Collaborative Leadership Frameworks

Erin BennettCI5393 Teacher Leadership

American College of Education

Introduction

The following will introduce the three frameworks of collaborative leadership:

Professional Learning Communities (PLC)Community of Practice (CoP)Critical Friends Group (CFG)

Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

• The power of PLCs lays in bringing student work to the group for shared analysis (Nelson, LeBard, Walters, 2010, p. 36)

• “shared beliefs, values and vision” (Hord, 2008, p.12)• “Frequent common assessments, developed collaboratively

and scored by every teacher of a grade level or course, [are] a vital resource in [teachers’] efforts to monitor student learning” (DuFour, 2004,p. 63).

• “Great teams will deal with the issue themselves, engaging in open dialogue and applying positive peer pressure to bring about the desired change” (DuFour, 2004, p. 63).

Professional Learning Communities – DuFour Video

• https://youtu.be/MnWDJFxfAKE

Why does a PLC fit our team?

• Members– Share beliefs, values, and vision– Use open dialogue– Have positive peer pressure

Community of Practice (CoP)• “The three characteristics of a community of practice include the

domain, which defines a shared interest; the community, which focuses on relationships that enable members to learn from each other; and the practice, in which members build a shared repertoire of resources” (Wenger, 2009).

• “Share a common concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Wenger, 2009).

• “The goal is always sound improvement formed by big ideas" (Niesz, (2007), p. 610).

• "Communities of practice are informally bound by what members do as well as what they know ..." (Seaman, 2008, p. 274).

Community of Practice Video

• https://youtu.be/t_70Zvt2S68

Why does a CoP fit our team?

• Members:– Share a common concern or passion– Are able to learn from each other– Share a repertoire of resources– Have a common goal

Critical Friends Group (CFG)• “Teacher reflection leads to action in a classroom, that

action leads to constructive feedback from a peer, which then leads to new student achievement, which leads to the cycle commencing all over again” (Ban, 2015).

• “The key to changing teachers' behaviors is to help them get in touch with their own beliefs and the commonly held beliefs of their learning community and identify the gaps in their own practice” (Baron, 2007).

• "The work involves friends who share a mission, offer strong support, and nurture a community of learners (Bambino, 2002, p. 27)

Why does a CFG fit our team?

• Members– Have constructive feedback from peers– Identify gaps in their practice– Friends who share a mission and offer support

Team Choice

Our team has chosen a Community of Practice as its leadership framework. Our initiative is to improve the knowledge of the current technology at our school. We believe it best fits our team because it does not necessarily focus on assessments and data. Instead, it focuses on our strengths and the ability to share that information with the larger group.

ReferencesBambino, D. (2002). Critical friends. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 25-27.Ban, E., Ed.D. (2015). Module 3 presentations: Part 4: Critical Friends. Lecture presented in American College of

Education.Baron, D. (2007). Critical Friendship: Leading from the Inside Out. Principal Leadership: High School Edition,

7(9), 56-58.DuFour, R. (2004). Culture shift doesn’t occur overnight – or without conflict. Journal of Staff Development,

25(4), 63-64.Hord, S. M. (2008). Evolution of the professional learning community. Journal of Staff Development, 29(3), 10-

13.Nelson, T. H., LeBard, L., & Waters, C. (2010). How to create a professional learning community. Science and

Children, 47(9), 36-40.Niesz, T. (2007). Why teacher networks (can) work. Phi Delta Kappan, 88(8), 605-610.Seaman, M. (2008). Communities of practice & knowledge communities, Communication and Teaching 

Dialogue, 10(1-2), 269-279.Wenger, E. Communities of practice: A brief introduction. Self-published report. Retrieved February 18, 2009,

from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/