Effectiveness of professional learning community programmes to improve school quality

Abstract

The school is a professional learning community. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of professional learning communities (PLC) in improving the quality of schools. The method used in this research is a mixed method that is carried out in two stages. The correlational method was used to examine the correlation between school quality and the implementation of the PLC programme. Experimental methods are used to examine whether PLC can improve school quality. This study involved 3 secondary schools with an average age of 14–18 years. The results show that there is a high correlation between the level of school quality and the implementation of the PLC programme. In addition, the PLC programme has proven to be effective in improving the quality of schools in terms of teacher competence and student academic results in the fields of language and mathematics. This research provides an overview for stakeholders in schools regarding the importance of collaboration among staff. The implication of this research is that school heads can apply PLC programmes to improve the quality of their schools by prioritising collaborative learning between teaching staff and students. Keywords: Community of professional learning (PLC), school quality, teacher and students’ competence.