Explain How Developing Professional Learning Communities And The Eight-Year Study

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Professional Learning Communities and the Eight-Year Study
Robert V. Bullough, Jr.
Brigham Young University

Robert V. Bullough, Jr. is associate director at the Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling (CITES), Brigham Young University, With Craig Kridel, he is the co-author of Stories of the Eight-Year Study: Reexamining Secondary Education in America, published by the State University Press of New York.

Professional Learning Communities and the
Eight-Year Study
The idea of improving schools by developing professional learning communities has become the new concept and has many variations, since actually beginning in the late 1930s. However, for the purpose of this response when the term Professional Learning Community (PLC) is used it will be to identify a group of educators that meet regularly to identify, share expertise, and work collaboratively to improve academic performance for students and to improve teaching skills of teachers.
The first point that needs to be addressed is to …show more content…

As educators, teachers have to become more involved with the student to help facilitate student learning to the best of their ability. By this, it should be noted that teachers are no longer the only source of information that a student must rely on, but a tool to use to be guided to the exploration and discovery of new information that is relevant to that individual student. Collaboration also means that teachers are allowed to meet with other teachers and professionals to reflect on best practices that will help with increased learning that is focused on equity. It will also strengthen the notions of respect, competence, personal regard and integrity among the PLC. Collaboration also brings with it the ability to use and compare data to help identify students that are struggling and create a proactive teaching method instead of a reactive