Professional Learning Communities
Based on your own experiences working in collaborative situations (whether an official "PLC" or not), what is a major challenge that you found to making collaboration happen successfully? What steps could an administrator take to address this challenge?
49 comments:
Fear of conflict has been the biggest issue I have experienced when working in collaborative situations. During the forming stage of any group, everyone tends to play nice—especially when they think they know each other’s personalities. And that’s where the problems start. People don’t want to appear abrasive or controlling. They don’t know how to speak up without people thinking they are trying to take over the group. Sometimes they’re worried that their idea will be shot down. Group members agree to do things that they really don’t want to do and, eventually, people start assigning roles to people that they don’t want, don’t feel comfortable with, or that they simply decide they aren’t going to do because it was “assigned.” And all this time, no one speaks up. Eventually, these bottled up feelings of frustration boil over and things go nuts. And the truth is most of this animosity can be avoided if people learn how to have productive conflict.
Administrators MUST know how to stand back from collaborative groups and let this storming happen. It’s hard for an administrator, I’m sure, but most of the time groups have to work the conflict out themselves. Administrators have to try to remain impartial, listening when people need an ear but not taking sides, and certainly not imposing him or herself upon the group to make decisions for them. While some conflicts can become so heated that a school leader may have to mediate or remind group members of non-negotiables or the group’s purpose, most can be resolved if the administrator helps the members work through the ideas in conflict without attacking each other.
A major challenge to successful collaboration is differences in personalities and teaching styles. These differences can be difficult to overcome. Even when there is a shared vision, members can have very different views on how to pursue the vision. Often times, members are unwilling to change and a consensus is never reached. For example, I have worked with a team where part of the team wanted multiple choice common assessments, another part of the team wanted short answer common assessments, and another member did not even want common assessments. After a long debate, they finally agreed on a compromise, but no one was content with the outcome and as a result there was no ownership and eventually the team just stopped using the common assessments. The team was made up of strong experienced teaches, but I do not think that they believed that they could be better by working together than they were by working alone.
In working in Professional Learning Communities (PLC) one of the major challenges I have faced is the total buy in from every teacher. You have teachers with various years of experience in collaborative groups and it has been my experience that the older teacher is the most reluctant to buy into any idea. In PLCs it was explained that we were expected to teach the same information to our students but how it was taught was totally up to the teacher. PLCs are to work on strategies and lessons that include the same material. Immediately the older teachers were reluctant because they loved the idea of teaching autonomy and resented anything that threatened that. Teachers like the idea of teaching what they feel important and PLCs contradict that model. When instructors teach what they feel is important, then emphasis of instruction is misplaced. Teachers will invest more time in teaching what the state considers irrelevant than what is considered relevant. In the age of testing it is important to teach what the test is trying to assess. PLC theorists feel it is necessary to teach the same material, not how that information is taught.
The major challenge that I have found in making collaboration happen successfully is finding the time to collaborate. At the school I teach, common planning is not available and it seems to be difficult on our departments for all to be in the same location at the same time. Therefore, I believe that administrators should set time throughout the week (one or two days) to allow for each department to meet. This time could be used for collaboration on teaching strategies, along with discussing common assessments. Another challenge in PLC collaboration is staying on topic regarding the issues we should be discussing. Administrators could provide departments with an agenda to follow, allowing for more productive collaboration. School executives need to clearly communicate their expectations, so that teachers can use PLC time to improve instruction. Many times teachers get together in their PLC groups and tend to discuss the negative aspects of teaching (disruptive student behavior, unsupportive administration, etc.), instead of effectively collaborating. Also, it would be effective if administrators would occasionally sit in on PLC meetings on a regular basis, making sure what teachers say they are discussing is actually happening. Overall, the problems associated with Professional Learning Communities can easily be fixed if administrators take a role in enforcing their expectations, along with clearly laying out their objectives.
When all attempts of the PLC have failed, a member of the leadership team should be called in. He/she must empathize with those resisting teachers and try different approaches to persuade the “buy in.” If resistance continues a meeting should be called where the member of the leadership team explains the importance of PLCs and how their resistance is hurting the group. The assistant principal should give relevant examples good PLCs within the school and from other districts. If this doesn’t work, the Principal should be brought in and a meeting should ensue. In this meeting the Principal should express how teacher autonomy is important, but explain the importance of PLCs and how their resistance has reached a level disrespect that has to be addressed. At that time the Principal should strongly insist on the buy in and state the consequences that will follow if the resistance continues.
I agree with David that one of the biggest problems with the PLC concept is department members not buying into it. There are some individuals who like the idea of collaborating with each other. However, there are those who are opposed to a new idea where they may be vulnerable to other possible constructive criticism in regards to how their students learn. There are those teachers who would rather teach in isolation, and feel uncomfortable working together with others. The age of some teachers does have an impact within the PLC group. Veteran teachers have taught the same way for long time and don’t feel that a change needs to take place. Yet, I believe that these teachers need to understand that they can still learn new strategies and share their techniques, ensuring all students are learning. Students are changing, therefore, as teachers we should be willing to change the way we evaluate their learning. Once teachers get used to sharing and analyzing what they do through collaboration, I feel they will see that their students will achieve more and they will grow as professionals.
Janice, when you say, “After a long debate, they finally agreed on a compromise, but no one was content with the outcome and as a result there was no ownership and eventually the team just stopped using the common assessments,” I see this less as a problem with different personalities and learning styles and more of a problem with this particular group not having a shared trust of each other. Did the group clearly decide on the process before they started? Was there a misunderstanding on the parts of the individual group members of just what “compromise” means? Or was there a problem with individual teachers feeling that the requirement of collaboration meant that their own teaching abilities were in question? I’ve never worked in a PLC, but I can imagine that if the members of the group don’t commit to trusting each other and the power of the group first that the PLC will eventually fail.
Both Russ, and David H., as a “veteran” teacher myself (compared to many of the teachers in my department), I can see how collaborating with others would feel incredibly uncomfortable. I feel comfortable with what I teach and how I teach it. My students have been quite successful. The longer I do this, the more difficult it is for me to imagine taking criticism or suggestions from other teachers, especially newer teachers who can probably give me a tremendous amount of perspective and a fresher look at how to reach my students in the 21st century. For instance, I have a third-year English I teacher who is phenomenal. I think she could easily connect with any student at all. But there are teachers who might not give her the respect she is due because she hasn’t been around for very long. At the same time, though, I can also imagine that in a PLC, newer teachers who feel overwhelmed with the workload and the pressure might have a hard time in a collaborative situation. Some might feel inhibited to share their thoughts because of their lack of experience, even when they have a great idea, while others might just hitchhike on the backs of the others and cause animosity by not helping out. I’m trying to be a better group member myself, and I am intrigued by PLCs because I can see how, if done right, they can be very powerful. Do either of you (or anyone out there!) have any suggestions for a newbie like me to help combat or prevent just these things from occurring?
For a PLC to be effective, the team members need to build trusting relationships. Unfortunately I think one of the most destructive tactics to this kind of team building is how some leaders share EOG. At times, leaders seem to use it to promote a challenge. This challenge can create a sense of competition and this becomes part of the culture. This is an excellent way to make sure your teachers do not work together and they end up holding their expertise as secret captives. Teachers need to understand the complexity, ambiguity and purpose of these scores and refocus on working as a unified front for all children. Leaders can encourage this kind of collaboration by modeling and establishing expectations for group products (formative assessments, data review, lesson plans). Changing the expectation of behavior may help the attitudes change, too (someone wise mentioned).
Yes, Janice whenever some PLC groups meet there are a variety of personalities that can cause problems in the productivity of the team. However, I do feel that these differences can help teachers grow by causing them to be questioned about their student’s learning. Sometimes teachers need to be challenged to reach their full potential and I think this is an advantage of PLC collaboration. The disagreements that occur within PLC’s can cause teachers to question each other’s methods, along with hear different perspectives that can challenge their educational thinking. As Dr. Schainker suggested, “two heads are better than one, however, that depends on the two heads.” If departments can collaborate on student data and challenge each other to grow, the PLC concept will be very beneficial.
Based on my collaboration experiences the major challenge in making the collaboration successful is the group defining what we should be doing. No matter the group, at the beginning of the collaboration process it is often difficult to define what we should be doing or the purpose of the group. We were assigned to a group project last class with Dr. Schainker, the group members all felt that we could get the project completed in isolation if we were given assigned tasks to complete. But the purpose of the assignment was to develop as a group. And I believe that by asking the three essential questions we were able to move from individuals to a group that collaborated to provide input, structure and direction to the project. The three questions Schainker asked us to ask ourselves to help move thru the stages of a group served the same purpose as the 7 stages outlined in One Step at a Time, to monitor the group’s effectiveness and productiveness. The administrator could also be helpful by giving assessment tools to the group to assess their effectiveness as a group. Or the administrator to lead by example, and illustrate how he/she is collaborating with other administrators in the district.
PLCs will only work with those teachers that can embrace working with others and giving up a little freedom for the common good of the group and students. Suzanne, as a veteran teacher I would encourage the new teacher to contribute her ideas and give her sound advice on different aspects of teaching. My advice to you would be don’t be satisfied with past results. Always tell yourself you can get better and allow yourself to learn new innovative approaches to teaching. A few years ago I had a student teacher and I learned a lot from her. She had a fresh new approach to teaching and I was impressed so much that I started integrating some of her ideas into my lessons. It helped me become an even better teacher. I view teaching and coaching the same. As a coach sometimes I have to reinvent myself to help reach different types of players. As a teacher you must reinvent yourself to reach a new type of student, but in your case, to keep things fresh. Yes your lessons might have worked for years, but has that made you a better teacher? What happens if you receive a different dynamic of student? Will the same lessons work? Food for thought!
I think PLCs can be useful as they give teachers a time to collaborate with other teachers. This would be time well spent if the teachers getting together knew each other well, taught the same subject, had similar teaching styles, or had accommodating personalities. Since this is not always so, in order to make a PLC effective, I think administrators must lay out the objectives of PLCs at their school and provide training as well on how to conduct effective PLCs. This should match up with the objectives for the school as laid out in the school’s improvement plan. If this doesn’t happen, then what results is PLCs with every variation possible existing, working according to their own rules.
If PLCs could follow a structure set by the administration, the members would have a common goal to work towards that would take precedence over their personal agendas and styles. This would enable them to focus on the tasks and accomplishing results. For example administration could require that they create an agenda for each meeting, set an objective they planned to work on, brainstorm and come up with ideas, show resources that could be used, ask for any support they would need, discuss implementing the ideas, and submit minutes to administration.
Although not every PLC needs an external structure imposed upon it, in some cases, this approach works. Take for example the case where you have veteran teachers grouped in the same PLC group that are used to their way of doing things. It can become very difficult for others to add/benefit from participating in that particular PLC group. For groups such as these, an external mandate would be useful. Also useful would be the presence of an administrator dropping in to one or more of their meetings.
When one waits till efforts for forming a functional PLC have failed before having the administrator step in, it is a bit on the late side.
The PLCs bring a group of people together and if there is a problem that gets created within the group, this usually results in ill feelings, shut-downs, hostilities etc.
So another possibility would be to be clear about what the administrator expects to happen at each PLC meeting and to have the pressure of providing some proof that the group actually did perform the task.
As Meg mentioned as well, if the group is given enough tasks or behaviors to focus on, they will behave themselves and there is a higher chance that the goals will be accomplished.
The biggest problems I have witnessed in working with my PLC is the issue of group dynamics and the fact that there are very little processes in place to address how we make decisions and conduct the meetings. There have been numerous work sessions in which I felt there were too many leaders trying to complete similar leadership roles, very little was accomplished due to unclear direction, and lack of follow through once a decision had been made. After completing our last course on group dynamics, I feel that my school could benefit greatly in having staff development on how to work in effective work groups. Everyone appears to work hard and wants to improve various aspects of our school and/or instruction, but we need more guidance on how to make decisions collaboratively.
Suzanne, I would agree that there were trust issues among the group members. I think that came from their differences in personality and teaching style. Half the group was trying to be flexible and work together and the other half of the group was stuck in their ways. The members that were more flexible ended up becoming frustrated in the end because they kept accommodating the other group members, but never felt like their ideas were taken seriously. I think some members did feel as though there teaching abilities were in question. The teachers had differing strengths and weaknesses. The members were quick to criticize each other’s weaknesses without recognizing their strengths. It was not that they were threatened by the school leadership, but that they sometimes felt threatened by each other. This is a huge barrier to true collaboration. They could not get past their differences in personality and teaching style because they did not have a shared trust.
Working in PLC’s can be both challenging and rewarding. The major challenge that has consistently been a problem has been the lack of available time. What teacher would not want an opportunity to meet with colleagues who teach the same classes in order to share best practices and to make plans? The major concern is always when is this going to take place. For example, right now at our school we are mandated to meet with our PLC on Wednesdays from 2:30-3:30. Although the teachers enjoy the benefits of the collaborative experience they despise the fact that they have to meet after school by mandate. Contrast this to last year when one day a week the school system released students 1 hour early for teachers to have PLCs. The parents dubbed this day “Wacky Wednesdays”. Teachers really enjoyed this time and it did not extend their work day. In conclusion I would reiterate that the major problem with PLC’s is the availability of time to have the meeting.
Roderic, I would agree that time can often be a challenge to PLCs. It is often hard to schedule meetings especially when after school is the only option. In my school, it is rare for PLCs to have common planning or even the same lunch. Additionally, after school is usually filled with faculty meetings, extra help, and parent teacher conferences. While not having built in time within the school day should not be an excuse for not collaborating, it would make it a lot easier. If a principal wanted to address the challenge of collaboration, then providing time within the school day would be one solution to improve collaboration.
My experience has been that PLC meetings typically turn to gripe sessions. We have a broad topic (differentiation) but the group I am a part of frequently turns towards why differentiation won't work with our students. We then often create two mini-groups within the PLC: one group talking and trying to brainstorm while the other group continues to complain. There is not a feel of a "group" as none of us teach the same subject and grade level. It is clear that what we discussed in Dr. Schainker's previous class would be of great benefit to my PLC!
Let’s assume that everyone believes in the positive aspects of a PLC, and the negative aspects were eliminated. Let’s further assume that each session is effective, efficient, and improves student’s performance. I wonder if a principal would be conscientious enough or innovative enough to insist upon built in PLC time? Furthermore, is it even possible with all of the other various demands that are placed on a school? If PLCs are an extremely powerful tool, can a schedule be made to ensure that they take place?
PLC groups are developed to create a support system for teachers to collaborate and work together to ensure that all students are receiving the same information and opportunities. Executive leaders that lead the agenda and purpose of each professional learning community become the most beneficial to all stakeholders involved. The PLC’s I have participated in have provided me with multiple views. One view the executive leader just asked us to meet weekly to discuss issues as we reflect on test scores and best practices. I also have had the pleasure to work in a PLC where the school executive leader believed in total buy in of the PLC program. The guidance that was provided by our executive leader provided a level of expectation along with expectations that could create a collaborative environment. Professional Learning Communities are instrumental in a school and their progress. The PLC community can benefit your school if the program has expected outcomes and goals for each meeting throughout the year.
Great Point Roderick let me inform you on how it looks at our school. I also think the process we have in place right now is effective currently especially for my department. Holly Springs High School has HOT lunch where everyone is out for lunch for an hour. Within that hour students can have club meetings, teacher directed detentions and tutorials. Each department has a day each week that we all meet within your department to discuss the goal or the expected outcome for the week provided by the on-campus administrator. We are all present at each meeting and we must also report back to your department administrator your findings or beliefs that we developed from the group. We also use this time quarterly to evaluate the "Summative data and scores" but we call it formative data. We discuss things that could be better for the success and progress of your students. We also start off with Smart Goals to guide us through the year, however they must be specific and measurable for best results.
A concern I have with PLC's is often when the subject does not fit into one of the four major subjects the PLC is a potpourri of areas. The members of the group are not sure what they have in common and try desparately to offer one another suggestions and ideas. It has been my experience that there are many things teachers would like to learn from veteran and new teachers if given the opportunity. Unlike Nina's experiences I believe there is always something to learn from the new as well as the veteran teachers. It may not be a profound idea or lesson plan, but all small things matter if it helps students to learn.
There are many times in which PLCs have too many goals that they do not know how to focus. In my PLC we need to break the larger goals down in to more realistic tasks. I feel that much time is lost trying to decide how to accomplish large tasks, whereas if we broke them down into smaller parts we might get more accomplished.
After reading many of your posts regarding time as a roadblock to PLC effectiveness, I am even more appreciative of the common planning time that I have with my grade band. Prior to this common planning time, we struggled trying to find common times to meet. With various committee meetings, tutoring, staff meetings, etc. we found it very difficult to work together as a team. With common planning time we are able to work collaboratively and plan units together. It is very important for administration to remember the value in common planning time as they create the master schedule.
Would it be safe to say that as an administrator if I ensure common planning periods or some form of built in time allotment that successful PLC’s should be expected? I saw many comments in the other post referencing “people” problems. Gripers, personality flaws, close-minded, are problems I think should be overcome for the good of the students. I guess what I am trying to say is if I provide the resources (time, logistics, funding) than I would want results.
Based on my own experience working in a collaborative situation a major challenge that I have found in making collaboration happen successfully is the fact that there is not enough time allowed to work together with your like group with all the other demands that are placed on teachers during the school day. Currently my plc struggles to find a common meeting time during the school day with all the changes made to the schedule for things such as testing and remediation. We now meet after school on Thursdays because that is the only day that is convenient for all of us. Another challenge that I find is that the meeting times are not consistent across grade levels with some grades not meeting at all. Another challenge that I find with plc’s is the lack of openness among group members and the willingness to share ideas, plus there are times when people are in different places on the pacing guide.
I like Roderic's approach of saying that if he as an administrator gives time for it then he expects the results. I think part of that is that people know where the priorities are and put their focus there. If PLC sessions are not prioritized by the administration then teachers rarely prioritize it.
Similarly the time for PLCs is often an issue, even when it is prioritized. If it is squeezed into planning periods during the day then teachers often are more concerned with whatever happened in their last class or what needs to happen before their next class. My current school has PLC sessions on early release days and one Monday afternoon a month. While that is nice, it also means that happening at the end of the day teachers are tired and watching the clock to get to go home. Monday of this week was the date for us to meet with our PLC and the teachers in my group were focused more on finishing by 4 than they were on having meaningful conversations.
It has taken several years and the changing of grades for some, for my principal to find the right individuals for each PLC. Personalities, work ethics, teaching styles, and personal priorities have been difficult to match up. In some cases that meant breaking up clicks or teams who had begun isolating individuals from the PLC. I have worked with 5 different PLC’s in my building over the past 8 years and respect is a must. The members must respect each other enough to keep an open-mind to others suggestions and to incorporate their ideas into your classroom. In previous PLC’s, the biggest problem we faced was individuals either changing or ignoring the plan that was developed as a team. The PLC I’m on now, works very well together and communicates daily about lessons and how we can best tweak our instruction based on our teammates response.
Russ, I don’t believe that agenda should be given to PLC’s. If certain teams are having a difficult time with either creating agendas or staying on task, then those issues should be addressed by the team or another school leader. Our PLC knows best what we need to address from meeting to meeting and our PLC would lose momentum if we were told what to discuss. PLC’s are about professional working together and those individuals need to be treated as such.
High School folks,
I feel for you with making time in your schedule. We are given a 40 planning period everyday and two of those are used as PLC time each week. We are then given a 3 hour block each month (early release day)for our vertical and school-wide PLC time. Out elementary teachers would complain about lunch. Though we have lunch 5 minutes apart from other members of our team, we must eat our lunch with our students. So two days a week our only time without students is spent in meetings.
Gwen
I like the approach that your principal has taken as far as moving individuals around to find those personalities that seem to fit and work together. Maybe that is something that needs to be done at my school because there are two grade levels in particular that have folks who have always worked together and of course have formed unbreakable cliques. I think that for some we have lost sight of the real focus which is increased meaning and understanding of the content that teachers teach and the roles they play in helping all students achieve expectations
Overall, I would say that our PLC has been successful. When we meet, the meetings are productive and educational. As a science team, we share practices that have been successful. The largest issue that we have is that teachers refuse to push the envelope on their teaching. As a group, we develop interactive lessons. Still, the teachers continue to go back to the books, worksheet, and lecture method of teaching.
As an administrator, it is important to allow every teacher to be different, slightly. What works for one teacher, may not work for another. However, we are in a day where kids need to be interactive. To ensure that teachers are following pacing guides and practices that are agreed upon by the PLC, administrators should take notes of these practices and regularly make appearances in classrooms.
I understand why PLC groups are normally formed around either grades or content but I wonder if that is always the best option. Yes it does make it more immediately useful for me to sit with other ELA teachers and discuss ways to differentiate...but why couldn't I also talk with science teachers about it?
Combining groups together where they don't share content or grade level requires more work for the strategies and discussion to be relevant to each person's classroom, but it could really broaden horizons and ideas within the group. There are a lot of different ideas and concepts that can be learned by teachers outside of your content/grade. Is it more common to shake things up than what my personal experience has been?
According to the principal evaluation, in order for the principal to move out of the "developing" stage, teachers are suppose to have sufficient planning time throughout the day to meet. Are the people who evaluate your principals overlooking this? Or, is common planning time considered before and after school?
Administrators play a key role in creating successful Professional Learning Communities. School principals must allow enough time for PLC's to meet. Time constraints are one of the biggest challenges in PLC experiences. At my school, teachers are mandated to attend two hour long professional development workshops during our early release days. The professional development is given to the entire faculty and it allows us little time to collaborate with our Professional Learning Communities. When school districts establish early release days for PLC's, the district should be committed to making common planning time a priority.
As we learned from Dr. Schainker in the course Group Dynamics, time constraints will always be a challenge. Teachers may take the PLC experience less serious or put less effort into it when they are given little time to devote to collaborative planning. When a PLC is given frequent opportunities to meet, teachers will become more dedicated to the task of working collaboratively. They will be allowed to work through the stages of group development. Additionally, teachers will feel more compelled to be creative in the planning process.
With ample time, a PLC's main focus will be to support instruction, analyze student work, plan common assessments, and discuss interventions for at-risk students. However, these practices take time. Principals must be committed to equipping teachers with necessary components to have successful PLC's.
I agree with Suzanne that fear of conflict is the initial issue with PLT's. When the group is new to each other, they avoid large issues and have trouble accomplishing meaningful tasks. This year is my first year at the high school, and I am a new member to a well established PLT. The EOC scores of the PLT are "good", which gives members a false sense of superiority. I find myself unable to contribute much to the discussion. The attitude in the PLT is "If it isn't broken, don't fix it."
An administrator needs to make sure that established PLT's continue evolving and don't get too ingrained in their ways.
Very interesting comments.
So do you believe that collaboration should be mandated by the principal, or simply encouraged and made voluntary? How much structure should the principal impose, and how much should be left up to the team? When is it appropriate for an administrator to become directly involved with a professional learning team, and when should administrators back off and let teams figure things out for themselves?
Dr. G
Holly Springs High School does a great job with their PLC's relative to other schools that I have been in. The major contributing factor of this is follow-up by administrators. I am in agreement with Matt and Rod in that if administration does not make it a priority then neither will teachers. At HSHS, PLC's give mandatory "Formative" assessments every 4 weeks. These assessments are cummulative. All data is sent to the API who comes to discuss the results with each PLC. The PLC then looks at the data to figure out how to remediate specific individual on specific objectives. Teachers also talk about what worked for the teachers with high scores on specific objectives.
Dr. Graham,
I have been on both sides of the coin, in that I have been a part of PLC's that have had a considerable amount of freedom and some that have had no freedom. I think that there needs to be a comfortable balance between the two. A PLC that is being dictated almost entirely by administration lack creativity and comfort. Teachers tend to go through a "dog and pony" show to make sure that they look good for the principal, yet no real accomplishments are made. A PLC given complete freedom is dangerous as well. Who knows what they are doing. I was part of a PLC two years ago that sat around and ate lunch or did not meet at all.
I'm in agreement with Matthew, David, and Rod. If teachers aren't mandated to be involved in PLC's, then most teachers won't participate. Principals must still treat teachers like professionals and allow them to come up with an agenda which would best fit the student.
Administrators should model collaborative behavior during staff development, faculty meetings, and within the various PLC's they attend. To help build collaboration, principals need to make a positive shift in how teachers question each other. Furthermore, administrators need to exhibit healthy attitudes when teachers bring ideas to their colleagues. In our previous class my group learned the importance of establishing group norms and ground rules. Administrators should begin each interaction with their faculty the same way.
While it is true that PLC's main function is to improve student learning, this can not happen until the group's participants learn how to support each other.
A major challenge I have found in order to make collaboration happen successfully is having everyone play by the same rules. Often there are assumptions made in regard to understanding the "rules" and this leads to trouble.
The steps that an administrator could take to address this challenge: (1)ensure the group establishes and follows norms; (2) empower groups to problem solve; and (3) make sure everyone has the same understanding of the expectations.
Janice, I agree. It is interesting that it is so difficult for individuals to overcome themself. One would think that people would be willing to consider that their way may not be the only way. However, I guess that becomes a difficult task when people do not value the opinions of others. Or at least consider that someone else may have an idea that has merit. I wonder if the personalities are in conflict or if there is an unspoken lack of respect and trust for teaching styles or each other.
Roderic, I would agree that "personal issues" should be overcome for the good of the students. Unfortunately, I'm not sure people operate with that mindset very often. It has been my experience, when people think they know best, students somehow take a back seat to personal perspectives.
Principals should mandate Professional Learning Communities only if they are willing to address the challenges PLC's encounter. One of the ways to address the challenges PLC's encounter is for the principal to go to team meetings.
Principals should be involved in PLC's by attendng the meetings. They should attend the meetings at length or briefly to send the message that they are interested in helping the team accomplish their goals. In addition to atending the meetings regularly, the principal should evaluate the PLC's meeting through the completion of a PLC Minutes form. The form should state the purpose of the meeting, the agenda, and any questions the team has for the principal. The principal should not only read the forms, but keep them as a record of collaborative learning at his or her school.
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