Professional Learning Communities and Teacher Efficacy: A Correlational Study

This research investigated the correlational relationship between professional learning communities (PLCs) as a structure for job-embedded professional development and participating teachers’ self-efficacy. The specific research questions for this study were: 1) How closely does job-embedded professional development align to the National Staff Development Council’s (NSDC) standards for professional development?; 2) To what extent are professional learning communities implemented with fidelity?; and 3) What is the relationship of professional learning communities and participating teachers’ reported self-efficacy? This quantitative study involved certified staff from 12 Title I elementary schools from a demographically diverse public local education agency (LEA) in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. The LEA selected for this research study had a self-reported structure of professional learning communities as a framework for conducting real-time professional development. The findings from this study revealed a significant relationship between the components of professional learning communities and teacher self-efficacy. In particular the PLC component “shared and supportive leadership” revealed the largest degree of correlation to the three components of self-efficacy. These findings are analyzed, implications for practice are presented, and suggestions for further research are offered.