Challenges in School

I am very fortunate that my administration provides me with a curriculum

to teach but from there gives us the freedom of how to teach. They also allow us
to bring in other sources as we see fit. One challenge we do have in our school is
a lack of Professional Learning Communities (PLC). We have a few teachers that
choose to meet on their own for a grade level meeting, however we do not have
any PLC time or goals as a school. PLCs aim to improve “teacher’s
professionalism and well-being, and create positive impacts on students’ learning
(Antinluoma, 2018). My school participates in Professional Development (PD),
which has a similar goal of increasing teacher professionalism and increasing
student learning. They however, have different ways of approaching this goal.
When we do participate in our traditional PD workshops, which according to
Huijboom et al. (2021), are not all that effective.  I find that we receive good
information but with no follow up discussion or collaboration on what we learned
and very little gets put into practice. In a PLC, a group of people who have a
shared learning vision collaborate with one another and reflect on best practices
to better the student’s learning (Antinluoma et al., 2018). The end game of the
PLCs are to better student learning by increasing teacher learning.  
According to Beddoes (2021) the drive to these PLCs is a focus on
learning, a collaborative culture, and being results-oriented. With these things
driving PLCs, teachers' learning of pedagogy can be increased and sometimes at
an accelerated pace. The focus on collaboration within-subject and cross
curricular instead of being in isolation (Beddoes, 2021) is what can increase
teacher learning and thereby, their teaching pedagogy and student learning. Pre-
COVID we met occasionally as a grade-level but I would not consider this a PLC
but instead a PLC Lite. Riggins and Knowles (2020) explain that a PLC Lite is a
team working under the term PLC but are not effectively being a PLC. There was
not much of a focus and since we did not usually have a goal we ended up just
bringing things to work on. I would love to see PLCs get started in our school. In
order to do this we must be provided with carefully assigned collaborative teams,
regular time designated for collaboration, and the resources we need (Riggins &
Knowles, 2020). 
Organizing PLCs are not an easy task. However, considering the benefits
to teacher learning and thereby student learning PLC I think it is worth it. PLCs
will make a great addition to our school. Through collaboration we may also
strengthen our teaching staff to better our students. Overall I think that my school
would benefit from PLCs as would any school that does not currently have them. 
 
 
 
 
References 
Antinluoma, M., Ilomäki, L., Lahti-Nuuttila, P., & Toom, A. (2018). Schools as
professional learning communities. Journal of Education and Learning, 7(5), 76–91.
https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v7n5p76
Beddoes, Z., Prusak, K., Beighle, A., & Pennington, T. (2021). Utilizing School-based,
Professional Learning Communities to Enhance Physical Education Programs and
Facilitate Systems Change (Part 1). Quest (00336297), 73(3), 283–293.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2021.1915351

Huijboom, F., Van Meeuwen, P., Rusman, E., & Vermeulen, M. (2021). Professional
learning communities (PLCs) as learning environments for teachers: An in-depth
examination of the development of seven PLCs and influencing factors. Learning,
Culture and Social Interaction, 31(Part A). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2021.100566

RIGGINS, C., & KNOWLES, D. (2020). Caught in the Trap of Plc Lite: Essential Steps
Needed for Implementation of a True Professional Learning Community. Education,
141(1), 46–54.