Developing Communities of Instructional Practice

By J. Supovitz. Teachers College Record, 2002

363 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Many reforms today—including the small schools movement, efforts to build small learning communities, and teacher teaming structures—are based on the theory that organizing schools into smaller educational environments will help to build more collaborative and collegial communities of teachers, providing them with the autonomy and motivation to make better curricular and pedagogical decisions in the interests of their students and therefore improving student learning. Using multiple sources of data from a 4-year evaluation of a team-based schooling initiative in a medium-sized urban district, this study tests many of the assumptions underlying this theory. The results suggest that although these types of organizational reforms may succeed in improving the culture within which teachers teach, they alone are unlikely to improve instruction and student learning. The communities that develop are often not communities engaged in instructional improvement. For teacher communities to focus on instructional improvement, the author argues that communities need organizational structures, cultures of instructional exploration, and ongoing professional learning opportunities to support sustained inquiries into improving teaching and learning.

Subfields: Education

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Citations in the corpus

A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning (2008, methodology): “Similarly, two overlapping studies (Supovitz, 2002; Supovitz & Christman, 2003) powerfully demonstrated the importance of focus in teachers’ collaborative actions.”
Accessing Capital Resources: Investigating the Effects of Teacher Human and Social Capital on Student Achievement (2014, background): “Moreover, the vast majority of these studies refer to teacher interaction in a broad and general sense and almost solely rely on standardized summative student achievement scores as an outcome measure (e.g., Berry, Johnson, & Montgomery, 2005; Louis & Marks, 1998; Strahan, 2003; Supovitz, 2002).”
Teacher Collaboration in Instructional Teams and Student Achievement (2015, background): “In an evaluation in Cincinnati, Supovitz (2002) found that teacher teaming did not influence student achievement on average.”
How to Improve Teaching Practices (2011, neutral): “) affect teaching practice (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001; Geijsel, Sleegers, van den Berg, & Kelchtermans, 2001; Runhaar, 2008; Supovitz, 2002).”
The Roles of STEM Faculty Communities of Practice in Institutional and Departmental Reform in Higher Education (2017, background): “Outside of the business literature, educational researchers have highlighted educationally related benefits for schools and institutions due to CoPs, including improved school culture for teaching (Supovitz, 2002), facilitating adoption of new practices school-wide (McDonald & Star, 2008; Price, 200”
Professional communities and student achievement – a meta-analysis (2011, methodology): “…and Beavis (2005); Kuhlemeier and van den Bergh (2000); Lam (2005); Langer, (2000); Lee and Smith (1996); Louis and Marks (1998); Marks and Louis (1997); Newmann and Wehlage, (1995); Smylie and Wenzel (2003); Supovitz (2002); Tighe et al. (2002); Visscher and Witziers (2004); and Wiley (2001).”
Closing the Knowledge Gap on Effective Professional Development. (2009, background): “Some evidence indicates that collaborative problem solving during professional development activities fosters a sense of community and shared purpose among participating educators (Supovitz 2002).”
Team Learning: Collective Reflection Processes in Teacher Teams. (2013, background): “However, other studies show that dialogue is somewhat controvertible and teachers tend to avoid critical reflections (Supovitz, 2002; Verloop et al., 2001).”
Enabling school structures, collegial trust and academic emphasis (2016, background): “However, while there is much in the prescriptive professional literature extolling the virtue of the PLC, little is understood about how effective PLCs are cultivated and developed (Louis and Marks, 1998; McLaughlin and Talbert, 2003; Spillane, 2005; Supovitz, 2002).”
Organizational Commitment of Teachers in Urban Schools (2006, background): “Many school reforms, including small learning communities and team structures, are based on the assumption that new structural arrangements will contribute to higher levels of teacher autonomy that will lead, subsequently, to better curricular and pedagogical decisions to improve student learning (S”
Increasing Achievement by Focusing Grade-Level Teams on Improving Classroom Learning: A Prospective, Quasi-Experimental Study of Title I Schools (2009, background): “Two survey studies reported significant correlations between school reports of professional community practices and student achievement (Bolam, McMahon, Stoll, Thomas, & Wallace, 2005; Supovitz, 2002).”