Education Commons^™

Intellectual And Physical Shared Workspace: Professional Learning Communities And The Collaborative Culture, Daniel Carpenter

CUP Faculty Research

Professional learning communities are one of the leading school reform movements. Schools have shifted to a collaborative culture where administrators and teachers physically and intellectually interact using a collaborative inquiry process for professional learning. The workspace interactions include shared leadership, decision-making, teaching and learning practice, and accountability measures. Attributes and characteristics of effective collaboration and professional learning communities greatly affect the outcomes of professional learning communities. An emergent framework is provided that includes attributes of effective collaboration and the characteristics of effective professional learning communities that merge into intellectual and physical shared workspace. Recommendations are provided on the role administrators …

Collaborative Inquiry And The Shared Workspace Of Professional Learning Communities, Daniel Carpenter

CUP Faculty Research

An exploration of an educator collaborative inquiry in the shared workspace of professional learning communities reveals that the educator collaborative inquiry enables the leaders to focus on increasing student achievement scores.

School Culture And Leadership Of Professional Learning Communities, Daniel Carpenter

CUP Faculty Research

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore supportive and shared leadership structures at schools as a function of school culture policies and procedures.

Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study was conducted at three secondary schools in the Midwestern USA. Administrators and teachers were interviewed, professional learning communities observed and artifacts collected to explore school culture policies, procedures and leadership in the implementation of professional learning community practice.

Findings
This study concludes that school leaders must provide supportive and shared leadership structures for teachers in order to ensure a positive school culture and effective professional learning communities that impact school improvement. …