Professional Learning Communities: A Cross-country Study

• In Event: Teacher professional development at scale: lessons learned in improving teacher practice in low and middle income countries

Proposal

In efforts to improve teaching quality and promote an approach to teacher development that is both social and contextual (Plessis & Muzaffar, 2010) developing countries have recently resorted to alternative models of teacher professional development, such as Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs. PLCs move professional development beyond the acquisition of new knowledge and skills (Vescio, Ross & Adams, 2007) to the reflection and improvement of classroom practice through collaboration among teachers (DuFour, 2004).
While the academic literature on PLCs has advanced in the context of developed countries, it is unclear to what extend the findings are also applicable to low- and middle-income countries, given their unique contexts, social norms and structural conditions. Building on a theoretically grounded typology of PLCs, we have conducted an exploratory study to contribute to the literature and practice by exploring the relationship between participation in PLCs, PLC model and features and teaching practices in developing countries.
The research investigated the following questions: (i) to what extent does participation in a professional learning community (PLC) is associated different teaching practices? (ii) Which PLC features support differences in teaching practices? To answer the research questions, we collected cross-sectional data from three countries where Family Health International FHI360 currently has projects with a PLC component - Equatorial Guinea, Ghana and Nigeria, reaching a sample of over 2,300 pre-school and primary education teachers.
In this conference, we will present our PLC typology and initial results for all three countries where data was collected. Regression analysis showed a positive significant relationship between PLC strength, measured by five core characteristics that were derived from the literature review, teaching constructivist beliefs, and student-centered practices. Additional analysis demonstrates that in cases where the PLC strength is lower, there are more benefits on teaching outcomes when a PLC has an active facilitator and a manual to guide the group discussions. The study highlights the importance of policies and programs to foster the five core characteristics of PLCs identified and to support the work of starting PLCs by training facilitators and developing materials that can help stimulate and guide their work.

Authors

• Kirsten Galisson, FHI 360

• Fernanda Soares, FHI 360