Just read a post from Dufour’s Professional Learning Community website and blog– how are PLC Principles infused into Teacher Education programs.
Rick Dufour talks about the misalignment between teacher education programs and PLCs in K-12 schools and districts. As North Carolina’s Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education (SCDEs) revision and modify their teacher education programs how can we include components of PLCs in our program?
Based on Dufour’s comments here are some ideas:
Dufour’s statements:
1) In a PLC, staff must be committed to helping all students learn. In universities, there is an assumption that the student is responsible for his own learning and that the college should raise standards for admission and do a better job of screening to keep incapable students out of the program.
The standards for admission to teacher education programs are there to ensure that teacher candidates have the prerequisite knowledge, skills and potential to be a successful teacher. These requirements are very low and passing scores on Praxis entrance exams and minimum GPA’s are not very successful. I would contend that the similarity between PLCs and teacher education programs include opportunities for collaboration and support. Once teacher education candidates are admitted to programs, programs employ various strategies, such as cohorts, structured field-based experiences and other supports to help teacher candidates successfully develop into effective teachers. Inherently, universities are built upon the philosophy that the community can’t do the work for the individual, and if teacher candidates don’t meet standards, they usually do not remain in the program.
2) In a PLC, there is an assumption that staff should work collaboratively to ensure all students have access to a guaranteed curriculum. In the university culture, personal academic freedom takes precedent, and there is no expectation that courses taught by different professors offer similar content or comparable ways of assessing students.
While academic freedom is prevalant in university settings, courses must have standard objectives and goals. Many teacher education programs require or emphasize that within a course, various sections have similar activities or projects. Academic freedom is a barrier, but many teacher education programs are working to ensure a ‘guaranteed curriculum.’
3) In a PLC, assessment is used to inform our professional practice and respond to individual students who experience difficulty. In the university culture, assessments are used to assign grades.
Asessments in PLC’s in K-12 settings are used to inform practice, respond to students’ needs and also assign grades. Grades are part of a K-12 environment and can’t be avoided. In teacher education programs, effective teaching uses assessments to reflect on and refine practice, identify the needs of students and also respond to students’ needs. For example, if my teacher candidates struggle with a formative assessment project in their clinical experiences, effective instruction would examine where teacher candidates struggled and address how to modify the course to help them.
While the inherent nature of universities and teacher education programs provides some barriers to overcome en route to establishing PLC principles in teacher education programs and courses. As we look to improve teacher education programs, how can these programs specifically infuse PLC principles into them?
Posted by drewpolly 
