This paper reviews Richard DuFour's 2004 article "What Is a 'Professional Learning Community'?" published in Educational Leadership. The review examines DuFour's three foundational "big ideas": structuring schools so that learning is supported and unavoidable, fostering teacher collaboration validated by objective data, and adopting results-oriented metrics for student achievement. The paper also considers potential resistance to these ideas, noting that data-driven evaluation may challenge entrenched teaching habits and that mandatory student intervention programs may not be universally welcomed. Overall, the review provides a concise critical summary of DuFour's framework for institutional educational reform.
A popular idea in the field of education today is the need to develop a professional learning community of educators to facilitate the goals of the institution. Richard DuFour's 2004 article in Educational Leadership outlines three foundational "big ideas" that define and drive this concept.
One of the "big ideas" of a professional learning community is the responsibility for educators to come together and determine how students really learn and how to achieve set learning objectives. For example, if a teacher is struggling with providing differentiated instruction to a diverse community of learners, the school can offer additional support and resources to bolster the performance of her students (DuFour 2004: 1).
Creating a professional learning community ensures that there are institutional structures to support learning in a meaningful fashion so that learning is accessible and unavoidable. Not only educators and administrators but students as well are part of the learning community. Another foundational component of the professional learning community is that students receive timely intervention when they experience challenges. Rather than waiting for the student to seek help independently, there are procedures in place to ensure the student is required to obtain extra assistance. Intervention rather than remediation is the aim (DuFour 2004: 2).
A second "big idea" is the concept of collaboration. Quite simply, when teachers find that particular strategies work, they should share them with their fellow educators. This ensures that teachers are able to learn from one another and that effective techniques are disseminated throughout the school. However, the article notes that subjective impressions are not enough to validate that particular approaches work; these must be determined through objective instruments. For example, having teachers administer the same types of formative assessments enables them to compare which techniques enhanced student retention and which did not (DuFour 2004: 3). Instead of simply presenting teachers with state curriculum standards, schools must try to answer the question: "How will we know when each student has learned?" (DuFour 2004: 4).
Not all teachers would necessarily embrace such an approach. This type of data-driven method of evaluation could force some teachers to change their methods based on objective measurements. This objection also links directly with the third big idea behind professional learning communities: being results-oriented in a statistical fashion. The results-oriented concept draws on many of the notions behind quality improvement in private enterprise — namely, setting specific metrics for student achievement, such as decreasing the rate of failures by a specific percentage and increasing the rates at which students pass state exams.
"Setting specific measurable goals for student success"
"Resistance from teachers and students to PLC demands"
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