Networked Professional Learning Communities: Footholds Into Creating and Improving Knowledge of Ambitious and Equitable Teaching Practices in a RPP

• In Event: Designing for the Next Generation of Teaching Practices With a Networked Improvement Community: A Longitudinal Study of Local Adaptation and Improvement

Abstract

Purpose: Professional learning communities (PLCs) can be powerful vehicles for supporting learning and instructional improvement, but the quality of discourse often varies across PLCs and influences their effectiveness. This paper takes an improvement science perspective to study the discourse and improvement work of PLCs operating as part of a Networked Improvement Community (NIC). We describe how the discourse within PLCs that quickly generated and iterated on instructional practices differed from PLCs that struggled to do so, and we explore the role that the NIC played in supporting improvement across PLCs.

Framework: We draw on ideas from improvement science and collective knowledge generation as they are applied in the context of educational systems (Bryk et al., 2011; Bryk et al., 2015; Lewis, 2015). They describe “learning loops for quality improvement” (Bryk et al., 2015, p. 90) which highlight the importance of working theory, standard work processes, and practical measurement as co-constitutive elements of improvement. We practicably translate these elements for our instructionally-focused NIC.

Methods: For this study, we examined activities and interrelationships among three PLCs within the NIC -- two that quickly took up the work of generating and testing practices, and one that struggled to get started. Researchers and district coaches facilitated full-day PLC meetings, similar to lesson study.

Data Sources: Video records and artifacts from full-day PLC meetings, for two years, at three schools. We used Studiocode to analyze interactions relating to the learning loop.

Results:
How did the discourse within PLCs that quickly generated and tested ideas for improvement differ from PLCs that struggled to do so? Looking across PLC meetings from the first year, we saw two consistent patterns that distinguished the two PLCs that quickly took up improvement work from the PLC that struggled to do so. First, both generative PLCs, were able to identify something within the broader aim of the project to work on together. In contrast, teachers at Washington wrestled with multiple foci. The second pattern centered on a particular interconnection among discursive elements in PLCs’ discourse. In short, the key interconnection that seemed to support generative PLCs in launching improvement work was linking talk about instructional practice to talk about classroom data.

What role(s) did the NIC play in supporting improvement across PLCs? The second year of PLCs tells a different story for Washington as they made connections between practice and data. We argue that knowledge movement within the NIC played a central role. Through C-level activities (i.e. convenings) Washington adopted the practice of Structured Talk developed at Douglas. Having an initial practice and a way to look at classroom data helped Washington launch into localized improvement work.

Significance: This study contributes to our understanding of critical forms of discourse that enable PLCs to launch improvement work, and demonstrates how networked PLCs can improve together. In particular, we believe that practices like Structured Talk can serve as “foothold practices” in a NIC -- accessible, bite-sized practices that can be implemented regularly, and that draw attention to both equity and rigor in student learning.

Authors

• Jennifer Richards, University of Washington

• Jessica J. Thompson, University of Washington

• Soo-Yean Shim, University of Washington - Seattle

• Karin Lohwasser, University of Washington

• Christine Chew, Self-employed

• Bethany Sjoberg, Seattle Public Schools

• Anne Morris, Brighton School