Promoting Teacher Learning Communities: District Approaches and Beliefs About Teacher Learning

• In Event: Networks and Improvement Communities

Abstract

Based on interviews of professional development (PD) leaders from 12 districts in Florida, this study found two distinct approaches taken by districts in promoting lesson study, an approach to Teacher Learning Communities (TLCs): (1) setting expectation and promoting ownership to integrate lesson study as part of the district instructional system, and (2) structuring lesson study with protocols and templates to ensure fidelity and quality control. The first approach was supported by a situated view of teacher learning that supports ownership of schools and teachers to embed lesson study into a diverse array of school contexts, and the second approach was supported by a behaviorist view that assumes that teachers need to engage in structured activities in order to learn.

Authors

• Motoko Akiba, Florida State University

• Cassie Howard, University of Central Florida