The PLC model rests on the idea that groups of people working together in an interdependent fashion will make better decisions than people working individually. But is this an accurate idea?
Based on your own experience, describe a positive outcome that you have personally observed that resulted from collaboration; OR, describe a negative outcome that you have personally observed that resulted from collaboration. What made the positive experience positive, or what made the negative experience negative (in other words, what about the conditions or characteristics of the experience led to it being positive or negative)?
Positive: Some genuine good can come from capitalizing on the paradigms and pedagogy of education professionals. My best experience is currently ongoing as I am working to build a world history class from the ground up with a few cool twists besides the core curriculum. It's a good experience because everybody wants it, everybody shares the same passion, and everybody has something positive to contribute.
ReplyDeleteNegative: Some people are just bad people for collaboration. All they see is negative and every time they speak up in a collaborative situation with me I just want to say, "Really? We're back to that?" Or... they may be carrying around baggage from a previously bad experience working with others. In either case, those meetings, which are usually after school, are long on talk and low on productivity.
As a physical education teacher, I have often sat in on grade level PLTs. One example of a "bad" collaboration that I observed was this: A fourth grade teacher and her peers brainstormed interventions for a student who was not scoring at a proficient level in math. Because her reading scores were also erratic, the group inferred that she may be missing word problems due to comprehension issues. The the group talked it over and the teacher intervened: She began to read the student the word problems. The student began to score progressively worse. In a conference with the parent, the teacher explained the situation and the intervention in place. The parent promptly suggested that the problem was that the student was being read to (not really best practice intervention by the way) and sure enough, when the teacher stopped the "intervention" the student's scores rebounded.
ReplyDeleteThis was a situation where a group of teachers were making inferences without "digging deeper" and then "working together" to implement poor strategies. PLC FAIL.
I have been a member of a dysfunctional PLC group for the majority of this school year. For one, we have a social studies teacher who will be absent for weeks at a time, so when we do meet as a grade level it will be me and one other social studies teacher. The negative experience comes with the teacher I am left with because he does not “like” the curriculum facilitator personally, so he refuses, rebels, and complains against the lesson plan template they want us to follow. Consequently, this leaves me with most of the work to do. I often feel that what causes the most negative outcomes is when people disagree with someone, or what some people have established, mainly because they have not developed a relationship with them. However, even though they have not established a relationship, they expect you to follow their every order. Many negative instances that I have seen in collaboration occur because people do not “like” someone, or something, so they will rebel and act unprofessionally regardless of what is required of them to do.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand what you are saying, Chris. My PLC works quite well for the most part, however, we have one member who just does not seem to pull their weight. He does not pay attention most of the time, and he often seems clueless with the concepts that we are covering. My teammates and I have tried to work with him, hold his hand, etc. I have even had administrators come to me as the PLC leader and ask me to do more to help him. I totally agree with the idea of PLCs, and I believe that they can be effective with the right group with a common vision. I just have not been privileged to have a fully functioning PLC.
DeleteChallenges: I am currently a member of three PLTs at the middle school I teach at: my team PLT and 7th grade science and 8th grade science. I only get to meet with 2 of my 3 PLTs. Because of our daily schedule, I never get to meet with my fellow 8th grade science teachers and no one ever fills me in on what is talked about. The 8th grade PLT is more important to me because that is a tested EOG. My team was promised coverage to meet with our 8th grade counterparts at the beginning of the year but that never happened. I also believe PLTing on the year-round schedule is very difficult. It is hard to have a conversation about data 3-6 weeks after it has been collected just due to the fact that everyone is in a different spot in the curriculum. We can, however, share best practices with each other.
ReplyDeletePositives: I love the collaboration piece. Fortunately, I have never really had a dysfunctional PLT. I really enjoy talking about best practices with teachers. We are able to brainstorm and share ideas. This year, I'm in a PLT with 4 other people who have never taught 7th grade science and are beginning teachers but they have the most creative and innovative ideas. Those ideas have helped me to differentiate more lessons for my students.
Meeting with my team is probably more meaningful for me because we can talk about individual students, on team who, are at-risk and the interventions we are trying with those students. We can truly take the time to talk about what other factors are contributing to the low performance of these students.
Lauren, like you I see the struggle of PLT time in a year-round school. Someone is always tracked out... meaning someone is always missing from the PLT meeting. We have also struggled with our timing. Being Track 1- I am always working 3 weeks ahead of the others. But we have done our best to adjust.
DeleteI am fortunate to be part of an amazing PLT in 6th grade science. Last year we spent most of our time sharing best practices, new lessons, literacy strategies, etc. This year we are making a bigger effort to look at common assessments, our data, and how we will reteach skills to those students who are not successful. It is a work in progress... but we continue to try.
Positive and Negative: I have been a part of teams but not what I would call true PLCs for the purpose of analyzing data and coming up with better strategies to meet the needs of students. I would say this is negative because PLC meetings are typically just team meetings to cover minutiae. There are some positives in that we discuss student performance and behavior (qualitative data). However, we have looked at quantitative data only a few times this year (three I think), and the meetings are so far apart that I do not know how much the students are actually benefiting. We have so few meetings partly because the Curriculum Coach leads those meetings, and she is only at the school part-time.
ReplyDelete-Jamie
I agree with you, Jamie, that PLC experiences can be both positive and negative. I believe that many times the PLC meets for the sake of meeting and crossing things off the to do list. Both in the DuFour model and in the materials shared with us in Dr. Schainker's Group Dynamics class, the idea of storming as a necessary stage of group development was discussed. Any effective team I have ever been a part of has stormed at least once. Unfortunately, that hasn't been many.
DeleteI have been a part of two awesome PLCs and one terrible PLC.
ReplyDeleteDuring my terrible experience, I was on a team with two other people that would not work together. They would not agree to common assessments. During meetings they constantly complained about students (even though our norms said we would not do this). They would not share data. It was a nightmare.
Contrastly, I have been a member of some awesome teams. My current team is working out well. We are only a team of two, and the other member is a first year teacher. What has been the best about this team is that not only are both members interested in collaborating, but I have seen real results from talking about our data and developing lesson plans together. It has been great for me to work with a new teacher that has so many new ideas, and integrate some of them into my teaching (we all know that sometimes over time we can get into a rut and need to shake things up).
My experience with PLCs has lead me to believe how important it is that teams are created intentionally - not just randomly assigning people onto teams.
In my limited experience with PLCs, my most positive experiences have been with semi-large groups (approximately ten people). In those groups even if one or two individuals lack positivity, there is still a strong majority that can continue the positive work. Also, a group this size feels as though it actually needs a leader, as opposed to when the group is very small and sometimes the "leader role" can feel somewhat arbitrary. There is flexibility to divide and conquer tasks and analyze information, as well as, work as a larger group to collaborate when more input is valuable. The level of investment in the audience and the level of investment in the other members in the PLC also seems to direct the successfulness of the PLC environment.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I often feel that when the PLC group is very small and remains small, it can be more difficult to direct. If there is only a group of three and one person is negative, then it can strongly impact the others. Additionally, when a group is small it is easy to develop group-think and the level of collaborative ideas can be greatly limited.
I think there are positive and negative sides to PLCs. The positive outcome that occurred from the PLC that I've been involved in is being able to develop strategies to help those identified students that seem to be struggling within out department by first communication with the students and parents, and creating a plan of action to help those students improve within those classes by having them come for learning lab to receive individualize instruction. Other positive factors include providing teachers the opportunity to lead the group, therefore empowering those who feel they do not have a voice within the department or school, and also gives those people involved in the PLC the opportunity to build relationships with others within the department. However, the negative side is that not everyone buys into the PLC concept, and it makes it difficult for others when there's always those negative sidebar conversations, or lack of participation, which leads to not meeting the needs of students and hinders the collaboration efforts of others to work effectively overall.
ReplyDeleteAt my last school I served as the English III PLT Chair and I have to say, from the leadership perspective, it was a wonderful experience. I was a no nonsense leader. Our PLT was the envy of the department because we functioned like a well oiled machine, limited conflict and no drama; the personalities were strong, as was the spirit to collaborate.
ReplyDeleteAt my new school, I am a singleton who PLTs with teachers who teach completely different subjects. It is more like a support group, which is great to have, but we are forced to meet with the same regularity as core subjects, and that is frustrating.
Ultimately, two heads are definitely better than one, so collaborating has its benefits. Random grouping, poor leadership, and negative energy will definitely contribute to a negative PLT experience. I feel for my cohort members who shared some less than positive experiences, they make me realize how blessed I have been in my journey.
My experience with my PLC has been for the most part positive. When the concept first came about a few years ago our previous principal did not know (or care to know) how to implement it. It therefore became another time for us to plan as a grade level. This was not what PLCs were supposed to be-but as teachers who is going to complain about having another chance to plan. My current administration is more versed on PLCs and how they should work. She has time carved out that is designated to PLCs (alternating between during the day and afterschool). She has worked a way to make sure that specialists have their own PLC and they come in with grade levels. The principal and assistant principal also attend grade level PLCs. This has given us a chance to work closely with our grade levels and make it meaningful.
ReplyDeleteJanika Davis
Overall, I have had positive experiences working on PLCs. The middle grades social studies teachers in the district meet periodically throughout the school year. At first, the teachers were resistant to wanting to attend a mandatory meeting after school. Because of that, many of the teachers did not want to participate in discussions and did just enough to get through the meeting. Initially, they were not told how the meetings could benefit and prepare the students and/or how they could effectively collaborate with peers who teach the same subject. Once the leaders of the PLC realized that they needed to get the buy-in of the teachers, the meetings began to be more focused on the needs and ideas of the teachers in the district. In addition, the teachers were encouraged to take on leadership roles within the PLC, which has led to them feeling empowered and like they have more ownership of the PLC overall.
ReplyDelete~Phylisha Sanders
To paraphrase Rick Dufour, I think PLCs and true professional collaboration are fundamental to working "smarter and not harder" to educate our students. I believe this to be true as well, when the PLC is functioning properly, which includes adhering to established norms, every team member participates (or shares the load), and the team is focused on enhancing/promoting student learning or other "big picture" goals.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I have definitely grown as a teacher through working in PLCs. For example, when I first started teaching my math PLC was critical in helping me to prepare for lessons and helping me to better understand dealing with difficult students.
At my school, we participate in subject, grade-level, and team PLCS. We are required to complete a PLC feedback form for each PLC meeting. Although we earn e-schools credit for completing the documentation, the time that it takes to complete the form has negatively impacted the attitudes of a lot of teachers towards working in PLCs. Additionally, some teachers now view PLCs as a cumbersome meeting with too much to accomplish in too little of time.
I agree with Tony's paraphrase of Rick Dufour. PLCs should be something that enhances our teaching and our views one education....not something that we grow to view as cumbersome.
DeleteLet me say off the bat, I love PLCs. I find them to be informative, collaborative, and a source of inspiration. That being said, I've only been working in "formal" PLCs for one year. I haven't (as of yet) experienced anything negative from a PLC. Many of my teacher friends (outside of my school) that have been doing PLCs for years laugh when I tell them that. They're tried and true reply is, "Just wait until you get into the public schools."
I have considered the fact that my positive experiences with PLCs is the result of it being our school's first year implementing them. That being said, I know the excitement level is high with my colleagues. I do recognize that leadership is critical when it comes to PLCs. I imagine that my PLC leader (which is a subject area team) runs our meetings the same way Nicole would. To quote her, our PLC runs like "well-oiled machine."
Thanks for sharing this amazing article
ReplyDeleteAdmission in RV College of Engineering