Session Information
32 SES 02, Cooperative Learning: Schools as Learning Communities (Part 1)
Paper Session
Contribution
General description on research questions
To rely on professionals who they have responsibility in doing well their work, sharing to be able to do practically on the learnings of the students, has impact in offering quality education. Nevertheless, in the Spanish schools dominates a culture of privacy and solipsism, lack of collaboration and teamwork, since it has documented the investigation and the international reports (TALIS). To diagnose the degrees of culture of shared learning we have adapted and validated one of the best existing instruments (the questionnaire “Professional Learning Community Assessment-Revised, PLCA-R") and we have been applied in a representative sample in Andalusia. We gather some of the results referred to this dimension. Finally, we discuss the results and courses of action.
Objectives
Present the results part of the results of an investigation obtained as doctoral thesis. Though the aims of the investigation are more wide, in this communication we claim: 1.- To state in the frame of international reports, particularly of the OECD (TALIS and PISA), the low degree of shared work and professional learning community of the Spanish professorship. 2.- To contribute some of the information referred to this dimension of the investigation that we have carried out, with the adjustment and application to a representative sample of the PLCA-R. 3.- To indicate implications for the improvement: policies and processes that help to increase the development of the organization as community.
Theoretical framework
Our investigation registers inside the current offer to organize the school as Professional Learning Community, with a culture of leadership distributed (Bolivar, 2014), that promote to improve as path of a shared responsibility (Whalan, 2012).
An increasing corpus of investigation and experiences demonstrates that to form the school as a Professional Learning Community, has managed to be constituted, worldwide, as a way of functioning that affects significantly, as organization that he learns, in the improvement of the results of the school (Hord, 1997; DuFour et al., 2008). This requires building a school culture with shared norms and values, reflective dialogue, interdependence, public practice and collaborative work, to help increase the "professional capital" of each school (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012). Professional community includes processes such as sharing teaching practices reflect critically on the impact of their work, open on the most appropriate strategies, exchange of teaching practice dialogue. Thus says Gloria Calvo (2014), "The collaborative work is based on the assumption that people learn best when interacting with colleagues and relate new ideas to the existing common shared knowledge" (p. 128).
International research (Bolam et al., 2005; Stoll & Louis, 2007) supports the most effective to achieve and maintain the medium is improved build a professional learning community. Effective professional development occurs in communities of practice in the contexts of work, collective learning. Distributed, student learning and teacher learning in the context of labor leadership, form a tripod where the most promising lines of improvement is currently based.
We need to change our way to work at school improving capacities It needs a collective responsibility, where the professionals work together for improving his practice, by means of the mutual support, responsibility and shared challenges (Timperley, Wilson, Barrar and Fung, 2007). It needs a collective responsibility, where the professionals work together for improving his practice, by means of the mutual support, responsibility and shared challenges (Whalan, 2012).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
References Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Stoll, L., Thomas, S., Wallace, M., Greenwood, A., Hawkey, K., Ingram, M., Atkinson, A. & Smith, M. (2005). Creating and Sustaining Effective Professional Learning Communities. Research Report 637. London: DfES and University of Bristol. Bolivar, A. (2014). Building School Capacity: Shared Leadership and Professional Learning Communities. A Research Proposal. International Journal of Educational Leadership and Management, 2 (2), 147-175. Dufour, R.; Dufour, R. & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree. Egido, I.; López-Martín, E.; Manso, J. y Valle, J. (2014). Factores determinantes de la autoeficacia docente en los países de la Unión Europea. En TALIS 2013 Estudio Internacional de la Enseñanza y el Aprendizaje: informe español (análisis secundario) (pp. 13-37). Madrid: Instituto Nacional de Evaluación Educativa (INEE). Calvo, G. (2014). Desarrollo Profesional Docente: el aprendizaje profesional colaborativo. En: Centro de Estudios de Políticas en Educación (CEPPE), Temas críticos para formular nuevas políticas docentes en América Latina y el Caribe: el debate actual (pp. 112-152). Santiago de Chile: OREAL/UNESCO, Hargreaves, A. y Fullan, M. (2012). Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. . Instituto Nacional de Evaluación Educativa (INEE) (2014). Informe español: TALIS 2013. Estudio Internacional de la Enseñanza y el Aprendizaje. Madrid: Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte. Murphy, J. (2015). Creating Communities of Professionalism: Addressing Cultural and Structural Barriers. Journal of Educational Administration, 53 (2), 154-176. OECD (2014).TALIS 2013 Results. An International Perspective on Teaching and Learning. Paris: OECD Publishing. OECD (2013). Fostering learning communities among teachers. Teaching in Focus, núm. 4 (june). Paris: OECD Publishing. OECD (2014). Results from TALIS 2013. Country Note: Spain. Paris: OECD Publishing. Olivier, D. F., & Hipp, K. K. (2010). Assessing and analyzing schools as professional learning communities. In K. K. Hipp & J. B. Huffman (Eds.), Demystifying Professional Learning Communities: School Leadership at its best (pp. 29–41). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education Stoll, L. & Louis, K.S. (Eds.) (2007). Professional Learning Communities. Divergence, Deph and Dilemmas. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H. & Fung, I. (2007). Teacher professional learning and development: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration [BES]. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education. Thoonen, E.E.J.; Sleegers, P.J.C.; Oort, F.J. & Peetsma, T.T.D. (2012). Building School-wide Capacity for Improvement. School effectiveness and school improvement, 23 (4), 441 460. Whalan, F. (2012). Collective Responsibility. Redefining What Falls Between the Cracks for School Reform. Rotterdam: Sense Publisher.
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