Professional Learning Communities (PLC) for Mathematics Education in Middle Schools
Conceptualizing professional learning communities (PLC) along three core dimensions-norms, structure, and content-we examine how these dimensions are similar and different between and within schools. First, we examine the norms and beliefs of members of the PLC and the extent to which these norms are held in common. Second we examine the structure of the PLC including the strength of ties and tie span. Third, we will examine the content or substance of the interactions among members of the PLC.
One component of our work continued to explore the validity of our social network instrument for studying school subject specific leadership and social influence in schools with particular attention to question-order effects. A second component of our work centered on examining hypotheses about PLC generated in prior theory building work. Specifically, we hypothesized that PLC would differ by a) school subject and b) school. We also hypothesized that variation in dimensions of the PLC by school would be associated with gains in student achievement.
