Professional learning communities in private schools: An action research

Professional development of teachers is provided through traditional short-term studies such as in service trainings and workshops. The new approaches stress the importance of the practices which is based on colloboration, adult education principles, needs and shared knowledge. The Professional Learning Community is a community consisting of a small number of educators who meet periodically to make learning and teaching processes more effective and to provide professional development and share about the activities they plan. Professional learning communities can make the professional development of teachers effective and continuous, unlike traditional practices. Traditional practices are applied in the professional development of private school teachers. It is thought that professional learning community practice can provide efficient professional development of teachers in private schools. From this point of view, in the study, two professional learning communities working in a private high school consisting of voluntary English teachers and teachers of different branches were established, their work was monitored and their effectiveness was evaluated according to the opinions of the members of the communities. The research was designed according to the action research pattern. The action plan was carried out between October and May of the 2019-2020 Academic Year. Within the scope of the application, five development activities were carried out with the mixed community and eight with the English community. Seven community meetings were held with the mixed community, ten community meetings with the community of teachers of the same department, and two meetings with the vice principle. The data of the research were collected through focus group interviews, individual interviews and an observation form. The data were analyzed through content analysis. Eight activities used within the action plan were implemented and evaluated by the communities. At the end of the process, in line with the research findings, a professional development model proposal was made in order to make the professional development of teachers continuous by using professional learning communities in private schools. This model is based on the planning of professional development practices based on teachers' needs, their continuity by being carried out at regular intervals, joint work and cooperation progress, supportive school culture and managerial leadership that will provide these opportunities. In this process, "How was the theater?", "How was the movie?" and "How was the book?" activities in order to increase socio-cultural skills and develop a critical perspective towards education; 'We are preparing a common lesson plan', 'I am creating an activity pool' and 'I am changing classes in high school' activities to develop in-class practices by collaborating; 'Micro-teaching' activity to develop self-assessment skills to recognize individual needs; Professional development activities such as 'Look, what am I going to share?' and 'I recommend a website to my student' can be used to strengthen research-oriented curiosity and communication among members. Keywords: Professional learning community teacher development, professional learning, school development, private school, action research