This article was written for the November 2014 Issue of SACE's Professional Magazine.
VVOB in South Africa
The Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB) was founded in 1982 as a non-profit organisation. Our main aim is “to sustainably improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of education and training in developing countries”. Our focus lies on technical assistance, capacity building and providing a bridging function between national, provincial and local levels. The 2014 – 2016 VVOB support is aimed at the Basic Education sector through the Ministry of Basic Education and SACE and with focus on Free State province to improve the quality of in-service for educators especially concerning numeracy.
Supporting the implementation of ISPFTED
The Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development (ISPFTED) forms the backbone for improving teacher professional development until 2025. Through its partnerships with the Department of Basic Education (DBE), SACE and the Free State Department of Education, VVOB supports the implementation of activity 3.3. of the ISPFTED, which calls for the establishment of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in schools. At the national level, VVOB supports DBE and SACE with developing a vision and guidelines on how these organisations can play a supporting role, but respecting the inherently bottom-up nature of PLCs.
In the Free State, we work together with the DOE to equip subject advisors and staff from the District Teacher Development Centres (formerly ERCs) with the knowledge and skills to successfully guide PLCs within their districts. For this, we have designed a learning trajectory of 4 workshops (8 days in total) on PLCs, in cooperation with FS DOE and Jika Communication & Training. The workshops are structured along a train-the-trainers outline with activities that participants can use directly with the teachers they support. Some of the poignant topics discussed are:
- What is effective professional development? Are lectures or workshops effective forms of professional development, and are there other forms? What are necessary ingredients for effective development? In which circumstances are PLCs an effective form of professional development? What can we do to make professional development effective?
- Why is it important to have a vision and mission for a PLC? What is the difference between the two? How can subject advisors and staff of the DTDCs support PLCs in developing this? What activities can you do in a PLC to develop trust among participants, advertise the PLC, create momentum and foster a positive group dynamic?
- What are likely barriers for PLCs in schools? These can be situated at the conceptual level, as PLCs constitute significant changes in the vision on professional development, on teaching and school culture. There may also be practical barriers. Issues related to time, budget and transport require explicit attention when starting a PLC. Subject Advisors and staff of DTDCs can play a role in discussing these barriers, sharing practices and setting realistic ambitions.
- What is the role of a facilitator? Who can assume this role? PLCs work best with distributed forms of leadership, which means that leadership tasks are taken up by different people in the PLC, so that not always the same person sets the agenda and coordinates the session. But how can this be realized?
- Good facilitators are crucial for PLCs. They will need to take up various roles. They are managers of group processes, but also need be able to construct knowledge. Constructing knowledge can happen in various ways. It can happen by letting teachers explain why they did certain actions in a lesson. Why did they ask that question? Why did they use that example? It can also mean discussing how a certain policy, research article or workshop can be applied in the classroom. What does inclusive education mean for my math lesson? How can we help a learner with a hearing impairment? It can also mean detecting gaps in knowledge and identifying outside expertise. Which teachers excels in teaching geometry? What online resource can we use to enhance our understanding of autism?
- How can facilitators deal with resistance? Resistance may reflect different motives and being able to unpack these, will lead to a better understanding of how to deal with it.
- Facilitators need to be aware of possible gender bias and gender stereotypes. Gender bias refers to participation in the PLC. Do women have the same opportunities to join the PLC sessions? Are both men and women encouraged to join? Gender stereotypes refer to roles and activities in PLCs. Do women and men have equal opportunities to take up the facilitator role? To place topics on the agenda? Do activities challenge stereotypes, for example that males are better at maths, or that females are better at teaching in foundation phase?
- How can PLCs be monitored? When do we know a PLC is successful? How can we identify actions to improve PLCs? Monitoring PLCs should not be a report producing exercise. PLCs aim at making a wide impact on school culture, teacher motivation and learning outcomes.
The learning trajectory does not pretend to have definite answers for each of these topics. These answers are constructed by the teachers, HODs and principals engaging in PLCs. It does have the ambition to provide ideas though to guide people and help them making the most of PLCs. Participants are stimulated to keep portfolios of their experiences with PLCs. These contain reflections about what they discuss and learn during the workshops, but also things they pick up during their interactions with PLCs in the schools. What challenges did they encounter and how did they react? What positive experiences did they have? Portfolios can help to make sense of how what is discussed in the workshops can have an impact on your daily practice and help document significant experiences.
The train-the-trainer guide is revised based on our experiences and input from participants in the Free State. This guide will then serve as a basis to train subject advisors and staff from the DTDCs in the other 8 provinces, in supporting PLCs in their province.
Our Vision on PLCs
Knowledge and skills that children need to succeed in society are relentlessly evolving. Traditional one-off initiatives of teacher professional development often fail to have durable effects on teaching and learning and are ill-suited to equip teachers with attitudes, skills and knowledge to keep abreast of educational innovations. Research has given us good insight in what constitutes effective professional development. PLCs bring professional development beyond traditional courses, workshops or qualifications, but bring in less-frequent, but effective methods such as planning lessons together, observing colleagues, coaching each other, collaboratively developing resources or reflecting with other colleagues on frequent pupil errors. Moreover, PLCs shift the focus from the teacher as an isolated practitioner to a teacher as a professional within a school team.
PLCs are not a magical bullet for improving the quality of education for our learners. Successful PLCs may take years to achieve results. PLCs don’t diminish the need for other professional development. However, we believe they are a cornerstone in developing practical knowledge and skills for teaching.
Lessons from the National Colloquium
On 18 and 19 September the Ministry of Basic Education organized a nation-wide colloquium on Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). The Integrated Strategic Framework for Teacher Professional Development (ISPFTED) foresees the nation-wide implementation of PLCs by 2017. This colloquium was intended to be a first step towards that implementation. During the first day a wide range of speakers from academia, government, unions and subject associations provided input on international and local research, local experiences and various initiatives on PLCs. On the second day, participants were invited to provide feedback on two draft documents: a policy document on subject committees and PLCs and a practical guideline on implementing PLCs.
You can read our 13 lessons from the two days in this article.
