Determinants of the effectiveness professional learning communities
List of Authors
  • Lim Sengpoh

Keyword
  • Professional Learning Communities, Educators, Professional development

Abstract
  • The escalating global competition and the growth of knowledge based economy. The need for the educators to work and think together of the strategies to prepare the students for life and work in the twenty- first century has become crucial. Professional learning communities is a promising mode of human engagement that has become a trend in most of the academic institutions. However, to actualize this concept it requires the willingness of the educators to share the norms and values. The domain of this study is to examine the determinants that affect the educators to engage in this knowledge transformational process. A cross sectional quantitative method through questionnaire has been used for data collection. A total of 250 educators who work in 2 matriculation colleges, 2 teacher training institutions 2 secondary schools and 2 private colleges in four different states in Malaysia have been targeted as the respondents. This study is focusing to test the specific hypotheses and examine the relationship between the influencing factors and the sustainability of PLC in the academic institutions. The results as analyzed by using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) demonstrate that all the exogenous variables have the significant causal effects in influencing establishment and sustainability of professional learning communities in academic institutions and Trust dimension has the mediation effects. Leadership dimension appears to be the most significant determinant. This study suggests that by understanding the educators’ perceived influencing factors, an effective mechanism may be designed to meet the expectation of the educators.

Reference
  • 1. Allen, D. (2013). Reconstructing professional learning community as collective creation. Improving School.16 (3), 191-208. 2. Angelle, P.S. Nixon, T J, Norton E M & Niles, C.A (2011). Increasing organizational effectiveness: An examination of teacher leadership, collective efficacy and trust in school. 3. Bandura, A (1998) self efficacy: the exercise of control.New York: Freeman 4. Carmel Maloney and DesleaKonza 2011 A case study of teachers’ professional learning: Becoming a community of professional learning or not? 5. Charles D Schmitz, Susan J Baber, Delores M John & Kathleen Sullivan ( 2009). Creating the 21st century School of Education: Collaboration, Community and Partnership in St Louis. Peabody Journal of Education vol 73, issue 3. 6. Dallas, F. (2006). Enhancing the 3 R’s of resilience, rention, and reform through middle school faculty professional learning communities. Middle Grades Research Journal, 1,67-92. 7. David Crepaz-Keay, (2017) Peer support in community settings getting back to our roots. Mental health and social Inclusion, vol 21 issue:3,pp184-190 https// doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-03-2017-0010. 8. Daniel Carpenter (2017) School culture and leadership of professional learning communities International Journal of Educational Management,vol 29,issue 5 pp682-694 https//doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-04-2014-0046 9. Deal, T.E & Peterson, K.D (2009), Shaping school culture:Pitfalls, Paradoxes & Promises, Jossey- Bass Inc, Publishers, San Francisco,CA. 10. DuFour, R. (2014). What is a professional learning community? Educational Leadership, 61(8), 6-11. 11. DuFour, R. (2010). Professional learning communities: A bandwagon, an idea worth considering, or our best hope for high levels of learning?.Middle School Journal, 39, 4-6. 12. Fatma, K (2016) The relationship between professional learning community, bureaucratic structure and organizational trust in ptimary schools. Educational Science: Theory & Practice, 16, 1619-1637. 13. Firestorne, W & Rosenblum, S (1998). Building commitment in urban high school. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 10, 285-299 14. Fullan, M. (1998), “Leadership for the 21st century: breaking the bonds of dependency”, Educational Leadership, Vol. 55 No. 7, pp. 6-11. 15. Geoff Master (2015) “Big five”challenge in the school education educational research http”// www. Teacher magnizes.com.au 16. Heaton, Morgot, (2013) “an examination on the relationship between professional learning community varibles and teacher self-efficacy. Electronic Theses and Dissertation, S038. 17. Hofman, R.H & Dijkstra, BJ, (2010), Effective teacher professionalization in networks? Teaching and Teacher Education.Vol.26 No 4 pp.e 1031-e1040. 18. Hord M Shirley (2003) Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous inquiry and Improvement. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory 19. InPraxis Group (2006) Profeesional learning communities : an exploration. Report for school improvement Alberta Education. 20. Joel J. Mintzes, Bev Marcum, Christ Messerchmidt&Andew (2012). Enhancing Self efficacy in elementary Science teaching with Professional Learning CommunitiesJournal of Science Education Springer Link 21. John,O.P& Benet Martinez,V. (2000). Measurement: reliability, construct validation, and scale construction, In Reis,H.T.andJudd,C.M (Eds), Handbook of Research Methods in Social Psychology, Cambridge University Press, New York,NY,pp.339-69. 22. Kent D.Peterson (2010). Shaping positive school cultures, University of Wisconsin Madison kpeterson@education,wisc.edu. 23. Klassen, R.M Tze,V.MBetts,S.M&Gordon,K.A (2011). Teacher efficacy research 1998-2009:Signs of progress or unfulfilled promise? Educationa Psychology Review 23 (1)pp 21-43. 24. Kyoung Oh Song &jinyoung Choi (2017). Structural Analysis of factors that Influence Professional Learning Communities in Korean elementary Schools.International Electronic Journal of Elemetary Education vil 10 issue 1. 25. Lanny Mathews, Chuck Holt, Melissa Arrambide (2014). Factors Influencing the Establishment and Sustainability of Professional Learning Communities: the Teacher’s Perspective International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 5, No. 11; 26. Leslie Jones, Gregg Stall, Debra Yarbrough (2013) The importance of Professional learning communities for school improvement creative education vol4 no5 357- 361 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) 27. Linda Darling Hammand (1998). Teacher Learning That Support Student Learning. Journal educational leadership vol55 no5 28. LokmanMohd Tahir, MohdNirhraHaruzuanMohd Said, MohdFazli Ali (2013) Examining the professional learning community practices : An empirical comparison from Malysia universities clusters. The 9th International conference on cognitive science. Procedia-social and behavioural science 97 105- 113. 29. Loius, K.S, Kruse, SD & Associates. (1995). Professionalism and community: Perspective on reforming urban schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Inc. 30. Martine Leclerc, Andre, Nathalie Clement (2010) How a school can improve their functioning as Professional learning Communities. European conference on education research 31. Megan Tschannen, Moran, Anita Woolfolk & Wayne K Hoy (1998). Teacher Effeicacy: Its meaning and measure. Review of Educational Research 32. Melanin S Morrissey (2000). Professional learning Communities. An on going exploration. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. 33. Mulford, (2006 ) Leading change for student achievement. Journal of Educational Change, 7, 47-58 doi:10.1007/s10833-006-0012-5 34. Nicholas Sun Keung Pang & Ting Wang (2016), Professional learning communities: research and practices across six educational systems in the Asia Pacific region Asia Pacific Journal of Education vol 36 issue 2 35. Pamela R Hallan, Henry R Smith & Julie M Hite (2015), Trust and Collaboration in PLC teams NASSP bulletin. 36. Prytula, M (2012). Teacher metacognition within the PLC. International Education studies, 5 (4), 112-121. Doi: 10.5539/ies.v 5n4pl112 37. Sargent, T, &Hannum, E (2013). Doing more with less. Teacher professional learning communities in resource constrained primary schools in rural China. Journal of Teacher Education. Vol.60 No3 258-276 38. Schmoker, M.(2004). The tipping point: From reckless reform to substantive instructional improvement. Phi Delta Kappan,85 (6), 424-432. 39. SelcukDogan, R. Samil&NihalYurtsven (2017). Professional learning comminiteisasseseemaent : Adaptation. Internal Validity and Multidimensional Model testing in Turkish Context.Journal of educational Acience: Theory &Pratice. 40. Shirley Robinette Weathers (2009) A study to identify the compoenets of OLC that correlate with teacher efficacy, satisfaction and Morale. Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 313. 41. Yuen Sze Michelle Tan & Imelda Santos Caleon (2015). Problem finding in Professional Learning Communities : A Learning Study Approach.Journal of Educational Research vol60 issue 2. 42. ZuraidahAbudullah& Muhammad FaizalA Ghani (2014) Prosseional Learning Community in Secondary School in Malaysia. Jornal of Education and learning. Vol 8 (3) pp.227-248