Professional learning communities: Beyond teachers’ isolation and attrition

Studies show that teachers suffer from professional isolation and schools experience great rates of teacher attrition. This paper suggests that establishing a Professional Learning Community (PLC) in schools could solve teachers’ isolation and attrition. In addition to addressing teachers’ isolation and attrition, PLCs shows considerable potential for increasing teacher professional satisfaction, providing essential support for new teachers, improving teachers’ practice, and raising students’ learning outcomes. While there is strong evidence for the importance of establishing PLCs in schools, not all PLCs result with their desired outcomes. For this reason, this study provides an overview of successful PLC practices and offers a number of guidelines and suggestions for implementing and establishing PLCs in schools. This study found major elements that could contribute to the success of a PLC, such as, building trust among teachers, finding ways for teachers to discover common goals and shared values to work towards achieving in PLCs, and using action research and inquiries as the main approach to solving problems and developing improvements in school. This paper also suggests ways to organize PLC meetings and recommends crucial roles both teachers and principals could contribute to successful PLC practices.