Professional Learning Communities: What Are They and Why Are They Important?: Issues About Change, Volume 6, Number 1

Increasingly, educators speak of professional learning communities as a potent school improvement strategy melding staff development practices with well-focused school change processes to improve student learning.

But what does the research say about professional learning communities--as a school improvement tactic? This lucid review of the research on professional learning communities defines five important attributes of professional learning communities and identifies the outcomes they deliver to staff and students.

An extensive bibliography leads you to the sources of this review, and allows you to continue your investigation of this important topic.

This publication is one of a series of briefing papers called Issues About Change.

SEDL has published several publications about Professional Learning Communities:

• Leading Professional Learning Communities: Voices from Research and Practice
• Professional Learning Communities - Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement
• Professional Learning Communities - An Ongoing Exploration
• Multiple Mirrors: Reflections on the Creation of Professional Learning Communities
• Schools as Learning Communities - Issues About Change, Volume 4, Number 1
• Professional Learning Communities: What Are They and Why Are They Important? - Issues About Change, Volume 6, Number 1
• Creating a Professional Learning Community: Cottonwood Creek School - Issues About Change, Volume 6, Number 2
• Assessing a School Staff as a Community of Professional Learners - Issues About Change, Volume 7, Number 1
• Principals and Teachers: Continuous Learners - Issues About Change, Volume 7, Number 2
• Launching Professional Learning Communities: Beginning Actions - Issues About Change, Volume 8, Number 1
• Co-Developers: Partners in a Study of Professional Learning Communities - Issues About Change, Volume 8, Number 2