Influence of professional learning community (PLC) on learning a constructivist teaching approach (POE): A case of secondary science teachers in Bangladesh

This section of the chapter discusses the influence of establishing a professional learning community among the participant science teachers. It has already been mentioned that through the intervention these teachers were supported in attempting to develop PLCs to encourage and help to improve their practice by using a new constructivist teaching approach (POE) and therefore enhance their students’ learning of science. The discussions also sought to find out influences on the ways in which these teachers learnt about, and developed, their practice.

The intervention process allowed them to observe a full period of classroom teaching, discuss their observations with their colleagues and attend the professional workshops. These various opportunities helped teachers feel more comfortable to share their feedback with their colleagues. These teachers enjoyed opportunities to share and critique their colleagues’ practice and also to reflect on their own practice in relation to identifying positive and negative aspects of their teaching with POE. It is evident that initially these teachers felt shy or hesitant in sharing; however, gradually they realised that it helped them to improve their teaching and they felt more comfortable in so doing in the latter part of the intervention implementation stage. Teachers’ increased confidence may be due to collaborative activities where they found good supports and ways to improve their teaching practices. The collaborative process allowed them to expand their capacity in developing a personal vision for their own teaching practice for enhancing student learning (Senge, 2000). As a consequence of their experiences, these teachers may well find in the future that they have now developed ways of working together as a teaching community based on collaborative approaches rather than a state of isolation.

The participant teachers used post-teaching discussions and professional workshops to guide their decision making about the challenges they faced regarding their practice. Participant teachers therefore engaged in the collaborative activities to improve both their practice and their students’ learning. These activities assisted them in identifying and overcoming their perceived difficulties with their teaching. The intervention process engaged them in the process where their commitment to improving their practice helped them to envision enhancing their students’ learning. Moreover, their professional commitment through continuing their collaborative activities worked to ensure the promotion of a shared mission with a meaningful focus (Patterson & Rolhiehieser, 2004).

The collegial effort through learning and reflection also guided these teachers to be devoted to using a new teaching strategy (POE). For example, using the POE guided them to see that they might also have alternative conceptions regarding science concepts, just as their students do. This realisation was important to them as the majority of these teachers were not familiar with alternative conceptions in science before they became involved in this research project.

It is evident from the data that initially some participants found the POE approach hard to use as they had difficulty maintaining the right sequence. However, these teachers overcame their difficulties by seeking and receiving suggestions from their peers and more generally from the workshops they attended during the intervention process. Their commitment to incorporate the POE strategy into their practice was most evident in which they realised these collaborative processes helped them to refine, strengthen and rethink the use of the strategy for future practice. Their learning about their teaching therefore occurred through collaboration with their colleagues.

The process of shared personal practice also guided teachers to act as ‘change facilitators’ for individual and school improvement. This basically helped them to encourage and support each other. It is evident participant teachers also supported each other to adopt a new teaching strategy (POE) during the intervention process. They discussed failures and successes in implementing this teaching strategy and discussion helped them to facilitate students’ involvement in their learning during the third and fourth teaching cycles.

It has already been mentioned that the intervention process offered these teachers the opportunity to observe each other’s classes. After that, individual peer pairs within a school joined a post-teaching discussion. After completing each teaching cycle all of the teachers attended a professional workshop. These opportunities allowed them to spend some time to meet with their colleagues and talk about their teaching practice in establishing supportive conditions for a PLC.

The schedule and structure offered by this intervention also helped to reduce the state of isolation among these teachers that is a very common complaint for teachers in Bangladesh . This structure may have helped these teachers to come together as a unit to do the learning, and support decision making, problem solving, and creative work in ways that characterise a professional learning community (Hord, 2004). These processes also highlight the importance of time and support for learning as variables for school improvement. Overall this process helped them work towards achieving the school mission by providing a caring and productive environment and, improving the quality of the school program (Boyd & Hord, 1994).