Professional Learning Communities: A Review of Literature

Abstract

assessing the results of learning, coaching and training, and conduct research and community services. As professionals, they must continue to learn and relearn to equip themselves with required tools to function effectively in today’s world. To this end, professional learning communities are receiving considerable attention from policy makers, scholars and practitioners. Researchers have documented that the right kind of continuous and job embedded teachers professional learning opportunities will improve the quality of teaching thereby ensures learning for all students-the fundamental mission of educational institutions. Cognizant of this fact, the Ethiopian ministry of education placed professional learning community at the forefront and tried to institutionalize it in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning. However, after a decade of practice/implementation in our educational settings, functional professional learning community [locally known as educational army development] was not yet established. Rather, the concept was poorly understood and surfaced by chaos and dilemmas. Hence, in this paper, authors attempted to give an overview of the professional learning community based on the current literatures and international experiences. In so doing, authors emphasized the concept of a professional learning community, characteristics of a professional learning community, forces that have compelled organizations to build a professional learning community and supportive conditions for professional learning community.