It have to be well define and agree among thr community that the purpose goal and objective of learning is to gain and share knowledge among the profesional. As problem base learning and case base scenario is if i may say is the best as learning other method for different situation is faster and applicable using this methode.

Example pcl for elementary teacher, some teacher have problem in classroom management of mostly weak students, other can give solution on this problem that may appropriate to this solution.

But i emphasize on mutual agreement from the above statement

The term "good" is context sensitive. Some thing I find 'good" may not necessarily be called "good" by somebody else.

I think good learning is that which is applied in some form in real life.

You may find some useful insights in the work of some of my colleagues in WIT - where they studied an evolving learning community (ELC) situated in Ireland's south west region over a four-year period. The findings demonstrate the complexity associated with creating and sustaining a social learning infrastructure in this context. An ELC model is proffered to provide insight into inter and intra social dynamics that influence learning development in the micro-firm setting.

Reinl, Leana and Kelliher, Felicity (2014) The social dynamics of micro-firm learning in an evolving learning community. Tourism Management, 40.

As Asmat says, "good" is subjective. If you mean "good" is when the individuals work through dialogue to achieve new learning, I encourage you to consider the construct of intersubjectivity.

Best wishes,

Barb

Article Intersubjectivity

Helma, I haven't studied PLCs but have attempted to create them in a teaching environment. I work with 12 to 15 teachers most of the time but am involved beyond that as part of a committee to develop up to 100 teachers. My experience is that being part of a learning group requires intellectual commitment and the only way to get that buy in is by appealing to their professional ethics and goals. My group are mainly teachers of science so I appealed to their belief in experimentation. The way they see learning is through action research. We discuss problems that need working on, ideas to try to improve outcomes, experiments to try in pedagpgy, assessment and curriculum, then action the ideas as indepndant professionals and report back. I keep this fairly informal and often act as  conduit for ideas. In 10 years, I have a fairly active PLC as evidenced by the interactions between staff members, groups and me as their manager. If I want a particular focus now, I insert it into the mix of problems to solve. One important spect is to keep the descriptions of problems, solutions, ideas to experiment with fairly general so individuals can take their own approach. That way they feel in control and we get a wide range of experiments.

 Mark

That is pretty well the approach that I and colleagues used in the European project aimed at supporting inquiry-based methods in science education. Details on my home page. I sum it up as follows. As the researchers involved, we were inquiring into how to support teachers into inquiring into how to support their students in learning through inquiry. The reporting back to each other that you describe was a crucial part of the process. The teachers talked about how they were free to explore their own solutions (see 1 below) but also valued very much learning from each other and so developing a greater repertoire of things to try.

The only two additional steps to your outline were:

1) We brought conceptual tools to the teachers to help them analyse their own context and to find solutions. The important point is that these 'tools' did not provide answers and the teachers came up with solutions of their own which were particular to their own students and their needs as the teachers perceived them. The phrase we used is that they were the "professionals in situ" and as such were best placed to think about these. However, academics have more time than teachers to find and/or develop such analytical or conceptual tools. I think that adding someone (or 'someones') who can bring conceptual tools to the group to help with analysis, not prescription of action, is a valuable addition to the process you outline, if you do not have such input already, or for anyone else setting up a professional learning community. It does not need to be university academics. Some teachers will have done further professional studies and may be able to fulfil this role -having  time again is the issue though.

2) Less crucial, perhaps, from the teacher's point of view is that we - the university side- thought afterwards about the type of learning we had seen the teachers engage in and tried to conceptualise this and write it up. However, this was also a form of learning for us that arose from the community we had formed.

One other point that we learned though is that the teachers originally expected answers from us which we did not have or feel qualified to provide. There was a learning process both for us (in thinking how to get round this) and the teachers  as they moved from this expectation to realising that they had learned more by the method adopted, than if we had acted like (pretended to be) experts.

good points Colin. In my context, I was the conceptual tools. I spend a lot of time talking to teachers, reframing their thoughts, ideas, observations in terms of theory, psychology etc. As for point 2. we never have time to do that at school. My big regret in my professional life is not having recorded more for the action research I undertook over the last 10 years. For Helma's question, the last point you make is critical. Teachrs get used to having soulutions given to them as if they were gospel, are then disappointed when they don't work as they hope. Helping them feel safe to take control of their own learning is a big step in the process.

I share your big regret Mark and it is a warning to all teachers who have carried out work and then evaluated it, whether or not they call it action research. In my case, I threw a lot of material away (including data) when I retired from teaching (thinking I would not need it anymore)   that I could have used in the time I was involved in the above mentioned project. You never know when it might be useful. A lesson about Learning Communities there, prehaps. GATHER EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK AND OTHER EVIDENCE, YOUR OBSERVATIONS, YOUR THOUGHTS AND THROW NOTHING AWAY.The learning does not need to stop when you leave one community - you might find another. 

In fact, retirement might be the time when you and others can explore point 2, and the material becomes useful then. I certainly understand the lack of time when teaching. I did not have it either, I might not have even understood it was an option until I moved into the project. Again, learning goes on.

As regards your last point, I think the trend in education (in my experience, where I live since the early eighties) has been to tell teachers what to do - use more group work or use less group work, here is how to differentiate, teach more/less (depending on the politics of the time) from the front, and so on. Top-down approaches tend to focus on imagined solutions, instead of asking people to analyse their own students and contexts and help them as best they can. Since top-down has been the rule here, and I suspect in most countries, teachers have been conditioned to expect gospel like answers. A little self-awareness on the part of the 'top' people would lead them to recognise that when the first gospel the promote does not work everywhere, the answer is not to impose another, but to instead create conditions in which professional learning communities can thrive and teachers feel safe to experiment and take control of their own learning is the norm.

This brings me to another point that I think is relevant to Helma's question. There will be times when you do not help one's students  as  well as hoped - perhaps, even get things very wrong. I threw away data that showed that something I tried was very successful with one class and a general failure with another. Teachers' blogs that I look at seem generally to report success. Professional Learning communities need to be places where people can also report lack of success.

Absolutely re lack of success. It takes a lot ofself awareness and confidence to do so. The community needs to be a safe one.

Hi, you may find this paper of interest. Regards,

Article TOWARDS AN EFFECTIVE TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Hello

You could try to define it

DuFour, R. (2004). What is a" professional learning community"?. Educational leadership, 61(8), 6-11.