Global Perspectives On Developing Professional Learning Communities

This book discusses distinctive features of the professional learning community concept, practices and processes across six different education systems in the Asia-Pacific region, namely Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and the United States. It provides a platform for an exchange of different perspectives and offers alternative possibilities of theorizing professional learning communities across different socio-cultural contexts. Contributors provide valuable insights for policy makers, education researchers and educators in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere to deal with critical questions about the improvement of teaching and learning and school improvement in a globalizing world. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Education.

Transform your school into a high-performing, student-centered PLC. Tailored specifically to international schools, this resource will guide you through every aspect of PLC implementation. The book's contributors are all international-school educators with firsthand experience successfully reculturing their schools into PLCs. They offer real-world examples, strategies, and techniques to bring unparalleled professional growth to international teachers. Each chapter includes research-based recommendations for and authentic examples of systemic PLC implementation. Benefits Define the professional learning community process and understand how third culture kids can particularly benefit from PLCs. Shift from a teacher-focused school to a learning-focused culture. Understand the strengths and challenges of implementing PLCs in already high-performing schools. Learn to work in collaborative teams across grade levels, departments, and courses. Create a guaranteed, viable curriculum for the unique characteristics of international school students. Contents Introduction Making the Case for Professional Learning Communities in International Schools 1 Building a PLC Culture in International Schools--A Superintendent's Perspective 2 Understanding the International School Student 3 Understanding the International School Teacher 4 Creating a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum in International Schools 5 Creating a Learning-Focused International School 6 Creating an Inclusive International School 7 Harnessing the Potential of Singleton Teachers in International Schools 8 Building a Progressive International School 9 Learning from the Jakarta Intercultural School Story 10 Transforming the Singapore American School Index

In-service teacher professional development is central to most empirical conceptions of educational quality. As the techniques and strategies for educational reform have spread rapidly throughout the world, teacher professional development practices have been borrowed across borders. It is important to study the global sharing of information on teacher professional development. Global Perspectives on Teacher Performance Improvement examines the implementation of proven, high quality teacher professional development practices in unique environments around the world. It further explains the power of a globally connected community of teacher quality improvement. Covering topics such as mentoring programs, education technology, and education workforce, this book is an essential resource for educational administration and faculty, pre-service teachers, the public education sector, government officials, educators of both K-12 and higher education, researchers, and academicians.

Reeducating the Educator focuses on community building within teacher education programs in Canada, Israel, Australia, and the United States. Maintaining that communities have to be built and sustained, the contributors discuss possible theoretical frameworks underlying community building and change and suggest that there is a need for teacher educators to go beyond localized experiences and reach out to one another in a global discussion. Because of the impact of local cultures and histories, key questions and issues vary from one country to another, and even from one faculty to another, but the resulting global conversation provides a greater understanding of the professional development of teachers and teacher educators.

More than just a plan book, this fresh new resource brim with tips, activities, and 40 weeks of planning pages to guide you through a positive, productive year. This new addition to the PLC family is more than a plan book with space for EIGHT class periods. It also helps educators implement critical PLC issues as they collaborate with other school staff members to improve student learning.

Provides specific information on how to transform schools into results-oriented professional learning communities, describing the best practices that have been used by schools nationwide.

Make your school a place where professional learning thrives Learning Forward is a leader in understanding and advancing professional learning that leads to student success. This series explores Learning Forward’s seven Standards for Professional Learning, which outline the characteristics of effective professional learning that, collectively, advance teaching and learning. This volume focuses on the pathways through which leaders can orchestrate a learning environment that empowers teachers to take charge of their own development. Features include: An original essay by Karen Seashore Louis on creating a school culture in which all adults see themselves as part of the larger enterprise of continuous learning Strategies, tools, and specific examples focused on the leader’s role in everyday practice A case study of how public school leaders in Lexington, Massachusetts, improved outcomes for the district’s students by building trust, developing collaborative capacity, and fostering leadership at all levels of the system When you make professional development an everyday part of the life of your school, you create an environment that encourages innovation, inspires collaboration, and makes continuous learning a priority—which benefits teachers and students.

This book serves as a reference point to inform continuing professional learning and development (CPLD) initiatives at both individual and institutional levels. It serves as a guide for faculty engaged in online teaching within the higher education sector, in universities and vocational education institutions. It moves beyond a technology-driven approach by emphasising pedagogy and design as key issues in online teaching practice. It will highlight challenges to staff engagement and how they may be overcome, drawing on evidence-based examples and models of CPLD from institutions around the world. It is underpinned by a framework that emphasises the need for CPLD that is sustainable and adaptable to a range of contexts, particularly in professional learning and development. This book also highlights practices aimed at sustainable, continuing, learning, and brings together a range of solutions and suggestions to assist educators and institutions with CPLD.

Imagine all professionals in all schools engaged in continuous professional learning! Education experts Shirley M. Hord and William A. Sommers explore the school-based learning opportunities offered to school professionals and the principal's critical role in the creation, development, and support of an effective professional learning community (PLC). This book provides school leaders with readily accessible information to guide them in initiating and developing a PLC that supports teachers and students. Using field-tested examples, the text illustrates how this research-based school improvement model can help educators: Increase leadership capacity Embed professional development into daily work Create a positive school culture Develop accountability Boost student achievement

This anthology presents the recommendations of education leaders, and each chapter contributes to a sound conceptual framework and offers specific strategies for developing PLCs. These leaders have found common ground in expressing their belief in the power of PLCs although clear differences emerge regarding their perspectives on the most effective strategy for making PLCs the norm in North America.