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Learning communities

The starting point for professional learning is in schools and classrooms

By Learning Forward
Categories: Standards for Professional Learning
August 2011
Vol. 32 No. 4
 Learning communities are best defined as “ongoing groups … who meet regularly for the purposes of increasing their own learning and that of their students“ (Lieberman & Miller, 2008, p. 2). Although learning communities vary in form and context, they share some fundamental core beliefs and values. Based on the idea that educators can learn from each other, learning communities create and maintain an environment that fosters collaboration, honest talk, and a commitment to the growth and development of individual members and to the group as a whole. They work from the assumption that teachers are not mere technicians who implement the ideas of others, but are intellectuals who are doing knowledge work. This means that learning communities privilege theory as well as practice; they

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Authors

Ann Lieberman and Lynne Miller

Ann Lieberman ([email protected]) is a senior scholar at the School Redesign Network at Stanford University. Lynne Miller ([email protected]) is professor of educational leadership at the University of Southern Maine. 

References

Cochran-Smith, M. & Lytle, S.L. (1993). Inside/outside: Teacher research and knowledge. New York: Teachers College Press.

Grossman, P., Wineburg, S., & Woolworth, S. (2001, December). Toward a theory of teacher community. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 942-1012.

Horn, I.S. (2005). Learning on the job: A situated account of teacher learning in high school mathematics departments. Cognition & Instruction, 23(2), 207-236.

Lieberman, A. & Miller, L. (2008). Teachers in professional communities: Improving teaching and learning. New York: Teachers College Press.

Little, J.W. & Horn, I.S. (2007). “Normalizing” problems of practice: Converting routine conversation into a resource for learning in professional communities. In Stoll L., & Louis, K.S. (Eds.), Professional learning communities: Divergence, depth, and dilemmas (pp. 29-42). Maidenhead, England: Open University Press.

McLaughlin, M.W. & Talbert, J.E. (2001). Professional communities and the work of high school teaching. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

McLaughlin, M.W. & Talbert, J.E. (2006). Building school-based teacher learning communities: Professional strategies to improve student achievement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

Talbert, J. (2010). Professional learning communities at the crossroads: How systems hinder or engender change. In Hargreaves, A., Lieberman, A., Fullan, M., & Hopkins, D. (Eds.), Second international handbook of educational change (pp. 555-571). New York: Springer.

Lieberman, A. & Wood, D.R. (2002). Inside the National Writing Project: Connecting network learning and classroom teaching. New York: Teachers College Press.


Learning Forward is the only professional association devoted exclusively to those who work in educator professional development. We help our members plan, implement, and measure high-quality professional learning so they can achieve success with their systems, schools, and students.


Categories: Standards for Professional Learning

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