A
preschool director, Artena announces during the staff meeting “the program is
going to implement an early childhood education professional learning community
for different age levels. We will start
first with the pre-k teachers and then proceed with other age groupings until
we have moved to infants/toddlers teachers”.
One teacher responds, “We talked a little bit about this concept in an
early childhood course I took last semester”.
Another teacher states, “What is an early childhood education
professional learning community?” The
director says, “Our early childhood education professional learning community
is where we will have age level teachers meeting to discuss issues and map out
ways to resolve them with the support of administration, board of directors,
and others in the center. In addition, we
are calling ours early childhood education professional learning community to empower
teachers through highly interactive, specific time to meet and talk openly, the
willingness to accept feedback working toward improvement for issues, respect
and trust among colleagues to make a better overall high quality program.
Artena,
sitting at her desk reviewing federal and state mandates for preschool age
children (e.g., ready to learn upon entering kindergarten, increase children’s
literacy that promote phonemic awareness, letter recognition, segmenting words
into sounds, and decoding print text) recalls attending an annual state early
childhood education conference where the presenter spoke on professional
learning communities at the K-12 public school system. Artena recognizes that the components could
be modified and implemented at her program to fully have teaching staff and
others who are fully functioning to exhibit the best quality program for
children and families. Honestly, she was
not sure if teachers and staff would embrace this or think it is something else
they did not have time or be compensated for extra time spent on this
idea. When teachers and others in the
program understand the concepts of professional learning community it give a
voice to those who need to understand what is culturally developmentally age
appropriate practices is ensuring the best high-quality education. In addition, teachers are “more inclined to
want to know what others know and how they can help” (Lieberman et al 2009 p.
462) facilitate becoming colleagues and forming the basis foundation for a
professional learning community.
Artena
researched more information on professional learning community before
presenting the concept to teachers and staff then found out the positives
outweighed barriers for not to work effective where age level teachers are
working together from observations, analyze of classroom and children work, and
find solutions through continuous dialogue (Wood 2007). Teacher who participate in professional
learning community have a reduction of feeling isolated in situations faced in
their classroom, an increased commitment of the program’s responsibility for
all children enrolled and more satisfaction in the early childhood education
profession through higher morale and lower rate of absenteeism (Hord 1997). In addition, Artena learned the professional
learning community benefits the children by having greater academic gains,
reduce the achievement gap of children and a lower rate of children absenteeism
(Hord 1997).
Starting
an early childhood education professional learning community can be a challenge
particularly in a setting that does not bring teachers and others together to
discuss the betterment for children and meeting program’s mission and goal
statements. Some barriers identified for
professional learning communities cited for K-12 sites were schedule time to
meet, reserve time with non-classroom teachers, and stay focused of mission and
goal of meeting (Lujan & Day 2010).
Child development programs can incorporate professional learning
communities to be designed that will meet the needs of individual program
mission and goal statements. This
additional community vision will have a tremendous impact as parents and future
employees on collaborating on culturally developmentally age appropriate
practices.
Steps
to starting an early childhood education professional learning community
What are the steps
to planning an early childhood education professional learning community at
your site?
Review
purpose. Meet
with teachers and discuss the mission, vision and goals of the early childhood
professional learning community. Through
the conversation everyone understands the purpose and can carry out what’s best
for children and their families and program at-large.
Plans
prior to first meeting.
A specific date (e.g., once week, once month), time (e.g., naptime,
afterschool) and timeframe (e.g., 1 hr., 2 hrs.) must be set and arrangements
made to cover classrooms. For example,
if meeting is set during naptime ask parents to sign-up (volunteer) assisting
with coverage with other teachers/staff not attending meeting. Secure a meeting room so the time allotted is
spent on agenda items. Ask each member
to bring a list of issues for the first meeting for discussion and
prioritization
Format
for first meeting. Select
a member of the group to facilitate, record minutes that can be discussed at
future meetings and be a timekeeper. A
different person should be selected for each meeting so one person is not
always responsible for carrying out the meeting. Establish rules for members to adhere to for
discussion (e.g., no side bars, be honest, remember confidentiality, focus on
children, no hierarchy of expertise, be respectful). Ask members to share their list of issues,
discuss and prioritize in the order to work on remaining the mission and goals
of the group.
Format
for implementation. The
recorder will read minutes from last meeting and continue planning as needed to
accomplish mission and goal of issue.
Teachers are working together to pose, analyze and find solutions to
issues and secure outside resources, if needed.
Outside resources may need to be invited to share with members and
action taken from information. Also,
there will be times that an assigned task will not require members to meet
face-to-face and the goals can be accomplished through technology. This process is continued until members feel
confident about actions before moving to next issue. During this process teachers are building
their pedagogical knowledge and advocate what are culturally developmental age
appropriate practices. Periodically
review the mission, vision and goals to ensure the members are acting
accordingly. In addition, conduct
evaluations and assessments on what is working well and areas that need to be
redefined for positive effectiveness.
Learn
more.
These resources can be helpful in implementing
professional learning community at your site:
Bolam, R., A. McMahon, L.
Stoll, S. Thomas, & M. Wallace.
2005. Creating and sustaining effective professional learning communities. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RB637.pdf.
Burnette, B. 2002.
“How We Formed Our Community”. Journal of Staff Development 23(1): 51-54.
Hughes, T. A., & W.
A. Kritsonis. 2007. Professional learning communities and the
positive effects on achievement: A
national agenda for school improvement. http://www.allthingsplc.info/pdf/articles/plcandthepositiveeffects.pdf.
Jessie, L. G. 2007.
“The Elements of a Professional Learning Community”. Leadership
Compass 5(2).
http://www.naesp.org/resources/2/Leadership_Cp,[ass2007/LC2007v5n2a4.pdf
Conclusion
Professional learning communities when structured well will have
educators constantly learning together and working towards expanding one's
knowledge facilitating culturally linguistic high-quality environments.
Within the space, constantly trying out new strategies to facilitate children's
learning which is culturally developmental age-appropriate practices in domain
skills along with needed resources put in place.
References
Hord, S. M. 1997.
Professional learning communities:
Communities of continuous inquiry and
improvement. Austin:
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
Lieberman, A., & D.
H. P. Mace. 2009. The role of
‘accomplished teachers’ in professional
enabling leadership.
Teachers and Teaching Theory and
Practice, 15(4): 459-470.
Lujan, N., & B.
Day. 2010. Professional learning communities: Overcoming the roadblocks.
The Delta Kappa,
Gamma Bulletin, 10-17.
Webb, R., G. Vulliamy, A.
Sarja, S. Hamalainen, & P. L. Poikonen.
2009. Professional learning
communities and teacher well-being? A comparative analysis of primary schools in
England and Finland.
Oxford Review of Education, 35(3): 405-422.
Wood, D. R. 2007. Professional learning communities: Teachers, knowledge, and knowing.
Theory into
Practice, 46(4): 281-290.
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