by Revel Arroway

Created on: July 22, 2010   Last Updated: May 05, 2012

A professional learning community is one in which teachers, administrators and the community in which a school is located focus on the continued development of learning strategies for everyone involved in the schooling process. The benefit for the students is that they are not relegated to the role of being the only learners; teachers and administrators participate in learning, not only about their subject matter but also about new and interesting ways in which this expertise can be shared with the students. 

The focus of a professional learning community is on learning, teachers learning to improve their skills as well as learning how to take advantage of the way in which their students learn. Through an attitude of constant evaluation, collaboration and experimentation, teachers bring into the classroom the best techniques available and make the students a part of the learning process instead of being simply receptors of information. 

Evaluation

A key initiative in the professional learning community is the evaluation of the knowledge, preconceptions and thought processes of both the students and their teachers. Initial evaluations of students help the teachers to understand where their students stand in relation to the material that needs to be studied. Students benefit from these evaluations through learning to observe their own thinking processes, recognizing preconceived notions about the material and identifying ways in which they can add to the knowledge they already have on the subject.

Through continued evaluation, both teachers and students can keep track of the progress being made in the learning process. With clear and attainable objectives marked based on the initial evaluation, students benefit from the comparison of later evaluations of their improved knowledge in the subject matter. 

Collaboration

In a professional learning community, teachers do not work alone in developing their skills. Through team work, observation and evaluation, teachers collaborate across disciplines to discover what best works in aiding the learning for students. When cross-discipline collaboration takes place, the focus is removed from the deep knowledge that each teacher has on his or her subject and is placed on observing how students learn any information in any subject.

By taking advantage of the experience and inexperience of the entire team of teachers, each individual feels more supported when standing in front of the class. This level of self-confidence

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