Cogent leadership: transitioning to professional learning communities

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between traditional professional development and the implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs) in one suburban middle school in New Jersey. A mixed-methods approach was used to gather data. Quantitative and qualitative results were gathered from surveys from teachers (N=59) that attended the in-house professional development workshops. Twenty interviews were also used to gather data on the teacher perspective. Most of the teachers appreciated the paradigm shift from traditional professional development to a more collaborative model. They appreciated the time to work in their professional learning communities to develop common goals and assessments, and discuss teaching and learning strategies. The test score results in language arts improved and the math score results decreased from 2009 to 2010 in the 6th to 7th grades, and when compared to schools in New Jersey of similar socio-economic status were also under the average for 7th grade in 2009 and 8th grade in 2010. The data also suggested that the language arts PLC worked more collaboratively and were more unified as a team than the math teachers.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D. Educational Leadership

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Leadership

Year dc:date.available

2011

Author dc:creator

• Markiewicz, Donna

Contributors dc:contributor

• Campbell, Robert

• Professional learning communities
• Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration

Repository record dc:identifier

https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/276

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:rdw.rowan.edu:etd-1275