Chapter 1: Professional Learning Communities

"Teacher educators at all levels, whether school or college-based, need to have induction and continuing professional development. This should ensure that they are aware of recent developments, can judge whether these should be incorporated into training, have perspectives that run beyond their direct experience, and have a rich range of material to draw on to support and stimulate trainee teachers." Lewin and Stuart, 2003

In the absence of professional learning communities, teachers learn a lot on their own, effectively teaching themselves how to teach (Huberman, 1995). Huberman terms this isolated self-teaching the 'lone wolf' paradigm of professional development and argues that many teachers tinker, problem-solve, experiment, reason and take action in their classrooms as they grow professionally throughout their careers. However, learning in isolation does not bring us in touch with new ideas. While it may help teacher educators to achieve expertise in existing practices, it does not usually help them improve practice through reflecting upon and challenging their existing ideas. Changing teacher beliefs and practices to go to new levels of expertise requires more interaction with a community of like minded people (Huberman, 1995, p. 206). Without engagement with others to discuss their teaching and ideas about experimenting in the classroom, teacher educators and teachers are more likely to "to remain 'stuck' at lower levels of mastery for lack of explicit counsel from external experts or experienced peers" (Huberman, 1995, p. 206).

What would happen if you were to replace the 'lone wolf' paradigm by connecting teacher educators with each other through forming professional learning communities? Research has indicated that when teachers [and by extension teacher educators] engage in professional development activities aimed at meeting shared goals of improving practice in collaboration with other colleagues and experts, teachers are more likely to develop higher levels of expertise (DuFour, 2004). The main activities of teachers in these communities are: experience sharing, pedagogical analysis, observation, demonstration, feedback, experimentation, developing new methods, and technical consultations from advisors. These professional learning communities can be among teachers within a school, teachers from different schools, and networks of teachers with outside counsel from teacher centers or other advisors.

Professional Learning Communities

"Changing teacher beliefs & practices"

Collegiality and networking improves practice. More successful and effective schools (as defined by learner performance and school atmosphere) are found to have greater workplace collegiality and experimentation by teachers (Little, 1982). Little (1982) also found that the norms of collegiality (faculty working together) that were most powerful in professional growth included planning for, designing, conducting, analyzing, evaluating and experimenting with the business of teaching. When teachers understand that other colleagues have something new to offer them and that they stand to grow professionally through collaborative interactions, they are more likely to engage in professional development. Professional engagement with colleagues must also include critical practices (e.g., analysis and evaluation) for it to be meaningful to teachers.

Being part of a professional learning community is preferable to working as a 'lone wolf,' but professions are more than just networks. They are organized as communities of practice consisting of both novice beginners and experts. The novices begin at the margins of the community and, through interactions with more experienced participants, continually become more involved and experienced members. Such a community—with shared interests, crafts, or professions—are called communities of practice (Lave, 1991; Lave & Wenger, 2002). Etienne Wenger developed the notion of communities of practice as a way to explain the theory and practice of learning as a social endeavor. He believed that learning is fundamentally a result of social participation and that learning is "both a kind of action and a form of belonging." (Wenger, 1999, p. 4). According to this perspective, learning does not just happen within classrooms and training sessions or just from textbooks, homework and exercises. Learning through participation in a community is consistent with the views of African indigenous learning which holds that learning is holistic, takes place in the community and is ongoing in everyday life. Learning is integral to life, and professional lives require creating and sustaining communities of practice in which teacher educators can live and learn as professionals. Such communities, then, become valuable tools for learning, growth and development. In this chapter, we use the term communities of practice and professional learning communities interchangeably.

Professional learning communities, or communities of practice, exist in all walks of life. Most people belong to more than one such community at any given time. For example, you may simultaneously be a member of a sports team, your family, your class, a chorus or musical group, workers (including teachers), a church or mosque and even e-communities of individuals with a common interest who communicate on the World Wide Web. All of these are communities of practice. As individuals participate in communities of practice they share a set of practices including norms of interaction, repertoires of activities, and discourses (ways of talking) that they eventually begin to own. According to this perspective, acquiring these norms of interaction is the same as learning to be a professional.

Cognition—the process of acquiring ideas and concepts—is seen as an individual activity under the 'lone wolf' paradigm. However, under the communities of practice perspective, cognition is seen as being situated in a particular context. That is to say, your cognition is inseparable from your activities as a professional. This is referred to as situated cognition of communities of practice (Putnam & Borko, 2000). In contrast to what was generally called "staff development" where teacher development was often individualized, off-site, not connected to the context of school or one's own teaching experience, and didn't result in increased mastery of content, Putnam and Borko (2000) called for an approach to teacher development that is both social and contextual. Thus, under this perspective, teacher learning and development takes place among communities of practice as teachers share a common discourse and participate in authentic learning activities. Authentic learning activities are real experiences in the context of the teachers' work and lives.

The notion of communities of practice is already practiced in many parts of Africa. School-based teacher groups or conferences that allow teachers to engage with their peers in local problem solving, share experiences and ideas, interpret the curriculum and reforms, and assist new teachers, are all examples of such communities in action. In such activities, advisors or senior teachers provide expert assistance [or outside counsel] to groups when needed. These outside experts are usually classroom teachers who have been promoted to provide assistance to others because of success in the classroom and assisting other teachers. In addition to school based professional learning communities, teachers often meet with teachers from other schools in a school cluster and other increasingly larger administrative units (circuit, district, county, etc.). Participation at most levels in most places, and especially at the school level, is often included in the conditions of service or terms of work of teachers, and there are rarely external incentives (monetary or otherwise) for participation. Teachers are therefore compelled to particpate by an inherent collegiality and participation is quite common.

Professional learning communities are less common among teacher educators at colleges, however. Overloaded tutors' schedules, large numbers of student teachers, lack of a supportive environment for professional development, lack of resources, and traditions of professional engagement are some of the impediments on development of professional communities of practice among teacher educators. These factors tend to skew teacher educators' participation away from professional learning communities. Sometimes association of monetary allowances for participation in professional development can also work against the development of professional communities of practice. These barriers are real, but so is the responsibility to develop oneself as a professional.

Setting up professional learning communities in your college can be stimulating and professionally rewarding. Participation in professional learning communities may also trigger self-doubts about one's mastery of teaching, learning, and instructional management. That is why it is important that all those who participate develop and adhere to norms of practice that provide a secure environment to examine beliefs and experiment with them in the classroom. It is important that professional learning communities go beyond a discussion culture and include experimentation with classroom practice. This experimentation should include observations by others, feedback, evaluation and further practice.

What would creating professional communities at teachers colleges involve? At a minimum, this would involve creating structures within the college (groups, times, meeting places, space on the timetable, etc.) and the identification of resources both within and outside the college. It also requires work and commitment to get it started. The interpersonal bonds that build up over time among members of the group will help staff to move from friendly conversation to deeper dialogue on important professional issues. Change takes time. This is especially true in the context of long held beliefs and practices embedded in a socio-cultural context. In teacher education, change in the teacher educator is seen as fundamental to improved teacher practices in schools that lead to increased learner performance and whole child development. Developing professional learning communities is an important endeavor in creating change.

How to Use this Resource Book

This resource is designed to foster a transformation in the way teacher educators understand their job and how they practice their profession. It acknowledges that many teacher educators in African colleges of education do not have ready access to articles, journals and other educational research in their field. Also, professional development opportunities of college educators have been and still are limited in scope and availability. Opportunities for teachers' college faculty to participate in research and add to local and global knowledge in the area of teacher education are almost non-existent.

Professional Learning Communities in the Teachers' College has eight chapters, each one focused on a particular salient theme in teacher education. These themes were identified through a review of the literature on teacher education with an emphasis on pre-service teacher education in Africa. It would be impossible to cover all areas of teacher education, particularly all of the subject specialties. Consequently, though the scope of the material is necessarily narrow, we hope that the structure of the material and the accompanying resources will provide a base for deeper exploration of topics in teacher education. The introduction explores professional learning communities, how they might be established, and how this resource may be used. Chapter 2 looks at some of the literature on pre-service teacher education in Africa in order to provide a general description of the state of teacher education in Africa as a way of placing the work teacher educators do in a more global context. The remaining chapters each focus on a specific pertinent theme, namely: (3) learning to teach, (4) learner-centered education, (5) curriculum, (6) college teaching and learning, (7) expanding college assessment and (8) reflective practice.

Professional Learning Communities in the Teachers' College is structured so that each chapter starts out by addressing a critical area of teacher education and presenting a synopsis of research and theory in that area. This is followed by suggestions for seminars to explore the theme in relation to the context in which you work. These seminars are only suggestions on how you might explore the theme in depth and ways in which learning about the theme can influence your practice.

If you have a professional development program in place in your college, Professional Learning Communities in the Teachers' College could be used as a resource. If you don't have a formal program you could start one with interested colleagues. Individual college teacher educators may read and explore the manual and try out new approaches based on the readings. Groups of teacher educators may use the material as part of their own professional development and colleges may set up a series of seminars tackling some of the chapters in this book. Professional Learning Communities in the Teachers' College may also be used in education programs for teacher educators, of which there are, regrettably, few in Africa.

Many of the articles cited in the text are available on the accompanying CD-ROM for those who wish to go into more depth on any of the topics presented here. Websites are also listed for those with access to the internet.

Professional Learning Communities in the Teachers' College should not be seen as an authoritative and definitive treatise on pre-service teacher education. Rather, you should use it as a teacher education tool to help you update your knowledge and expand your professional perspectives by critically examining your own beliefs and understanding of teacher education, as well as those of the institutions in which you work. It is expected that the material will enable individuals and institutions to improve professional competencies that would lead to improved teaching and learning in schools. Whether used in informal discussion or college-wide professional development activities, the seminars are meant to stimulate thought, dialogue and reflection and lead to improved practice.

The material is meant to help you do your job as a teacher educator. The book takes a reform-minded perspective rather than a traditional approach. This is because in many countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, educational reforms toward learner-centered education in basic schools require teachers skilled in the methods of holistic child-centered education. In general, colleges in Africa have not been able to keep pace with these reforms. This book does not emphasize a 'traditional' approach, which might be characterized as teacher-centered where the predominant mode of instruction is a 'transmission' mode, and social norms of strict hierarchy are maintained between student teacher and lecturer (or student and teacher) (Owuor, 2008), except to include it as a perspective on education widely held by many educators and analyze traditional approaches and their persistence in education systems.

Seminars

Seminar 1. What is the professional development climate at your college?

Introduction

This seminar will help you and your colleagues explore the climate of professional development at your college. With a group of colleagues you can form a professional learning community. After reading through this chapter you can do the activities and have a dialogue around the issues raised. Some of the tasks require action. Reading, discussing and analyzing have important roles in professional growth. Putting new ideas into action shares that learning with others.

Specific Tasks

1. Prior to the seminar make a poster of Table 1.1. Add other interactions that you think might be missing from the table. Make a handout of the table for participants in the seminar to use individually.
2. Ask individuals to tick off the types of interactions listed in Table 1.1 that you think characterize the way teacher educators relate to each other at your college. Give plenty of time for participants to tick off all those they think apply to your college.
3. To summarize the groups' responses, ask individuals to make tick marks beside each interaction on the poster as a way of tallying up all the participants' responses.
4. Cluster the responses the group made into three categories: interactions required by college administration, voluntary actions leading to professional growth, interactions that contribute little to professional development (make up more alternative categories as appropriate).
5. Examine the three clusters and the responses in each. What does this say about your college? Discuss.
6. What might be helpful in developing a more positive professional development climate at the college? Discuss.
7. In the article by Little, she describes how schools that are more successful (learner performance and school atmosphere) also tend to have stronger norms of collegiality among staff. What are the norms of collegiality that she describes? Are any of these norms prevailing at your college? Are the norms of collegiality described by Little appropriate ones for your context? Explain.
8. What are appropriate norms of collegiality for developing professional learning communities at your college?

Suggested Reading

Little, J. W. (1982). Norms of Collegiality and Experimentation: Workplace Conditions of School Success. American Educational Research Journal. Fall 1982, Vol. 19, No. 3, Pp. 325-340.

Seminar 2. Setting up professional learning communities at your college

Introduction

Maintaining a collegial atmosphere and ongoing dialogue and reflection with your colleagues can be supported by providing some structure to your professional learning communities. This seminar provides some guidance in setting up and maintaining professional learning communities.

Specific Tasks

1. With a group of colleagues interested in professional development as teacher educators, form a group (or groups) and set some parameters for your meetings. Some things you might want to think about are:
   • How large your groups should be
   • Where and when to meet, and how frequently meetings should take place
   • How to structure leadership of the groups d. Whether or not to record participation, outcomes, plans, practices etc.
   • Provision of materials in written or electronic form
   • How to formalize your professional development seminars in the context of your institution or Ministry of Education.
2. Prior to the first seminar read the suggested reading listed above.
3. In the first seminar it might be useful to discuss the need for professional development as teacher educators. Some guiding questions for a group discussion might be:
   • What is the level of professional training as teacher educators that group members have had? Describe this training as teacher educators. How effective was it?
   • What have you learned on the job as a teacher educator? How might on-the-job training be improved at your institution?
   • What are your strengths as a teacher educator?
   • What are your weak areas as a teacher educator? What areas do you feel you need to improve? What support do you need to improve in this area? How can the group of teacher educators support that improvement?
   • What are the barriers to professional development – individually or institutionally? As a group discuss how these barriers might be overcome.
   • How will your own professional development benefit you? How will it benefit student teachers? How will it benefit the institution?
4. What are the areas of expertise among the college staff? Make an inventory of expertise among the teacher educators and share it with the staff.
5. What do teacher educators want to learn more about? What skills do teacher educators want to improve or develop? Make a plan to address the professional development needs at the college.
6. What resources outside the college are available to your group? What experts (teachers, administrators, Ministry of Education Officials, etc.) are available to support your professional learning communities?

References