PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES
" A successful face-to-face team is more than just collectively intelligent.It makes everyone work harder, think smarter and reach better conclusions than they would have on their own".
- James Surowiecki
What are true learning communities?
- Teachers establish a common, concise set of essential curricular standards and teach to them on a roughly common schedule.
- They must meet regularly, the ideal is twice a month, for a minimun of 45 minutes, to help one another teach to these selected standards.
- Teachers must make frequent use of common assessments, these assessments are pivotal.
- With common assessments and results, teachers can conduct " active research" where a "culture of experimentation prevails".
- These fundamental concepts combine a " guaranteed and viable curriculum" with continual analysis of actual lessons and units, and improvement of instruction.
We have to be very clear about what true teamwork entails: a regular schedule of formal meetings where teachers focus on the details of their lessons and adjust them on the basis of assessment results. The use of common assessments is essential here. Without these, teams can´t discern or enjoy the impact of their efforts on an ongoing basis.Enjoying and celebrating these short-trm results is the very key to progress, to achieving "momentum" toward improvement.
Taken from " Results Now", How we can achieve unprecedented improvements in teaching and learning. Mike Schmoker , ASCD Publication
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