Network meeting of the Professional Learning Communities in the ProLeiKiGs project at the University of Education Weingarten
At the beginning of March, heads and educators from daycare centers, schools and universities met at Weingarten University of Education to discuss successful collaboration in a Professional Learning Community (PLC). The occasion was a joint interim assessment of PLC work in the ProLeiKiGs project, after four groups had tried out this intensive form of cooperation over several months under supervision.
Despite the different composition and topics, the unanimous tenor was that you have to give it a try to experience how much you can gain from it, even if you are hesitant to get involved in another group at first. The experienced people told those who came to listen how they understand a PLC and what makes it special.
The exchange highlighted how much they value the focused collaboration in a PLC, that they were always able to broaden their perspectives and develop new options for action for their practice. For example, where heads from the daycare center critically reflected on questions of parent work, PLCs made up of educators from the daycare center and school delved deeper into how they can better shape the transition for children moving from daycare to school.
There was also unanimous agreement that supportive moderation is important when developing PLC work in order to be introduced to the specific working methods. This includes using time effectively, adhering to an appropriate meeting structure and staying focused on the topic. This also includes organizing the exchange in such a way that new learning can emerge and, not least, trying out new things in practice and thus achieving improvements.
At the network meeting, suggestions were gathered in a World Café on how groups that want to develop their work in the direction of PLG can orient themselves and what tips and tricks they can take away from their experienced colleagues.
The project leader also took stock of the successes of the PLCs and, for her part, encouraged the groups to be aware that at some point, even their own pool of knowledge will be exhausted. She emphasized that it is enriching to gain new knowledge from experts in one’s own network, through joint reading of specialist literature or the latest empirical findings, even if time is one of the greatest challenges for committed educators and leaders.
At the end, the project manager, Prof. Dr. Katja Kansteiner, not only thanked her team and the PLC practitioners for having undertaken this successful and insightful trial together. She also thanked the Robert Bosch Foundation for funding the project, which enabled accompanying research to be carried out and on this basis a practical handbook is currently being produced. This will also support people in educational practice in trying out the format of the PLG in their own environment.
https://ew.ph-weingarten.de/das-fach/lehrende/kansteiner/proleikigs/
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