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The School Learning Community

Hipp, K. K., Stoll, L., Bolam, R., Wallace, M., McMahon, A., Thomas, S., & Huffman, J. B. (2003). An international perspective on the development of learning communities. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL, 21-25 April.

Hipp et al. write that professional learning communities have the potential to bring together a broad range of people from inside and outside schools who can influence each other's learning and, in the process, enhance school development. School communities can work together to promote individual, collective and organisational learning. Positive benefits of establishing professional learning communities are said to include improved student learning, rewarding and satisfying work environments, better teacher recruitment and retention, enhanced staff practices and better responses to complex issues on the part of leaders.

The authors provide a working definition from Stoll et al. (2003):

… an effective professional learning community has the capacity to promote and sustain the learning of all professionals in the school community with the collective purpose of enhancing pupil learning. (p. 6)

Hipp et al. concede that the challenge of moving from conceptualisations, as provided by the landmark work of Senge (1990), to strategies and capabilities has been formidable. They provide a useful model for organising thinking about professional learning communities. The model is set out as a matrix, and includes the following dimensions and critical attributes.

Shared and supportive leadership

• Nurturing leadership among staff
• Sharing power, authority and responsibility
• Broad-based decision making that reflects commitment and accountability

Shared values and vision

• Espousing values and norms
• Focusing on student learning
• Having high expectations
• Shared vision guiding teaching and learning

Collective learning and application

• Sharing information
• Seeking new knowledge, skills and strategies
• Working collaboratively to plan, solve problems and improve learning opportunities

Shared personal practice

• Peers offering knowledge, skills and encouragement
• Offering feedback to improve instructional practices
• Sharing outcomes of instructional practices
• Coaching and mentoring

Supportive conditions

• Relationships
  • Caring relationships
  • Trust and respect
  • Recognition and celebration
  • Risk taking
  • Unified effort to embed change
• Structures
• Resources (time, money, materials, people)
• Facilities
• Communication systems

(From Hipp et al., 2003, Appendix B, p. 26)

Working from the above criteria, the authors provide a checklist that can be used as a starting point to investigate principal, staff and other stakeholder perceptions of the professional learning environment at their own school.

Read more about this topic at Working Collaboratively

References
Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organisation. New York: Doubleday.

Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., Thomas, S., Hawkey, K., & Smith, M. (2003). Creating and sustaining effective professional learning communities. Paper presented at the Sixteenth International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, Sydney, Australia, 5-8 January 2003.