School Literature Review

Literature Review:

I will begin my literature review by sharing the importance of not only Professional development but continuing professional development in schools. My review would convince you of the fact the in 21st century learning is all about collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and cooperative learning. Learning cannot take place in isolation. In this era of testing and school reform, many schools are looking for ways to make their teaching practices more effective and collaborative. One way this can happen is through the use of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Gone are the days of the single-handed teacher. The transference in education today is toward collaboration and communication. PLCs offer a real way to certify

Collegial interchange, not isolation, must become the norm for teachers. Communities of learners can no longer be considered utopian; they must become the building blocks that establish a new foundation for America’s Schools.” National Commission on Teaching, 2003

“Isolation is the enemy of learning. Principals who support the learning of adults in their school organize teachers schedules to provide opportunities for teachers to work, plan, and think together.”

NAESP, Leading Learning Communities: Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able to Do

I have reviewed a lot of literature for research with reference to my research questions and project aim. However, I have been inspired by the work of Peter Senge and his book The Fifth Discipline. I have shared the model presented by Peter that elucidates the disciplines of a learning organization.

The concept of Professional Learning Community is rooted in the work of organizational theorists such as Peter Senge (1990), who articulate a view of the workplace as a learning organization. His focus was on corporations rather than schools, argued that if corporations are to survive, they must change themselves into learning organizations that recognize the threats to their survival and the opportunities for their continued

Coaching and Mentoring.

Juanita C. García, Ph.D.writes about professional development in 21st century as nine structures for coaching and mentoring She believes that a successful professional development program in the 21st century relies on teachers learning from each other to problem solve collaboratively, using technology devices to build their knowledge base, receiving coaching and mentoring services from model teachers, and being deeply involved in reflection and action. We will discuss these critical elements, beginning with coaching and mentoring.

Since the early 1980s, the pioneers of coaching and mentoring, Joyce & Showers, have been investigating the theory that peer coaching could be used to increase classroom implementation of training sessions. They believed that teachers who had training followed by coaching would have a higher transfer of learning rate than teachers with training only. Those early studies showed that “teachers who had a coaching relationship practiced new skills and strategies more frequently and applied them more appropriately than did their counterparts who worked alone.”