The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Professional Development
Coaching Inquiry-Oriented Learning Communities
- Nancy Fichtman Dana - University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
- Diane Yendol-Hoppey - University of North Florida, USA
Foreword by Joellen Killion
"A tool box overflowing with ideas that will help every staff developer craft a school culture hospitable to adult and student learning."
—Roland S. Barth, Author, Lessons Learned
"The book speaks to many audiences, including instructional coaches, PLC leaders, action researchers and group leaders, and university professors working with action researchers and PLCs."
—Gail Ritchie, Coleader, Teacher Researcher Network
Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
"A terrific resource for connecting teacher networks and action research to create powerful professional development opportunities. This book is a joy to read."
—Ellen Meyers, Senior Vice President
Teachers Network
Powerful tools for facilitating teachers' professional development and optimizing school improvement efforts!
Professional learning communities (PLCs) and action research are popular and proven frameworks for professional development. While both can greatly improve teaching and learning, few resources have combined the two practices into one coherent approach.
The Reflective Educator's Guide to Professional Development provides educators with strategies, activities, and tools to develop inquiry-oriented PLCs. Nationally known school reform experts Nancy Fichtman Dana and Diane Yendol-Hoppey cover the ten essential elements of a healthy PLC, provide case studies of actual inquiry-based PLCs, and present lessons learned to help good coaches become great coaches. With this step-by-step guide, readers will be able to:
- Organize, assess, and maintain high-functioning, inquiry-oriented PLCs
- Facilitate the development of study questions
- Establish the trust and collective commitment necessary for successful action research
- Enable PLC members to develop, analyze, and share research results
- Lead successful renewal and reform efforts
By combining two powerful training practices, coaches, workshop leaders, and staff developers can ensure continuous, robust school-based professional development.
"The reader gets to be a fly on the wall, listening as the coaches facilitate and problem solve with their groups. The authors are truly passionate about providing the reader with tools, protocols, and vocabulary to aid coaches in their role as facilitator of teacher professional learning communities."
"Offers a new perspective on professional development that any school could implement. This book gave me ideas to share with my principals on how to get teachers to be active learners in the professional development process."
"The book speaks to many audiences, including instructional coaches, PLC leaders, action researchers and group leaders, and university professors working with action researchers and PLCs."
"The stories and vignettes are very poignant and represented the concepts brilliantly. This book provides a link to the next steps in PLCs and elevates the bar of expectancy."
"A tool box overflowing with ideas that will help every staff developer craft a school culture hospitable to adult and student learning."
"Congratulations to Nancy Fichtman Dana and Diane Yendol-Hoppey—and to all of us who are committed to helping teachers find their voice through the development of action research studies. We now have a terrific resource that provides a road map for connecting teacher networks and action research to create powerful professional development opportunities. The authors bring learning communities and teacher research to life because they put this work in the context of real schools and relate wonderful anecdotes of actual teachers. This book is a joy to read."
