The schools which function as
professional learning communities have a characteristic that teachers from
diverse backgrounds and experiences collaboratively work for maximizing their
abilities to create new patterns of learning for themselves and for the
students. A reflective dialogue as highlighted by Louis and Kruse (as cited in
Hord, 1997), in a school is a form of collaborative creativity where teachers
discuss issues regarding the teaching and learning process and seek solutions.
Miller (2000) added that the diversity of patterns and ideas relevant to
learning in schools encourages openness to experimentation, innovation, and
flexibility which teachers need to demonstrate in the teaching and learning
process.
In Hargreaves’s (2003) case study, teachers
had the diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Many had joined the school from other fields of life namely radio
broadcasting, communications consulting, steel work and the automobile industry.
Through which, a set of diverse experiences and a strong source of outside
learning were brought into teaching.
Hargreaves found that teachers explored that opportunities for taking
responsibility, problem solving, decision making and planning were the ways to
achieve their personal visions of students-centered teaching and learning
process.
By collective creativity, teachers were enthusiastic while interacting
with their colleagues, involving in risk taking tasks and experimentation in
teaching to develop a variety of ways to engage students in learning. Many
teachers experienced an enhanced professional growth in the school where they
internalized new ways of working and thinking. A school that functions as a
professional learning community described by Carver (as cited in Goldstein,
2004) as it provides a safe environment for teachers under collective
creativity share their practice to their peers and freely discuss issues and
concerns, successes and failures.
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