Professional Learning Community
Victoria University Secondary College is a Professional Learning Community (PLC) School.
Professional Learning Communities are an approach to school improvement where groups of teachers work collaboratively at the school level to improve student outcomes. At VUSC we strive to enhance our teaching practices by sharing resources and analysing student data. Our staff also support other schools to implement effective PLC practices.
The 10 principles of effective PLCs
Found in all effective PLCs are 10 principles that bring together the best available research on school improvement:
- Student learning focus: School improvement starts with an unwavering focus on student learning.
- Collective responsibility: For every child to achieve, every adult must take responsibility for their learning.
- Instructional leadership: Effective school leaders focus on teaching and learning.
- Collective efficacy: Teachers make better instructional decisions together.
- Adult learning: Teachers learn best with others, on the job.
- Privileged time: Effective schools provide time and forums for teacher conversations about student learning.
- Continuous improvement: Effective teams improve through recurring cycles of diagnosing student learning needs, and planning, implementing and evaluating teaching responses to them.
- Evidence driven: Effective professional learning and practice is evidence based and data driven.
- System focus: The most effective school leaders contribute to the success of other schools.
- Integrated regional support: Schools in improving systems are supported by teams of experts who know the communities they work in.
Video Resources
The staff at VUSC have produced four short videos for the Department of Education and Training which are published on the DET FUSE Education website. The video resources cover 4 topics:
- How can PLCs improve teacher collaboration?
- How can PLCs lead to improved teaching practices?
- How can schools prioritise the use of data in their PLCs?
- How do PLCs use data in the inquiry cycle?
View the video resources here and scroll down to these topics.
