RSA1: Team Check Up

RSA1: Team Check Up

Team Check Up article

While many of us have written about and been exposed to PLC’s, it is time we also evaluate whether or not they are effective.   Determining the effectiveness of our own team not only allows us to evaluate our strengths, but also focus on our weaknesses and make improvements.  Research and classroom practice have yielded profound knowledge about which strategies have the greatest impact (Morris, 2012). With new research providing clues into what works best, schools can benefit from training and resources highlighting the most effective teaching strategies. In addition to research based strategies, the value of teams working together to create common language helps improve practice and professional development. (Morris, 2012). Using both common language and researched based strategies can help your PLC develop.

Another piece of evaluating your PLC draws attention to shared responsibility and the mentality that working together is more effective than working individually. Taking into consideration the busy schedules we all lead, it’s probably not surprising to learn that Joyce and Showers find that less than 10% of what teachers learn in workshops actually make it back to the classroom (as cited in Morirao, 2012, p. 33). While the information may sound valuable and useful at the time, we can almost always agree it ends up buried or filed away. One roadblock is time, while many of us also struggle to work with other professionals in our district by choice. The level of collaboration and communication between teachers continues to grow as schools are organized to support the collaborative culture of a professional learning community (Dufour 2011). 

It is recommended that “learning clubs”, a team of four to eight teachers meet, discuss and refine their instructional practices (Moirao, 2012). With the right support in school, those once hopeful strategies can actually see the light of day.  Implementation increases to 90% when an effective support system is utilized. Learning clubs need to be adequately supported by the school administrators and the district if they expect to change the mentality that teachers have towards shared responsibility.

           

Dufour, R. (2011, February). Work together but only if you want to. Kappan, 92(5), 57-61.

Moirao, D. R., Morris, S. C., Klein, V., & Jackson, J. W. (2012). Team Check-Up: Use 4 Goals to Assess a Professional Learning Community's Effectiveness. Journal Of Staff Development, 33(3), 32-36.