This week I used the ERIC database
to find an article and it worked out extremely well. I found a great summary by Kathleen Fulton
and Ted Britton called STEM Teachers in
Professional Learning Communities: From
Good Teachers to Great Teaching. It
is very much in line with what the authors of Learning By Doing preach about the effectiveness of PLCs. In this case, it is focused on STEM subjects
(science, technology, engineering, math).
This is the summary of a report that used 2 years worth of research to
examine the effects of PLC’s.
There were many things that struck
a chord with me in this summary. It
talked about how the US has fallen behind the rest of the world in technology
and math. And it also discussed how
education has to adjust to the changes in our economy.
“Learning is no longer preparation
for the job. It is the job. Today’s students are preparing for a future
in which they will invent and reinvent their work, team up to solve problems,
develop new knowledge, and continuously acquire new skills.” (Fulton and Britton, 2011 pg.4)
According
to the authors, teachers should no longer work in isolation and they have the
research to back it up. Better
collaboration leads to better learning.
This is exactly the same stance that Dufour and company take in Learning
by Doing.
It is not surprising that these educators would have the
same ideas as DuFour. But what is
significant is that there is more data to back it up. Someone could criticize the Dufour’s claims
and say they are just interested in selling their books. However, here is an outside group who
researched these same ideals and came to the same conclusions.
I highly
recommend this reading, especially for STEM teachers.
DuFour, R., Dufour, R., Eaker R., Many, T. (2006)
Learning By Doing: A Handbook for
Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Fulton, K. and Britton, T.
(June 2011) STEM Teachers in Professional Learning Communities: From Good Teachers to Great Teaching. National
Committee on Teaching and America’s Future.
Retrieved May 27, 2012 from http://nctaf.org/wp-content/uploads/NCTAFreportSTEMTeachersinPLCsFromGoodTeacherstoGreatTeaching.pdf
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