Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

 

            According to the Welsh Government (2013) a professional learning community (PLC) is a group of practitioners working together using a structured process of enquiry to focus on a specific area of their teaching to improve learner outcomes and so raise school standards.

        At The Luminaries Academy we pride ourselves on creating a culture that fosters collaboration and innovation so that all can thrive. Therefore, it was imperative that we created a PLC to assist our teachers in developing and upgrading their competencies.

        Additionally, it is hoped that in new academic year, we will facilitate the development of a students' PLC which will be monitored by our Students Council.

    Teachers, thereby, will be able to act as facilitators and encourage best practices.

Watch this webinar conducted by the Institute of Global Professional for inspiration!

Remember PLC do not have to be limited to the persons within your school. Invite a colleague from another school to be apart of your PLC.

The Importance of Continuous Professional Teacher Development

    Continuous professional teacher development (CPTD) can be viewed as a process, method and tool which teachers and schools can use in order to be informed of new content and methodologies in the field of education (Van der Merwe-Muller & Dasoo, 2021). Furthermore, they purport that effective CPTD comprises of teaching practice, setting student learning goals, and understanding how students learn specific subject content or matter focusing on teachers’ learning area content competency and pedagogical knowledge of schooling and teaching (Van der Merwe-Muller & Dasoo, 2021). 

   

The ADDIE Model

    Culatta, R. (2021) states "The ADDIE model is the generic process traditionally used by instructional designers and training developers. The five phases—Analysis, Design,

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation—represent a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools".

    This framework will be used for designing and developing educational and training programs in the school. The selection committee for the software will be utilized to develop the framework.

 

Using the TPACK Framework in Continuous Professional Teacher Development

 

            

    The TPACK framework created by Mishra and Koehler in 2006, which emphasizes technological knowledge (TK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and content knowledge (CK), provides a useful solution to many of the problems teachers encounter when integrating educational technology (edtech) into their classrooms. The TPACK framework describes how content (what is being taught) and pedagogy (how the instructor imparts that content) must form the basis for any successful edtech integration by discriminating between these three forms of knowledge. This arrangement is crucial because, in order to improve students' learning experiences, technology must both communicate the information and complement the pedagogy.

Coaching and Mentoring

             Coaching, whether used interchangeably with mentoring, seen as one of the aspects of  mentoring, or used as a standalone term, focuses on the relationship between coach and coachee to help with the skill development, psychological well-being and social circumstances of the latter (Kutsyuruba & Godden, 2019). Coaching and mentoring works differently. Coaching entails observation, evaluation, and recommendations while mentoring requires briefing, shadowing, and evaluation of performance. Although both have the same goal, improved performance, each has a different methodology and concept.

Coaching

Coaching will be defined as the facilitation of the learning process of on-going, on the job training carried out regularly by a person in a systematic way towards agreed goals to enhance professional performance, foster ongoing self-directed learning, increase personal satisfaction and personal growth(Koopman et al, 2021; Manuel, 2022). 

Mentoring

Mentoring is a supportive learning relationship between a caring individual who shares his/her knowledge, professional experience and insights with another individual who is ready and willing to benefit from this exchange to develop his or her skills, confidence, and abilities and to enrich his or her professional journey (Manuel, 2022).

    

Why is Coaching and Mentoring Important?

At The Luminaries Academy we believe in sustainable leadership.

Ligam (2012) opines that 

   "It is a shared responsibility, that does not unduly deplete human or financial resources, and                that cares for and avoids exerting negative damage on the surrounding educational and                         community     environment…….. has an activist engagement with the forces that affect it, and             builds an educational environment of organizational diversity that promotes cross-fertilization of good ideas and successful practices in communities of shared learning and development."