What is a PLC?

I recently had an opportunity to record a podcast with Mike Mattos and Dr. Anthony Muhammad, two of the authors of “Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities – Fourth Edition.”  They both have extensive backgrounds guiding stakeholders in building PLCs that maximize student success and have been recognized for their accomplishments and student success during their school-based careers and for their contributions to the development of educators globally.

I asked them to start by describing, “What is a PLC?

Mike began: “I’ll start by giving a bit of clarification on what it isn’t that we hear a lot, and that is a lot of people reference it as a collaborative teacher team. But in the PLC at work process, first created by Dr. Rick DuFour and Dr. Bob Aker, they considered the larger organization to be the professional learning community. If a school commits to the process, the school is the PLC. If a district commits to the process, the district is the PLC. We think that’s an important clarification because the ultimate goal of a professional learning community is to ensure high levels of learning for all students that a school or district serves, as well as the adults that serve within it.

If you think about what it would take to ensure to make certain that every student learns at the highest levels needed to succeed next year and ultimately leave with the skills and knowledge and behaviors needed for success in their adult life, then a collaborative teacher second-grade team in an elementary school, a math department in a middle school, a science department in a high school, can’t alone meet the learning needs of all kids. It would take the collective efforts.

Through collective knowledge and skills, the diversity of expertise and experience the larger organization has, is what it would take to achieve the mission of high levels of learning for all. Officially, we define a PLC, as a never-ending process in which teachers work collaboratively to increase shared knowledge of best practice, both through research and through field study, and action experimentation, applying what they’ve learned on behalf of their students to achieve higher levels of learning. So, it’s about job-embedded adult learning with an assumption that the better the adults in the building do their job, the more kids are going to learn.

One last point here. I think sometimes as educators, we make ourselves into a victim mindset. We look at the factors outside of a child’s school life that we can’t directly control. Economics at home, parental involvement, sometimes educational regulations that come from above us that are not always aligned to best practice. We use those as reasons why kids don’t learn, instead of looking internally, thinking about what we can control and what can we have a lot of influence on – pedagogy, instruction, curriculum, assessment, interventions. Those are the things that have the greatest impact upon student learning. The better our adults get at what they do and not hoping PD happens at a conference now and then or a couple of PD days within the school year, but embedding that collective inquiry every single week as part of our professional responsibilities. That’s our best hope for improving student achievement.”

Anthony added, “The P in the PLC stands for professional and professionals don’t just go through a rite of passage or some course of study to enter the field, but are expected to continue to evolve with the evolving knowledge base in the field. It’s the assumption that a research-based profession continues to grow.  When teachers get a chance to learn, experiment, and grow their professionalism, their effectiveness improves. This is a huge culture shift from the tradition in American education where once I become licensed, my responsibility is to teach. Well, you become better at teaching when you become a learner. If teams in schools could make that shift alone, we’d see great dividends when it comes to improving student comprehension and student learning outcomes.”

I asked Anthony and Mike if my ongoing suggestion that the continuous PLC question, ” What do our students need us to learn?” fit within their PLC definition?

Anthony responded, “Absolutely.  If learning is the focus, teachers need to understand what students need to learn, then in turn, naturally, they would ask, what does it require from us as professional practitioners to get them there? Do we need to address more tactile and kinesthetic activities because the boys are struggling? Do we need to consult with a special Ed teacher because our students with IEPs need a little bit more support. That question will drive teachers into what learning they need to improve upon or that they need some support with to improve their practice. I would definitely say that that aligns with the PLC work process. I think that’s a great phrase or caveat for a team to operate from.”

Through the rest of the podcast, Mike and Anthony explore seven cultural shifts in Professional Learning Communities:

• A Shift in Fundamental Purpose
• A Shift in Use of Assessments
• A Shift in the Response When Students Don’t Learn
• A Shift in the Work of Teachers
• A Shift in Focus
• A Shift in School Culture
• A Shift in Professional Development

You can find the entire podcast and transcript here.