Professional Learning Communities Across Science Teachers' Careers: The Importance of Differentiating Learning

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been touted as an effective form of teacher professional development. Teachers’ PLCs support their professional development among their peers and usually include teachers at different levels of seniority. This chapter reviews literature on how PLCs address teacher needs at each stage of their careers and included research published since 2005. The main finding of the current review is that the literature about PLCs does not address the differentiated characteristics of teachers at varying career stages. The few studies that referred to teachers at different career stages in the PLC distinguished only between the new teachers and the experienced ones, or examined only the new teachers. Only one study was found that examined the full range of teachers’ career stages in the PLC. The chapter recommends further research that more closely examines what might be lost or what might be gained by expectations in PLC work that do not currently account for this differentiation, along with practical steps to address this issues. Embracing the idea of differentiating PLCs can help to make them a more impactful endeavor for addressing the learning of all teachers.