摘要:
Teaching is an ever-evolving profession, one in which teachers must stay abreast of recent research and trends to continually deepen their knowledge and refine their skills. Therefore, teachers need high quality professional learning opportunities to help them master the content they teach and strengthen their teaching skills. Professional learning communities (PLCs) offer teachers one way to collaborate and engage in professional learning when utilized as professional development. This study examined English Language Arts (ELA) teachers’ experiences in district-mandated PLCs as a form of professional development. These PLCs followed the Professional Learning Communities at Work™ (DuFour & Eaker, 1998) model. This study also explored the affordances and limitations of these PLCs for developing these teachers’ pedagogical-content knowledge (PCK). Using a case study method, the researcher collected data from focus group interviews, personal interviews, PLC observations, and observations in the teachers’ classrooms. Shulman’s (1987) concept of PCK framed the findings of the study. This study describes ELA teachers’ participation in two types of PLCs – a subject area (ELA) PLC and a grade level PLC. Three themes emerged about teachers’ experiences in the PLCs. First, teachers met in an underdeveloped, underutilized ELA PLC. Teachers followed PLC meeting protocols, or proper meeting format, but did not engage in collaborative inquiry, the means for growth for members of PLCs (DuFour & Eaker, 1998). Next, teachers had inconsistent perceptions about PLCs. Teachers’ reported PLC topics of conversation did not mesh with PLC meeting observations. There was no observed change in instructional practice as a direct result of teachers’ PLC involvement. Third, teachers experienced imbalanced data collection and data use. Teachers collected many forms of student achievement data from various assessments, and this data collection drove classroom practices, but teachers did not use t