Social Network Analysis of Communication Patterns Within Professional Learning Communities

• In Event: Evaluations of Professional Development Programs: From Design to Implementation

Abstract

For this analysis, we utilize social network analysis (SNA) to examine and characterize teacher communication within PLCs. SNA has previously been used by a small number of education researchers to identify key information-holders and distributors within a school (e.g., Coburn & Russell, 2008; Hawe & Ghali, 2008), but the empirical evidence around PLCs and their effects is limited. To evaluate a local districts PLCs professional development program, we use SNA measures of density, centralization, and local structure to present results on the communication patterns amongst teachers in PLCs and friendship networks. More established PLCs show greater cross-communication, but all PLCs show less communication than friendship networks.

Authors

• Adam C. Sheppard, University of California - Irvine

• Nayssan Safavian, University of California - Irvine

• Alejandra Sofia Albarran, University of California - Irvine

• AnneMarie M. Conley, University of California - Irvine