Between 18 and 21 May, subject advisors foundation phase and intermediate phase, and office-based educators from the DTDCs in Free State province took part in the fourth and last workshop on PLCs. This series of workshops serves as a pilot for the nation-wide implementation of Activity 3.3 (on PLCs) in the ISPFTED.
Main objective of this workshop, for which VVOB engaged Jika Communication and Training to co-facilitate, was to equip participants with ideas and skills to set up, follow up, maintain and monitor and evaluate school-based PLCs within their districts.
This workshop started with a reminder about the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development (ISPFTED) and the plans of DBE pertaining to PLCs. The final draft version of the PLC Guidelines, developed by DBE, was shared.
Participants reflected on their learning so far and relate this to their strong points and experiences so far in their districts. They expressed their expectations about the role they play in the support of PLCs: what do DTDC staff expect from subject advisors and vice versa? What can subject advisors and DTDCs offer? Everyone agreed that the role of subject advisors lies mainly in providing content expertise, motivating teachers to join PLCs and act as a hub for PLC expertise. DTDCs have an important role to play in supporting PLCs with ICT and media, collect and analyse monitoring information and provide organisational support. Participants then sat together per district to construct an inventory of current PLCs.
PLC activities focused on how facilitators can monitor and evaluate PLCs. This included talking about who is responsible for which aspects of PLCs such as establishing, supporting and maintaining PLCs as well as monitoring them. Participants thought about what constitutes success in a PLC and translated this to objectives. Objectives can be formulated for the functioning of the PLCs themselves (e.g. how many members, how many meetings), for the results with members (e.g. changes in their knowledge, motivation, satisfaction) and for the results with learners (e.g. impact on their test results, satisfaction). For each objective, possible SMART indicators were discussed and a possible monitoring form was developed, scrutinised and adjusted.
In a PLC, it’s important to quickly being able to present quick-wins in order to overcome resistance among people. Participants also explored error analysis as a valuable activity for PLCs. They learned identifying various kinds of maths mistakes and how mistakes inform teachers about gaps in conceptual understanding among learners.
Participants also reflected on their own leadership skills and identified their weaknesses and strengths. Equipped with a wealth of knowledge and a wide range of techniques to support school-based PLCs, subject advisors indicated they felt empowered to help improving the quality of school-based professional development.
This workshop was the last of a series of workshops in a learning trajectory. However, additional support is planned on how ICT can support PLCs, as well as coaching and mentoring of individual subject advisors and DTDC staff.
