In the age of increased effort for extending access to education, both developed and developing countries have also been asked to provide high quality education to all students in order to reduce the achievement gap that emerges among students with distinct levels of socio-economic status (Glewwe  & Kremer, 2006;  Kaarsen, 2014). Teachers—the most important school-related factor for student learning—hold substantial responsibility for improving the quality of the school and education systems serving diverse bodies of students Darling-Hammond, 1999).  In many countries worldwide, while trying to have their students reached proficient levels in standard-based tests, teachers are also required to provide their students with utilitarian conversations, deeper knowledge and connections with the real world which encourage higher quality thinking. However, what reform efforts actually contribute to sustained growth for all students and meet the demand of diverse students in a way that every child masters advance skills remains as a question for researchers. Now, it became clear to many that this is a mission impossible for schools whose teachers deprive of necessary support and constructive interaction with their peers (Morrissey, 2000).

Achieving supportive culture and conditions to succeed important progress in teaching and learning has presented as a critical feature of schools to prevent teachers from working in their own isolated classrooms and to help them to meet the needs of their challenging students (Kumar, 2012). “For more than two decades, research has shown that teachers who experience frequent, rich learning opportunities have in turn been helped to teach in more ambitious and effective ways (Little, 2006 p.1).” In order to provide such “frequent” and “rich learning” opportunities, many reform efforts have applied professional learning communities (PLCs) as a strategy, because effective PLCs improve the quality of teaching and learning (Little, 2006) and “increase student achievement by creating a collaborative school culture focused on learning” (Feger & Arruda, 2008, p.1).

Among all other efforts to improve schools, Cranston (2009) argued that reforming a school into a PLC is the most promising approach. Indeed, strong professional learning communities are found to be correlated with important outcomes for students and school staff (Hausman & Scribner, 2002; Toole & Louis, 2002 as cited in Cranstone, 2009). Successful implementations of PLCs enable schools to effectively address some of the problems that education in the twenty-first century faces (Kumar, 2012). For instance, availability of effective professional learning communities is found to be a considerable driving force for building teacher and school capacity which is correlated with improved achievement for all students (Youngs & King, 2002). Through PLCs, teachers are provided with an access to resources and professional learning opportunities, which are necessary to restructure learning environments to meet the educational needs of their increasingly diverse students (King, Artiles, & Kozleski, 2010).

Despite the fact that the importance of creating PLC in schools has been widely elaborated in the literature, only little research has been done regarding capacity of schools for PLC in Turkey (e.g., Alakurt & Keser, 2014;  Ilgan, A., Erdem, M., Cakmak, A., Erdogmus, E., &, Sevinc, O.S. (2011). Thus, there is not much knowledge regarding current status of PLC and factors associated with its practices in Turkish school context. This study, therefore, aims to assess PLC capability of Turkish schools and examine factors that explain variation in the level of PLC implementations.

Research Questions

The main research questions of this study are as follows:

1. To what extent professional learning communities (PLC) are created in Turkish schools?
2. How do participants’ characteristics (gender, age, educational level and experience) explain the variation in the implementation of PLCs in Turkish schools?
3. How do school characteristics (level and socio-economic status of students) explain the variation in the implementation of PLCs in Turkish schools?

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