Does Professional Community Affect the Classroom? Teachers' Work and Student Experiences in Restructuring Schools

Item

Title

Does Professional Community Affect the Classroom? Teachers' Work and Student Experiences in Restructuring Schools

Abstract/Description

School reform efforts have focused on the development of professionally enriching work groups for teachers as a vehicle for improving student achievement. This study examines the impact of school professional community on the intellectual quality of student performance (assessed using authentic measures) and on two dimensions of classroom organization, the technical (measured as authentic pedagogy) and the social (measured as social support for achievement). Employing quantitative (multilevel) and qualitative analytic methods, we show that in 24 nationally selected, restructuring elementary, middle, and high schools professional community is strongly associated with these dimensions of classroom organization. Both professional community and social support for achievement have a positive relationship to student performance, but the strength of their association with authentic pedagogy accounts for that effect.

Author/creator

Louis, Karen Seashore

Marks, Helen M.

Date

1998

In publication

American Journal of Education

Volume

106

Issue

4

Pages

532-575

Resource type

en Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Empirical

Open access/full-text available

en Yes

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

0195-6744

DOI

10.1086/444197

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (The University of Chicago Press)

Full-text PDF Shared by Author (ResearchGate)

Citation

Louis, K. S., & Marks, H. M. (1998). Does Professional Community Affect the Classroom? Teachers’ Work and Student Experiences in Restructuring Schools. American Journal of Education, 106(4), 532–575. https://doi.org/10.1086/444197

Item sets

OB Citations: Teacher Collaboration in School Improvement

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