Professional Learning Communities have been around for several years now in the K12 environments and have expanded into higher education. The benefits from PLCs outweighs the cost, time and commitment to have a successful one. What other secondary educations have implemented and had success? The Vermont Department of Education has revamped it's entire teaching strategies from K12 through most major universities.
Many of my findings for higher educations implementing PLCs are all showing improved learning and more collaborative relationships are being established. A commitment of time is a resource that must be reallocated within the structure seems to be one of the biggest factors among most that is crucial when implementing something new into a established system. Research has also shown that the time being committed by students, faculty, administrators and alumni is most effective if the participants value the work that is being done is worthwhile.
As I performed my searches, I found that there were a lot of K12 PLCs that were showing up but I wasn't finding too many higher education examples. Instead of just using Google, I decided to give SearchCredible.com a try that provides an quick and easy search for 26 search engines. I didn't use them all since some wouldn't pertain to the information I was searching for. I did however end up using Bing, Google, Google Scholar, Library of Congress, and used Wikipedia (used only to reference a couple schools for more information)
As I also found out that by changing my search topics from PLCs to include Faculty Learning Communities, I was able to get a larger pool of data. It wasn't until I was at a site that they used the terms back and forth did I realize it was another option to check into.
As I performed my searches I found lots of information on Professional Learning Communities but was limited on Higher Education and actual reports and analysis. Below were just a few of the ones that stood out as good resources to help dig deeper into my project:
A website dedicated to professional learning communities to help focus on improving school performance, strengthening teaching and learning in content areas, integrating technology into teaching and learning, involving family and community in student learning, and connecting disability research to practice.
The Sam Houston State University Freshman Learning Community (FLC) cohorts are an enhanced non-residential educational experience specifically designed to foster the intellectual development of students through increased interaction with fellow students, faculty and staff. The FLC cohorts offer first-year college students a unique opportunity to become intimately familiar with the necessary academic and social skills that will be a first step toward not only a dynamic undergraduate experience.
A website at a community college who has been using learning communities since 1995 and have expanded to various communities within the college.
A review on experiential learning in higher education. While the literature suggests that experiential learning is a necessary and vital component of formal instruction in colleges and universities, controversy never-the-less exists among scholars and educators about its place and use.
A website featuring innovative strategies, best practices and fresh perspectives on what works, and what doesn’t, when it comes to teaching, learning, and leading in higher education today.
I can see the SEDL website being particularly helpful to you, as you move onto implementing your project. Since we are beginning to set up PLCs in my district, I bookmarked several of your wonderful resources for future reference (read: fall). Looking forward to listening to your implementation podcast=8-)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if it will be helpful to you, but Rick and Rebecca Dufour have done a ton with PLCs in Secondary education. Try Solution-tree.com. How will technology play a role in the implemenation of PLCs? We are doing this in my district and I never thought about PLCs from a tech perspective. Good work.
ReplyDelete