Teacher Collaboration in a District Professional Learning Community

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have become common in many educational settings. A collaborative team (CT) is one component of a PLC. The purpose of this action research study was to examine the impact of a professional development innovation, Project Collaboration, which included a set of on-demand support modules for CTs to support their work and collaborative efforts. This study was a mixed method, action research study using surveys, rubrics, interviews, and the analysis of CT meeting artifacts. Results from Wilcoxon tests concluded there was not a significant difference from the pre to post quantitative data, descriptive statistics indicated there was an increase in the mean scores on both the postsurvey and the post-rubric when compared to the presurvey and the pre-rubric. The participants perceptions of their individual collaboration skills, their team’s collaboration skills, their self-efficacy to collaborate and the team’s collective efficacy to collaborate was positive and it was reflected in the mean scores after using the collaboration modules. Qualitative data indicated that the collaboration modules were used by participants and well received. Implication for future practice and next steps in action research are discussed.