This paper investigates how teachers' professional agency afforded and constrained their decisions to participate in or withdraw from professional learning communities (PLCs). While PLCs are often thought to position teachers as agents, explicit links between teacher agency and key features of PLCs have not been explored. Data from interviews with…

The proposed qualitative year-long descriptive study explored how high school teachers who participated in a Professional Learning Community had their school leadership aspirations impacted while serving in the New York City Public School System. Currently, the system has a dire need to fill school and district instructional, supervisory, and…

Professional learning communities can be important sites for teacher learning depending on the quality of the conversations in these communities. This paper investigates how different activities in teacher communities support different content and depth in teacher conversations, through examining the conversations of four professional learning…

Studies have documented numerous positive effects of mentoring, but few studies have focused on mentor education and mentors' professional development and learning. In Norway, the focus on mentoring and mentor education has been visible in political documents and teacher education for several years. However, the scale of mentor education has been…

Veteran secondary teachers are becoming complacent and isolating themselves because of changes in teacher professional development; however, continuing to learn and update instructional practices is part of teacher professional development. To better understand veteran secondary teachers, their views and experiences must be understood. The problem…

This study tested a moderated-mediation model of the processes linking principal ethical leadership and professional learning communities in China, in which teacher obligation is included as a mediator, and teacher participation in school decision making is considered as a moderator. The results from 3374 teachers revealed significant direct and…

Previous scholarship finds that effective Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have increased student achievement and advanced teacher pedagogy. As a result, PLCs have become increasingly prevalent in school reform efforts to remediate professional development. Dialogue is considered an essential component of effective PLC practice needed to…

What is the status of professional learning communities in Vietnam and Uganda? Is there a significant difference between the teaching experience of secondary teachers and how they see the relevance of professional learning communities on professional development in Vietnam and Uganda? The aforementioned questions were explored by collecting data…

The importance of teacher collaboration and professional growth are highlighted by their inclusion in the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). In ESSA, it is recommended that teachers are provided with opportunities to collaborate and participate in learning communities. The purpose of this action research study was to address the problem of…

Teacher professional learning is considered crucial for improving the quality of education. Teacher collaboration in professional learning communities can contribute to the effectiveness of professional development efforts. In the past decade, there has been a shift from within-school to between-school professional learning communities. However,…

The purposes of the study were to investigate the effects of a professional learning community (PLC) on Thai demonstration school students' grade point averages and to study and to study students' satisfaction with the professional learning community to improve their grade point averages. The participants were 107 students in a demonstration…

This paper explores professional learning as teachers engage in action research to improve their practices. Despite many contributions on professional learning communities and their effects on school improvement, there is less research on how they are developed and how teachers learn collectively. Using a social theory of learning, three…

Purpose: In professional learning communities (PLCs), teachers collaborate and learn with the aim of improving students' learning. The aim of this study is to gain insight into teachers' perceptions of their schools' changing toward PLCs and conditions which support or hamper this change. Design/methodology/approach: Questionnaires were completed…

This quantitative study explored teacher perceptions of professional learning community dimensions, teacher self-efficacy, and collective efficacy. Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been shown to positively impact teacher self-efficacy and collective efficacy, all supporting student achievement. The overarching question guiding this…

This study investigates teachers' perceptions on PLC implementation within religious-based secondary schools in the context of Malaysia. Using a pragmatic mixed-method approach, quantitative data were obtained from 610 teachers about principals' implementation and support for PLC implementation. Then, 16 senior teachers who have successfully…