Professional Readings
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Professional Readings includes reviews of recent publications and highlights of reports on current issues that affect schools. Your contributions are welcome. Send them to principal@osu.edu. Please indicate if we may use your name in the “contributor” credits.
On Common Ground
Barth, R., Dufour, R., Dufour, R., Eaker, R., EasonWatkins, B., Fullan, M., et al. (2005) On common ground: the power of professional learning communities. Bloomington, Indiana: Solution Tree.
On Common Ground is a collection of articles by an impressive cast of writers and thinkers well known in the field of education. It is a book that will offer the benefit of attending a firstrate educational conference from the comfort of your office chair. Some of the notable contributors are Roland Barth, Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Barbara EasonWatkins, Michael Fullan, Lawrence Lezotte, Douglas Reeves, Jonathon Saphier, Mike Schmoker, Dennis Sparks, and Rick Stiggins. With all of the divisive complexities in education, these authors have agreed that they stand on "common ground" in expressing their belief in the power of professional learning communities for school improvement. Professional learning communities are related to student achievement, to helping more children learn, to reducing the achievement gap, and to improving the quality of teaching in all schools.
There are challenges facing advocates of professional learning communities.
- The challenge of developing and applying shared knowledge.
- The challenge of sustaining the hard work of change
- The challenge of transforming school culture
Each author offers insights from his or her unique perspective on how best to meet these challenges given that the purpose of schooling is to ensure that all students acquire the knowledge, skills and dispositions essential to their future success.
According to the book, there are several tenets of professional learning communities that clash with tenets of traditional education:
PLC |
Traditional |
|---|---|
Schools exist to ensure that all students learn |
Schools exist to ensure that all students are taught |
Culture of collaboration |
Culture of isolation |
The power of the collective capacity of a staff to work together for school improvement |
Improving individuals for school improvement |
Focus on results |
Focus on activities |
Assessment FOR learning |
Assessment OF learning |
Widespread, dispersed leadership |
The charismatic leader |
The sense of self-efficacy, that success is dependent on effort |
The sense that external forces determine success |
In a professional learning community, staff members will come together to clarify what it is they want students to learn, how they will know when each student has mastered the essential learning, how they will respond when students experience difficulty, and how they will deepen the learning for each student once they have mastered the essential learning.
Each page offers a vision of what can be. If you are struggling with how to transform your school, your passion for developing a professional learning community will be heightened by this straightforward guide. If you want all of your students to learn in a culture of collaboration, focused on results, then you too can stand on “common ground” centered around professional learning communities.
