Professional Communities

Newmann and Wehlage (1995) describe professional school communities as places where:

• "Teachers pursue a clear shared purpose for all students' learning.

• Teachers engage in collaborative activity to achieve the purpose.

• Teachers take collective responsibility for student learning."   (p. 30)

In schools with strong professional communities, students learn that:

• "They are expected to work hard to master challenging academic material.

• Staff and peers have confidence that, in the long run, students will be successful if they work hard on academic tasks.

• Staff will give them help and support, both through individual teaching/tutoring and by establishing classroom norms where learning is taken seriously, where peers are expected to help one another, and where students have the opportunity to make mistakes and to try again without being judged 'stupid.' "   (pp. 31-32)

 References