Professional Learning Community with Interventions for STEM School Improvement: A Case Study of Surin Phitthayakom School, Surin Province, Thailand
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Abstract
Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a school improvement strategy for building teacher competencies in cooperatively learning management focusing on improving student learnings and competencies. Interventions (InTs) help to facilitate PLC to increase high learning management. This research was conducted in Surin Phitthayakhom School as a STEM school in Surin Province, Thailand, which has been implementing PLC since 2018. The research objectives were to investigate and select the best practices as InTs of Teachers’ Council of Thailand to apply in developing competencies of students, teachers and principal in the school, to formulate and synthesize the mechanisms of PLC together with interventions (PLC-InTs) in order to develop the competencies of students, teachers and principal, and to study the effects of the applications of the mechanisms on the competencies. This research used experimental and qualitative methods that 49 best practices were selected by the committees of Teachers’ Council of Thailand, the mechanisms were formulated and synthesized by four educational experts, and the competencies of students, teachers and principal were evaluated using evaluation forms. The results found that the best practices as InTs, which were suitably applied to the school, were problem-based learning, 5E or inquiry-based learning, think-pair-share technique, paper walk technique, gallery walk technique, high impact practices, and co-5 steps. The mechanisms were formulated to SPK2 model (START, PERFORM and KEEN OF SUCCESS), mainly comprising five steps in PERFORM, i.e. study, plan, teach and observe, reflect, and revise. Besides, the competencies of students, teachers and principal were increased after the three-cycled PLC-InTs. Hence, PLC-InTs could increase those competencies as whole school approach.
Keywords: Interventions, Professional Learning Community, Whole School Approach
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