Professional Learning Communities in Chile: Dimensions and Development Stages

Abstract

Situated continuing teacher training, and particularly teacher collaboration and the development of professional learning communities in educational establishments, has gained relevance as a professional development mechanism. This study focuses on the analysis of the different dimensions that form a Professional Learning Community (PLC), their relationship with the personal characteristics of the participants and their schools, along with their classification and characterization depending on the development stages of a PLC. For this purpose, we carried out a mix method design in 49 schools of the Metropolitan and Bio-Bio regions in Chile, applying questionnaires to 889 education professionals and 100 school managers. The results indicate that principals have a better perception of the dimensions of professional learning communities than teachers, and that teachers that work in early-childhood settings, have a better perception than those working in other grade levels.