Learning communities have been demonstrated to dramatically improve student outcomes by engaging students in their learning. This book constitutes a comprehensive guide for readers who want a broad ...strategic view of learning communities, enabling them to identify which type of LC best meets the learning needs of their students, and the context and mission of their institution. It also provides the tools for planning, designing and implementing what the authors define as "powerful" LCs, and for understanding the assessment implications of their decisions. The potential power of LCs is realized through effective facilitation, appropriate team-building activities, linkages, planning, and active collaboration that promotes learning of the group and the individual group members - all of which topics are covered in this volume. This book is organized around the three themes of setting the stage, designing an LC, and building or enhancing a powerful LC, and covers three types of learning communities - student, professional (faculty, staff), and institutional LCs concerned with student learning - providing a range of tools and forms to facilitate planning. The authors also address designing and maintaining hybrid and virtual LCs. This book is intended as a practical resource for anyone at any level in higher education who wants to champion, develop or redesign student or professional LCs, or even explore broader initiatives to develop their institution into a "learning organization". Administrators in academic and student affairs will find guidance for setting appropriate policies and allocating resources. The book may also serve as a textbook for graduate courses in institutional leadership and policy studies, curriculum and instruction, student affairs, or assessment/evaluation.
This book introduces community college faculty and faculty developers to the use of faculty learning communities (FLCs) as a means for faculty themselves to investigate and surmount student learning ...problems they encounter in their classrooms, and as an effective and low-cost strategy for faculty developers working with few resources to stimulate innovative teaching that leads to student persistence and improved learning outcomes.Two-year college instructors face the unique challenge of teaching a mix of learners, from the developmental to high-achievers, that requires using a variety of instructional strategies and techniques. Even the most experienced teachers can find this diversity demanding.Faculty developers at many two-year colleges still rely solely on the one-day workshop model that, while useful, rarely results in sustained student-centered changes in pedagogy or the curriculum, and may not be practicable for the growing cohort of part-time faculty members.By linking work in the classroom with scholarship and reflection, FLCs provide participants with a sense of renewed engagement and stimulate collegial exploration of ways to achieve educational excellence. FLCs are usually faculty-instigated and cross-disciplinary, and comprise groups of six to fifteen faculty that work collaboratively through regular meetings over an extended period of time to promote research and an exchange of experiences, foster community, and develop the scholarship of teaching. FLCs alleviate burnout and isolation, promote the development, testing, and peer review of new classroom strategies or technologies, and lead to the reenergizing and professionalization of teachers.This book introduces the reader to FLCs and to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, offering examples of application in two-year colleges. Individual chapters describe, among others, an FLC set up to support course redesign; an "Adjunct Connectivity FLC" to integrate part-time faculty within a department and collaborate on the curriculum; a cross-disciplinary FLC to promote student self-regulated learning, and improve academic performance and persistence; a critical thinking FLC that sought to define critical thinking in separate disciplines, examine interdisciplinary cross-over of critical thinking, and measure critical thinking more accurately; an FLC that researched the transfer of learning and developed strategies to promote students' application of their learning across courses and beyond the classroom. Each chapter describes the formation of its FLC, the processes it engaged in, what worked and did not, and the outcomes achieved.Just as when college faculty fail to remain current in their fields, the failure to engage in continuing development of teaching skills, will equally lead teaching and learning to suffer. When two-year college administrators restrain scholarship and reflection as inappropriate for the real work of the institution they are in fact hindering the professionalization of their teaching force that is essential to institutional mission and student success.When FLCs are supported by leaders and administrators, and faculty learn that collaboration and peer review are valued and even expected as part of being a teaching professional, they become intrinsically motivated and committed to collaboratively solving problems, setting the institution on a path to becoming a learning organization that is proactive and adept at navigating change.
Teaching is changing. It is no longer simply about passing on knowledge to the next generation. Teachers in the twenty-first century, in all educational sectors, have to cope with an ever-changing ...cultural and technological environment. Teaching is now a design science. Like other design professionals--architects, engineers, programmers--teachers have to work out creative and evidence-based ways of improving what they do. Yet teaching is not treated as a design profession. Every day, teachers design and test new ways of teaching, using learning technology to help their students. Sadly, their discoveries often remain local. By representing and communicating their best ideas as structured pedagogical patterns, teachers could develop this vital professional knowledge collectively. Teacher professional development has not embedded in the teacher's everyday role the idea that they could discover something worth communicating to other teachers, or build on each others' ideas. Could the culture change? From this unique perspective on the nature of teaching, Diana Laurillard argues that a twenty-first century education system needs teachers who work collaboratively to design effective and innovative teaching. The following chapters are contained in this book: (1) Teaching as a design science; (2) What is formal learning? (3) What students bring to learning; (4) What it takes to learn; (5) What it takes to teach; (6) Motivating and enabling the learning cycle; (7) Learning through acquisition; (8) Learning through inquiry; (9) Learning through discussion; (10) Learning through practice; (11) Learning through collaboration; and (12) Teaching as developing pedagogical patterns. References are included.
Teacher communities play a central role in teachers' professional development. This study provides a systematic review of empirical research on teacher communities (TCs). Based upon predefined ...selection criteria, 40 studies were analysed using a narrative method. Three different types of TCs were identified: formal, member-oriented with a pre-set agenda, and formative TCs. Results showed that different stakeholders (governments, school principals, teachers) are involved and their different perspectives and degrees of involvement (distinguishing between TCs realised bottom-up or top-down) impact TCs. Finally, several conditions for success were reported: supportive leadership, group dynamics and composition, and trust and respect.
•Community appears to be a fuzzy concept, in literature and practice.•Three different types of teacher communities (TCs) can be distinguished.•The presence of different stakeholders influences the functioning of TCs.•Conditions for TCs' success include leadership, group dynamics, trust, and respect.
Explore how to provide equitable literacy instruction and assessment so every student masters essential standards. The authors help K-6 teacher teams navigate the teaching and learning of reading ...through the lens of Professional Learning Communities at Work®. Learn strategies for utilizing data as collaborative teams to answer the four critical questions of learning, and access templates and protocols to improve literacy for all. This book will help K-6 teachers and reading specialists: (1) Analyze and improve their current literacy practices, curriculum, and instructional focus within the context of a PLC at Work; (2) Create or curate common formative team literacy assessments for learning targets; (3) Structure a supportive master schedule that allows for daily team collaboration and system-wide response; (4) Understand the components of a comprehensive literacy instructional block; and (5) Create progress-monitoring tools and focused reading interventions and extensions.
Be prepared to enrich students who already know your planned curriculum. "What's Next?" provides the tools you need to preassess students and practical strategies to further their learning. Concrete ...examples from different content areas and grade levels illustrate the ideas in action. Written for singletons and teacher teams alike, this comprehensive resource allows you to test and choose the strategies that work best for your classroom. This book will show you how to: (1) Recognize the purpose of question four within the PLC at Work process: What do I do when they already know it? (2) Rethink instruction to empower students to further their learning; (3) Implement a variety of strategies for students to show what they know; (4) Use a different strategy each month and choose what works best; and (5) Fully implement question four by combining the strategies that best suit your classroom.
The use of online collaborative learning activities has been notably supported by cloud computing. Although specific reference has been made to a certain online application or service, there has been ...no clear understanding of how different cloud computing tools have shaped the concept of collaborative learning, and the extent to which these resources are accessible to today's students. Thus, a review of the literature was conducted to identify studies on cloud computing tools for collaborative learning in a blended classroom. The review of the literature led to the inclusion of 29 relevant studies categorized as synchronized tools, Learning Management System (LMS) tools, and social networking tools. The review results revealed a set of evidences supporting the use of certain cloud computing tools for certain collaborative learning activities categorized under sharing, editing, communication and discussion. The key opportunities and challenges associated with the use of these tools in a blended learning context were also identified and discussed. Findings from this study will certainly help academicians, practitioners and researchers to understand the potential of using cloud computing environments from a wider perspective.
•A scoping review on the role of cloud computing tools for collaborative learning was conducted.•Synchronized, LMS, and social networking were the main tools used in a blended collaborative learning environment.•The associations between these tools and certain collaborative learning activities were mapped.•Several opportunities and challenges related to the use of these tools for collaborative learning were identified.
When implemented effectively, competency-based education (CBE) promotes high levels of learning for every student. Further, the practices and structures of a professional learning community (PLC) ...support this work. Explore a variety of perspectives and examples from educators who have shifted to CBE with great results. The book details how to do the work by reevaluating and revamping traditional policies, structures, and procedures, including assessment and instruction practices. Readers will: (1) Discover how to make the transition to competency-based education to promote learning for all students; (2) Learn the role PLC practices and structures play in establishing competency-based classrooms and schools; (3) Study real-world experiences and insights from educators from various schools and districts that have transitioned to competency-based systems; (4) Reflect with end-of-chapter questions to enhance your understanding of the material; and (5) Receive reproducible templates you can easily use and adapt to fit your needs. Abstract modified to meet ERIC requirements.
Dive into the possibilities of moving toward a personalized approach to education. With contributions from educators around the world, "PLCs at Work® and the IB Primary Years Programme" examines ...practices from envelope-pushing schools within the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) and shows how the tenets of professional learning communities can ensure that all students learn at high levels. Educators will: (1) Contextualize PLCs at Work and personalized learning within the IB PYP; (2) Unpack the core components of the PLC at Work process and the IB PYP framework; (3) Discover how the PLC at Work process can support personalized learning in the early years; (4) Explore the essential role of educational assistants in a PLC at Work and the PYP; and (5) Discuss the roles that RTI and the PLC at Work process play to support students with special needs in an IB PYP school.
Achievement Teams Steve Ventura, Michelle Ventura
ASCD,
2022, 2022-05-00
eBook, Book
What if you had a collaborative process of looking at student data that could pinpoint student gaps in learning and suggest effective strategies to close those gaps? What if you knew not only what ...you should start doing to enhance student learning, but also what you should stop doing because it hasn't given you the hoped-for results? Enter Achievement Teams. This is not another program that's here today and gone tomorrow; it's a timeless approach that any school or district can replicate that focuses on the most significant variable in student achievement: teaching. In Achievement Teams, Steve Ventura and Michelle Ventura offer a framework based on John Hattie's Visible Learning research that makes teacher collaboration more efficient, rigorous, satisfying, and effective. Think of it as a systematic treasure hunt for best practices using real data on your students. The authors walk you through the Achievement Teams four-step meeting protocol: * In Step 1, teams focus on the evidence from a pre-assessment to provide specific feedback to students and teachers about concepts and skills that students did and did not learn. * In Step 2, teams use that evidence to establish SMART goals for both teachers and students. * In Step 3, teams summarize the collected data and make inferences around students' mastery levels. * In Step 4, teachers select high-impact strategies directly targeted to student needs. A post-assessment reveals what did and didn't work. The authors provide a plethora of resources along the way, including reflection activities to extend your thinking and a variety of helpful downloadable templates designed to facilitate the work. If you're a teacher or leader who is interested in maximizing student achievement, this book is for you.
