banner–PEER-LED-TEACHER-PROFSSIONAL-COMMUNITIES

Peer Led Teacher Professional
Learning Communities

The most valuable resource all teachers have is each other

Collective learning

IEC believes that the goal of education should be to strengthen the innate abilities of children to learn. The teacher then becomes an architect who designs learning environments that provide children with opportunities to develop their varied abilities.

The focus of Quality Learning Initiative is towards developing Peer Led Teacher Professional Learning Communities. These are initiated through Cluster level academic meetings conducted every month.

Through these monthly meetings, opportunities are created for teachers to reflect on how learning happens. Teachers gain from each other’s experiences and from collective brainstorming about issues with which they have first-hand familiarity.

The monthly meetings create a reflective and democratic space for teachers' continuous learning, led by their self identification of needs.

Collective efficacy

Based on their own experiences, teachers develop ways to draw from the strengths of their facilitation skills, address the challenges they face in their specific learning environments, review and adapt learning plans, and generate feedback. This enables teachers to develop a sense of ownership in their learning environments.

The ongoing engagement with their peers motivates teachers, develops a learning community and strengthens their belief in their own capabilities.

In contrast to traditional approaches to training where the teacher is entirely dependent on the trainer for information, activities, and plans, teachers in the initiative build their capacities to manage and facilitate in their own learning environments.

The Teacher Collectives through regular sharing, planning and review processes develop mutual accountability amongst the teachers.

Impact on student learning

IEC is currently working in more than 1700 Clusters in 8 States where the Teacher Collectives are organized with support from the Cluster Resource Coordinators, Block Education Department and the District Institute of Education and Training.

National Education Policy 1986, Kothari Commission and NCFTE 2009 have recommended Cluster Based Academic Meetings for teachers as part of in-service teacher professional development practices. IEC’s implementation of the Teacher Collectives is a step towards translating the policy into action.

Global Research in Education has found positive evidence for teacher collaboration in impacting student learning. Teacher collective efficacy is important in transforming teaching-learning practices and has high positive impact on both teacher motivation and student learning outcomes.

It has been seen through external impact evaluation studies that in schools where teachers participate in monthly collective meetings and practice formative assessment, 60 percent more students graduate primary school attaining grade level competencies as compared to students in schools without the intervention.