On Common Ground: Chapter 2

Citation: DuFour, R. (2005) What Is a Professional Learning Community? In R.Dufour, R.Eaker & R. Dufour (Eds.) On Common Ground. (ppgs 31-43) Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree

Abstract:
The main point the author is trying to get at in this chapter is that while PLC's require a lot of hardwork and dedication from people within schools, the successes they create far outweigh the difficulties. The chapter focus's on a couple big ideas about sustaining PLC's until they are embedded into the school culture. The core misson of behind PLC's is that every student learns, not that every student is taught. Colleages must explore the questions, "what do we want students to learn", "how will we know each student as learned it" and " how will we respond if a student shows difficulty learning it". A systematic, timely, direct intervention program works best. Another big idea the idea of a culture of collaboration and collaborating for school improvement. A strategy called team learning process's can be effectively used. These teams meet frequently and focus their efforts on questions crucial to student learning. The third big idea is to focus on results. Teacher team should focus on identifying ongoing levels of student acheivenment. They should develop assessments and look at each teachers results, and look for patterns where their teaching was ineffective.

Reflection: I thought that the school examples this chapter used to support the idea were very interesting. The intervention for students who are having difficulty in a subject was interesting to me for a number of reasons. One, was because the school was very large (4,000 students) but this system was still in place for all students. It was clear that the schooll was truely committed to student success. I really liked how the involvement with each student doesn't just stop at student/teacher/parent interaction. With this program there are at least 6 or 7 people monitoring and helping these students be successful on a daily basis. The only thing I would think would be difficult about this program would be the large numbers of people and staff needed to implement it. I think its a good idea this happends during school study hall time, not after school. A lot of teachers will stay after school with students but often students can't get the transportation home.
I think the idea of learning over teaching is something that more teachers need to catch on to. Becuase of NCLB a lot of teachers just teach to the test, and students don't really learn anything. With learning teams that the book talked about, teachers can change this attitude of teaching to the test and work collaboratively on how to help students learn. While I think that PLC's clearly take a lot of hard work and motavation from the faculty, I think that they can vastly improve school wide success if the effort is put in.