Collaborative Coaching and Learning in Science (CCLS) An Effective Professional Learning Community Model
Evidence indicates that Collaborative Coaching and Learning in Science groups helps to develop effective professional learning communities within schools, where teachers support each other to continue to learn, improve their practice, and focus on student achievement. Teachers not only acquire new instructional strategies and increase their science pedagogical content knowledge, but also begin to change the way they think about teaching and learning. The groups also break down teacher isolation and enable teachers to more readily ask each other for assistance.
The BPS science department staff has improved upon prior years' efforts to consolidate an implementation model for CCLS that has yielded a high level of success. It is an extremely flexible model that can be utilized for many purposes. Capacity for facilitation and depth of practice generally build from year to year, requiring less and less outside support. And teachers are overwhelmingly in favor of continuing to meet in this format. CCLS can function as an important aspect of any effort to improve teacher quality.
