Teachers’ collaborative knowledge building in professional learning communities: Connecting interaction patterns to learning gains

Teacher professional learning communities (PLCs) have the potential to result in teacher professional development, provided that effective communication takes place during PLC meetings. Building on the perspective of collaborative knowledge building, this study examined teachers’ interaction patterns during these meetings. Connections were explored between teachers’ self-perceived learning gains from a PLC and the interaction patterns that occurred. From a larger set of PLCs in the Netherlands, four cases were selected that differed regarding teachers’ learning gains profiles. Orbital decomposition analysis, a technique used to study emerging patterns in complex dynamic systems, was used to examine the extent to which interaction patterns were characterized by conversational moves associated with knowledge building. Results from these analyses showed that in general, all PLCs showed relatively few knowledge-building patterns. However, the low-gains PLC was a bit more focused on exchanging information and opinions. High-gains PLCs’ interactions were characterized more by open and involved communication. Conversation in mixed-gains PLCs revealed a connection between teachers’ knowledge gains and question–answer patterns, and between teachers’ changes in beliefs and elaborating upon opinions. Together, these results point to qualitative differences in the interactions of teacher PLCs who experience higher versus lower learning gains. Implications for the role of the facilitator are discussed.