The main objectives in building professional learning communities are to improve teachers' professionalism and well-being, and create positive impacts on student learning. It is a question of changing the school culture. The main objective of this quantitative study was to investigate the maturity level of thirteen Finnish schools as professional…

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…

Bringing design practices to chemistry education is gaining interest with recent science curriculum reforms emphasising design, and calls for integrated STEM education. Design is a central practice in the chemistry discipline, and could foster meaningful chemistry education. Although chemistry teachers are key in bringing design to chemistry…

Through collaboration between one rural southeastern university and a local rural school system of high-poverty in southeast Georgia (a pseudonym, Justice County School System [JCSS]), a mixed method case study analysis was conducted to examine a system-wide professional learning initiative. The goal of this initiative was to provide professional…

This study intends to identify some key factors in creating and sustaining school-based teacher professional learning communities (PLCs) through a case study of a South Korean public high school. To achieve this, the study identified some essential infrastructure, preparation, and necessary social organization for creating PLCs. The ideal unit and…

One of the major challenges in educational reform is supporting teachers and the profession in the continual improvement of instruction. Research-practice partnerships and particularly networked improvement communities are well-suited for such knowledge-building work. This article examines how a networked improvement community with eight…

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to identify how PLCs influence the high school English teachers' practice in response to key instructional shifts within teaching standards in the Southwest United States. Legislation from the last two decades puts expectations in place that raise the bar for American students and their teachers…

Implementing inclusive education requires on-going commitment to teachers' professional learning. One way of implementing professional learning is to develop learning communities based on Lave and Wenger's ideas of situated learning and learning as social practice. Learning communities, drawing on models of Professional Learning Communities and…

Educational evaluation (Ed Eval) and professional learning communities (PLCs) are two of the nation's most predominant approaches to widespread instructional improvement. Yet key attributes of these reform initiatives are too often experienced by teachers as burdensome, or even detrimental, rather than helpful. The authors of this article contend…

This article reports on a case study conducted in an urban post-primary school setting, which investigated a teaching and learning group, called a T&L Club, as a model of sustainable professional development for teachers. The group consisted of 18 members from a whole staff of 90 teachers and had been in existence for four years at the time of…

This article presents a case study that examined leaders' actions within a Spanish/English two-way immersion program as they guided teachers in a critical analysis of a common literacy assessment routine. The intent of this research was to move toward a more equitable reconceptualization of the literacy assessment routine and ultimately work to…

The Whole School Success Partnership (TWSSP) worked to develop practices and cultures that emphasized student success in five middle and high schools. Because this project took place in secondary schools where teachers have disciplinary specializations, the whole school approach came with unique opportunities and challenges. Here we describe how…

The objectives of this research were to: 1) create and specify the achievement goal of developing the innovation for enhancing the learning achievement of schools, 2) develop the potentiality of teachers and educational staffs in enhancing learning achievement of schools with the application of the ESC in coaching and mentoring, 3) monitor and…

In order to be effective, professional development efforts are most promising if they are context specific and focus on supporting collaboration. Increasingly, schools initiate professional development with small groups of teachers, with the intention that the effects of the initiatives will spill over to other school personnel. This study follows…

While the current reform efforts in Bangladesh require a substantive change in how science is taught, an equally substantive change is needed in the culture of professional practice. This study will, therefore, investigate how science teachers' learning in a professional learning community (PLC) influences the ways in which participant teachers…