turn into an idea factory with lots of enthusiasm but little action when it comes to accomplishing a focused goal.
PLC structures can take time to establish with consistency as part of the school routine. To be most effective, it is important to ensure a collaborative school culture is in place.

As with any classroom lesson or strategic vision, when educators thoughtfully plan for an outcome and clearly communicate the vision with others, the potential for successful implementation is greatly increased!

Essential Elements of Effective PLCs

Several key elements contribute to the effectiveness of professional learning communities.

A Clear Purpose: What is your PLC trying to achieve? Maybe it’s improving literacy outcomes, aligning assessments, or better supporting students.
Consistent Meeting Time: PLC meetings tend to take place at weekly, bimonthly, or monthly intervals-often during a teacher’s prep period.
Shared Norms: Meeting procedures are commonly guided by norms, or a set of conduct expectations that group members collaboratively develop and agree on. Facilitators will also ensure that conversations remain objective and factual, rather than subjective and speculative.
Real-Time Data: Noticing that students are struggling with fractions across multiple classrooms? See a group of students exceeding grade-level expectations?
Trust and Collaboration: To build a strong team, it’s important to define roles and relationships of team members. This starts from understanding everyone’s strengths within the department and throughout your PLN. Enhancing the strengths of others builds trust and makes relationships come to fruition.

Sustaining Momentum in PLCs

Starting strong is one thing. Sustaining momentum is where most teams struggle.

Protect the time. Don’t double-book it. Don’t cancel it for assemblies.
Celebrate small wins. When students show growth or an intervention works, name it. Share it.
Check in regularly. Set aside time for reflection: What’s working? What’s not? If things feel stuck, revisit your original purpose or re-center around the five PLC questions.

The Role of Leadership and Support

The role of leadership and support within PLC’s is vital. Participants need to feel free to learn and to share ideas. School administrators and department heads can take the lead initially to set group norms and protocols of the meetings. Once this is done, there needs to be an emphasis on all members’ accountability to contribute to the learning process. Meetings can be once a week, bi-weekly, or once a month. Regardless of the established meeting times, consistent purposeful discussions and strategic planning in the meetings must be consistent.

Addressing Challenges and Promoting Innovation

Many teachers work to guide students to take academic risks that will help them learn. Can schools apply that idea to teacher learning as well?

The answer may be found in the collaboration achieved in professional learning communities (PLCs). However, it is possible to fall into collaborative work that stifles innovation. This can happen, for example, if PLCs focus too heavily on common assessments and a common understanding of what students are learning, leading to common everything-students getting the same lesson plan in each class.

Although this is grounded in wanting to ensure student success through consistency, it can stifle innovation, and one of the purposes of a PLC is to try out new strategies. The PLC is designed for teacher learning, and thus the team must balance risk taking and teacher autonomy with shared expectations for student learning. It’s important that teachers in a team have that clear understanding of purpose so that everyone feels safe to take risks.

A learning team constantly engages in a cycle of learning: analyzing data, setting goals, and learning individually and collaboratively, as well as implementing and adjusting practices to meet the needs of all learners. This process allows teachers to try new teaching practices and discover what’s working and what isn’t.

In PLCs, the fundamental questions teachers explore are: “What do we want students to learn?” and “How will we know if they have learned it?” These questions are foundational to any PLC, as they require teachers to come to a common understanding of the learning as well as common assessments that check for understanding.

It’s important to note that parts of this process call for tight alignment between teachers and don’t allow for the creativity and autonomy teachers may be used to. In order to achieve success for students, we do need some common practices. However, by agreeing as a team on what should be tightly aligned, we can set the stage for teacher autonomy and exploration of the art of teaching and instructional practice.

A PLC is constantly trying out new strategies to improve student learning, so individuals within the team must be given space to innovate. This is where the PLC should be only loosely aligned.

Teachers can never know what teaching works best for their students unless they are given the freedom to try out new strategies. PLCs can make this happen by having teachers collect evidence from common assessments and using data protocols to determine which strategies were most effective.

Sometimes teachers in a PLC are afraid to engage in conflict or explore different ideas, worrying that even productive conflict signals that one is “not a team player.” Conversely, teachers may feel pressured to get work done and feel they don’t have time to spend in conflict.

But productive conflict can allow us to build better ideas and stronger teams, and PLCs should embrace productive conflict and create a space for it in order to innovate. PLCs can make this happen with clear norms as well as protocols to ensure that all voices are heard and that it is safe to engage in this conflict. It’s also helpful to make sure the projected outcome of a meeting is clear: Are we “generating ideas” or “making a decision”? This clarity can make space for open conversation.

PLCs need strong facilitators in order to engage in conversations that promote learning, risk taking, and innovation.

The Role of Technology in PLCs

With the emphasis on Learning Management Systems, effective student engagement, and 21st-century learning skills PLC’s have a bright future.

At times, school leaders need to determine which new technologies to adopt, including Student Information Systems (SISs), Learning Management Software (LMSs), or add-ons like web polling tools or online libraries of classroom materials. Other times, leaders need to choose a new curriculum. Exploratory PLC teams are laser-focused on improved student learning, just like other PLC teams, but their task is to determine which new technologies, systems, or curricula would be most effective in boosting student learning. Exploratory PLC teams could form when a math department needs updated curricula that comes in several languages, or they might form when a gymnasium needs new equipment.

Which technology supports professional learning communities? PowerSchool Professional Learning is a powerful solution that helps in-school PLCs succeed, and it offers online professional learning communities as well. Within these communities, teachers can gather course feedback, surveys, and ratings. Part of the Educator Effectiveness Cloud, this solution is also a resource for immediate teacher needs like supporting remote education or adjusting to ever-changing compliance procedures.

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