Science teacher-educator intervention within an emerging Professional Learning Community

This study aims to observe a developing professional learning community amongst a mix of 8 beginning and experienced teachers who work in a science department in an inner-city secondary school. The study is framed around an intervention based on Japanese lesson study aimed at improving engagement in academic literature and reflective teaching practices. Specifically, this action research answers the following questions: 1. Within the described context, what are the characteristics of the emerging professional learning community (PLC)? Specifically, a) Based on a teacher-educator intervention, how does the PLC develop? b) What are the participants' perceptions of their knowledge development as a result of working within the PLC? 2. How is the PLC supporting the development of the teachers' knowledge? This is done through reviewing literature related to; Teacher knowledge bases and how these bases can change, views on the nature of science, PLC's, lesson study, reflection, principles, identity, mentoring, peer relationships and social theory of learning. The literature is compared with data gathered from a reconnaissance survey, audio recordings of training sessions and post-intervention interviews. To answer the above research questions, the data gathered is systematically analysed using coding adapted from Wenger’s (1998) work, ‘Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity’. Findings suggest, that within the research context, that the professional learning community emerges as a result of an alignment of individual principles with group principles. Hierarchical structures are necessary for collaboration within the group, however, as they emerge they may limit some knowledge development. Furthermore, the work suggests unstructured peer/group discussion and discourse is a way to develop teachers, however, time constraints limit the opportunity to do this. It is suggested for the future that the researched community of teachers could engage more critically with literature and Japanese lesson study and to develop the community, more attention should be given to exploring the relationship between the teachers.