Professional learning communities and teaching and learning culture in three secondary schools in the Pinetown District.
Date
2014
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Abstract
The need for working together of educators in schools is up-and-coming. In the olden days
teachers has been working in isolation and this practice has limited their opportunities of
sharing information and benefit from other educators. Therefore, introduction of professional
learning communities has given educators platform to learn from one another and share
whatever information that they have. School principals as leaders can play a significant role in
promoting PLCs in schools. As a result a qualitative case study was undertaken to explore the
role of professional learning communities and teaching and learning culture in schools. The
focus of the study was based on the assumption that these principals would have encouraged
educators to share information in professional learning communities after they completed an
Advance Certificate in Education - School Leadership (ACESL) which promoted PLCs.
The study has made use of semi-structured interviews to generate data. Interviews were
recorded and transcribed before they were analysed. The data from transcriptions was coded
and themes were developed from the coded data. The documents were analysed through
critical analysis which was done to ensure reliability and conformability of documents. The
results of the study reveal that, (i) educators from these schools have never heard about PLCs
before so it means that their principals have never implemented what they have learnt from
ACESL. (ii) Even though the PLCs were not formally introduced to the educators but there is
an indication that educators work as teams and team teaching is encouraged in some of the
schools. (iii) IQMS assists the SMT to identify areas of development and develop educators.
(iv) Teaching and learning cannot only be promoted by encouraging educators to attend to
their classes and interact with one another; learners also need some form of encouragement.
(v) Parents need to be involved in the education of their children because it is important for
them to know what their children are doing in school. (vi) Some principals invest on resources
that will assist educators to improve their teaching.
Description
M. Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.
Keywords
Professional learning communities -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal., Teams in the workplace -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal., Educational leadership -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal., Teaching teams -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal., Theses -- Education.