A Facilitator’s Guide to

Professional

Learning Teams

Creating on-the-job opportunities

for teachers to learn and grow
A Facilitator’s Guide to

Professional Learning Teams

© SERVE, 2005

Proprietary—Not for copying without the express permission of SERVE

First Printing, 2005

Produced by SERVE

Written by

Anne Jolly, Senior Education Program Specialist, SERVE

Edited by

Karen DeMeester, Ph.D., Senior Program Specialist, SERVE

Donna Nalley, Ph.D., Director of Publications, SERVE

Designed by

Tracy Hamilton, Assistant Program Specialist, SERVE

The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Institute 

of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, 

commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

This document was produced with funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. 

Department of Education, under contract no. ED-01-CO-0015.

Associated with the 

School of Education,

University of North 

Carolina at Greensboro
Table of Contents

Foreword ........................................ iv

Introduction .................................... v

The Story of a Teacher ..................................................... vi

The Story of a Professional Learning Team .......................... x

How to Use This Book ...................................................xvi

A Note to the Facilitator ................................................xvii

Prepare to Do the Work

Step 1: Build the Foundation ...........................................1-1

Step 2: Preview the Process ............................................2-1

Step 3: Organize the Teams ............................................3-1

Do the Work

Step 4: Define Team Expectations ...................................4-1

Step 5: Analyze the Data ................................................5-1

Step 6: Plan for Learning and Action ................................6-1

Step 7: Conduct Successful Meetings ...............................7-1

Step 8: Maintain the Momentum .....................................8-1

Examine Results

Step 9: Assess Team Progress .........................................9-1

Sustain the Teams

Step 10: Facilitation 101 ................................................10-1

Resources ..................................... R-1
iv A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Since writing Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous 

Inquiry and Improvement nearly eight years ago, I have learned that the attributes 

associated with such communities—supportive and shared leadership, learning and 

its applications, shared values and vision, supportive conditions, and shared personal 

practice—are not easily introduced into schools steeped in traditional ways of doing 

business. The “schools-as-cells-and-bells” and “teacher-as-solo-artist” mental models 

are just too strong. 

So I will paraphrase now what I said then: Professional development is an entry point 

for changing teachers’ mental models. Earlier research finds teachers’ attitudes and 

abilities are shaped and reinforced not through traditional models of staff development 

but in the contexts in which they work and learn, including the communities formed 

by their relationships with other professionals. How, then, do we organize to create 

and sustain such communities of professional development? 

Part of the answer may lay in this most impressive and comprehensive guide written 

for SERVE by Anne Jolly. I believe that this guide can make a real contribution to the 

profession and to those working on becoming professional learning communities. I 

believe that the professional learning community is not only an excellent professional 

development strategy but is also essentially a first-rate continuous improvement 

process. Anne has taken the essentials of an improvement or reform process 

and translated them ever so well into the activities of a learning community of 

professionals in the school. Thus, the process should be somewhat familiar to 

educators and a useful idea in this new setting. 

I am impressed with the thoroughness and comprehensiveness of this guide. The 

steps are very clear, concrete, and extensive and provide a splendid, formalized 

method to create the building blocks of professional learning among communities 

of practitioners. I believe that this product is an excellent addition to what we have 

available, and I can see myself using it. 

Shirley M. Hord, Ph.D.

Scholar Emerita, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory

Austin, Texas

July 2004

Foreword
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams v

The Story of a Teacher ............................................ vi

The Story of a Professional Learning Team ..................x

How to Use This Book ......................................... xvi

A Note to the Facilitator ...................................... xvii

Introduction
vi A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Introduction

The story is told of a 

young World War II 

soldier who decided to 

take a short walk in camp 

the night before a major 

battle. General Dwight D. 

Eisenhower approached 

and quietly walked beside 

the young man. The 

general’s identity went 

undetected. “What are 

you thinking about, son?” 

asked the general. “I guess 

I’m afraid,” the young man 

replied. “Well, so am I,” 

said Eisenhower. “Let us 

walk together and perhaps 

we will draw strength from 

each other.”

— DuFour and Eaker,

Professional Learning 

Communities at Work

For a more detailed 

description of the following 

events, see “Reforming 

Instruction Through 

Collaboration: A Better 

Method for Informing and 

Sustaining School Change”

—Middle Ground, February 2001, 

pp. 28−31

The Story of a Teacher

When I entered the teaching profession, a set of unwritten rules 

seemed to govern teacher behaviors and interactions. 

 You are responsible for your students and your subject. 

(Translation: Don’t tread on other teachers’ territory. You 

take care of your business, and they will handle theirs.) 

 Find efficient teaching routines and methods, and stick 

with them. (Translation: Find a comfortable way to 

teach, and avoid change.) 

 Be wary of changes in curriculum and instruction—

these, too, shall pass. (Translation: students and society 

always will have the same basic needs, so just ignore the 

new-fangled stuff.)

At first, this peculiar way of thinking actually made sense to me. After 

all, these beliefs were rooted in long-standing education traditions 

and deeply embedded in school culture. Before long, however, reality 

hit. I realized that, however well-prepared I felt when I entered the 

classroom, I definitely needed more knowledge and skill to help my 

students learn better. Instead of being cautious of changes, I found 

myself grabbing for new ideas. As often as I could, I made my way 

into my colleagues’ classrooms, asking questions and running ideas by 

them. Try as I might, I never found that mysterious “efficient teaching 

routine” that I could use with students time after time. 

After 12 years of teaching, I took a three-year leave of absence from 

the classroom to work in a teaching/professional development role. 

In 1998 I re-entered the classroom, invigorated with even more 

enthusiasm and anticipation than I felt with my first position. This 

time I felt really prepared to teach. I was armed with a toolkit of 

strategies to deal with a new generation of students. I was ready to 

tackle the challenges of rapidly shifting demographics and changing 

academic requirements. I felt sure I had the knowledge and skills 

to prepare young adolescents for a complex, fast-paced, high-tech 

workforce. I was wired for action!

By the end of the first month, I looked at my students hard at 

work on their science assignment and realized that, instead of 

revolutionizing my classroom practices, I had fallen back into many 

old teaching patterns. Caught up in the familiar day-to-day routines 

The Story of a Teacher
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams vii

Introduction

and expectations that still dominate school cultures, I found it 

surprisingly hard to put new routines and innovating teaching ideas 

into operation. While I found this situation perturbing, I was curious 

as well. Why wasn’t I rapidly transforming my teaching practices with 

flexible, innovative strategies that I knew would work better? I felt 

knowledgeable and motivated. What, exactly, was my problem? Were 

there other teachers who wanted to change but who, like me, found 

change like swimming up a waterfall?

Three ideas proposed by Linda Darling-Hammond made a lot of 

sense to me as I considered my dilemma. Darling-Hammond works 

extensively in the area of professional development. She and her 

colleagues made the following recommendations in a September 1996 

report for the National Commission on Teaching For America’s Future. 

 Change in instruction begins with learning new ideas, 

followed by planning, trying out new strategies, getting 

feedback, and reflecting together with other teachers to 

learn from experience and refine practice.

 School organizational patterns must allow teachers to 

work collaboratively to address student needs and to 

develop a shared feeling of responsibility for students. 

 School schedules and staffing must create regular blocks 

of time in teachers’ schedules so they can work together

on teaching and growing professionally.

The isolated classroom scenario simply wasn’t working for me 

anymore. My students needed to learn more material and new skills 

faster, and I needed to improve my teaching expertise and make 

permanent changes in my teaching practice. I wondered what it 

would be like to work in an environment that encourages teacher 

collaboration, support, and personal growth. What would happen if 

teachers worked collectively to increase our expertise and change our 

teaching practices? Together, could we break the chains of tradition 

and forge a new way of doing business?

With the encouragement of an astute principal and grants from two 

organizations—the SERVE Regional Educational Laboratory and 

the Mobile (AL) Area Education Foundation—I set out to answer 

these questions. Two middle schools served as action research 

sites. After the first year, both schools had functioning collaborative 

teacher learning teams. In both schools, student achievement scores 

increased in team focus areas (although other variables factored into 

The Story of a Teacher
viii A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Introduction

that success). Members of one of the school teams—Judy Duke, 

Phyllis Hartselle, Derek Hyder, and Karen Ryals—graciously allowed 

me to relate their struggles and successes as they learned to work 

collaboratively toward a common instructional goal. I’ve included their 

story (pages x-xv) to illustrate both the promise and the potential 

pitfalls of collaborative work. 

Intrigued by the possibilities of teachers working together regularly 

and systematically, I began working to develop, establish, support, 

and document a process of teacher collaboration in other schools. 

The collaborative teacher groups described in this book are called 

learning teams for two reasons: (1) teacher and student learning are 

at the heart of the process, and (2) teams are groups of people who 

share a common goal and work together to achieve that goal. The 

learning teams process centers around the belief that teachers are the 

professionals in the best position to design instruction that works 

for their students. Since some schools group students into clusters 

they call “learning teams,” I refer to the teacher groups I work with as 

Professional Learning Teams, to make the distinction.

This guidebook provides tools and information that can help 

facilitators establish Professional Learning Teams in schools and help 

teachers who commit to this process to stay on track throughout 

the year. What I offer the reader are the results of my own search for 

professional community and my work with committed teachers and 

principals who started learning teams in their schools. We learned as 

many of you are learning—out of a need and by trial and experiment. 

I share these tools and ideas in the hope that you will become 

accomplished in transforming schools into a place where teachers 

continually learn and grow. 

Much information in this guidebook has been pulled together from 

ideas I read, tried, and found to work. I, therefore, owe credit for 

many ideas and procedures in this guidebook to a number of wise 

and wonderful people. The collaborative process described here 

was originally adapted from a professional development approach 

designed by Carlene Murphy in 1986. Her book, Whole-Faculty Study 

Groups: A Powerful Way to Change Schools and Enhance Learning

(1998), was a valuable resource for the project, as was her advice. 

Robert Garmston provided deeper insight into collaborative team 

work through his seminars and his stimulating book, coauthored with 

Bruce Wellman, The Adaptive School: A Sourcebook for Developing 

Collaborative Groups (1999). Richard DuFour will also recognize ideas 

in this guidebook from his workshop and book, coauthored by Robert 

The Story of a Teacher
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams ix

Introduction

Eaker, Professional Learning Communities at Work: Best Practices for 

Enhancing Student Achievement (1998). 

Shirley Hord and D’Ette Cowan with the Southwest Educational 

Development Laboratory (SEDL) generously supplied resources and 

information from SEDL’s work with professional learning communities. 

Ruth Ash, dean of education at Samford University in Birmingham, 

AL, and Maurice Persall, dean of Samford’s graduate program, spent 

hours sharing their work on Formative Leadership. Their sound 

thinking helped me decide how to implement and facilitate the learning 

team process. Members of the SERVE staff, including Rick Basom, 

Steve Bingham, Pam Finney, Jane Griffin, Barbara Howard, Wendy 

McColskey, Nancy McMunn, Jerry Natkin, and Jean Williams acted 

as valuable sounding boards, asked the hard questions, and worked 

with me on the initial program logic. Pam Finney developed some of 

the evaluation tools and helped with site evaluations. Carolyn Akers, 

executive director of the Mobile Area Education Foundation; Jack 

Sanders, former executive director of SERVE; and Don Stringfellow, 

my former principal, believed in this project and made it happen. 

Brenda Haskew, professional development coordinator for the Mobile 

County Public School System, supplied support and wise mentoring 

throughout the early going. Brenda Litchfield, professor of Instructional 

Development and Design at the University of South Alabama, provided 

the initial inspiration to write this guidebook and spent hours editing 

my early attempts. Other sources of ideas and information came from 

books and articles listed in the “Resources” section. 

My heartfelt appreciation to my mother and language arts teacher, 

Rebecca Baker, who diligently read and edited each word of this book, 

as she has all of my writings. Special thanks also to Joan Richardson, 

director of publications for the National Staff Development Council for 

her expertise and encouragement, and to my initial editor and friend, 

John Norton, who expertly, resolutely, and tenaciously steered me 

through the ins and outs of the initial writing-for-publication process. 

As you start the challenging job of creating lasting changes in your 

school, be flexible, ready to accept detours, and determined to stay 

the course. Above all, be ready to offer encouragement and support 

to teachers as they engage in the hardest task you could possibly ask 

of them—the task of changing their teaching practice in the middle 

of the daily brushfires that erupt in classrooms and the status-quo 

mentality that often permeates schools and school systems. The real 

winners will, of course, be your students.

The Story of a Teacher
x A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Introduction

The Story of a

Professional Learning Team

This story is based on an analysis of logs from this Professional 

Learning Team.

Four seventh-grade teachers at Cranford Burns Middle School in 

Mobile, AL, began the learning team process by developing a learning 

plan with a goal to improve student writing. Lacking clear guidance 

on how to approach this, they initially focused entirely on student 

learning rather than teacher learning. For example, their team goal 

included objectives such as

Students need to: 

 Demonstrate ability to identify the main idea and 

supporting ideas.

 Use mechanics of writing and correct grammar to 

express ideas clearly.

 Construct good paragraphs. 

 Summarize information concisely without paraphrasing 

or plagiarism.

Teachers planned activities such as developing pre- and post-tests for 

summarization skills, sharing teaching strategies, correlating strategies 

between subject areas, creating opportunities for students to make 

their writings public, maintaining student portfolios, and looking for 

teacher resource materials. 

Teachers also established team norms that included a regular meeting 

time and place, arriving on time, and being prepared. They agreed 

to respect each other’s ideas and to establish a “safe place” for 

expressing concerns and opinions. Norms included listening as well 

as sharing, not being judgmental, sharing the team responsibilities 

equally, and preventing interruptions in order to focus intently on 

team activities. 

Kicking Off

Learning team meetings kicked off the first week with a discussion of 

rubrics and a look at student writing samples. During the first meeting, 

team members looked at student prewriting samples, developed 

guidelines for student writing, and correlated some writing activities. 

The Story of a Professional Learning Team
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams xi

Introduction

During the next two meetings, teachers struggled to find real value 

in their collaborative efforts. Each teacher taught a different subject, 

and while willing to work together to increase students’ writing skills, 

the teachers were uncertain how to proceed. The primary question 

that surfaced during their first meetings was not surprising but no less 

frustrating for its predictability: “What are we supposed to be doing?” 

By the end of the fourth meeting, team members felt their whole 

approach to the collaborative process was too narrowly focused on 

traditional student objectives. They realized that they were missing the 

real point of learning team meetings—professional growth. In addition, 

they were now struggling with a new problem. This teaching team had 

11 students identified as “gifted” and others who were high achievers. 

For the most part, these students were unmotivated, underachieving, 

and created problems in class. The teachers decided that, as a learning 

team, they were learning and doing nothing new or different to reach 

their students. They needed to move in a fresh direction. 

Team members decided to rewrite their team plan to address the 

need to motivate and challenge the high-performing students in 

their classrooms. They felt that developing successful approaches 

and experiences for high-performing students would provide them 

with creative, stimulating strategies that would motivate students 

at all levels to achieve at higher levels. With this “out-of-the-box” 

approach, teachers began breaking new ground at the school and 

possibly in the school system. 

Learning, Planning, and Changing

Team members realized right away that they lacked the knowledge 

and skills needed to implement their plan. Instead of focusing 

on student learning objectives, they focused on teacher learning 

objectives that would help them broaden their own knowledge base. 

They planned to:

 Identify materials and sources of information for working 

with gifted and high-achieving students.

 Learn and develop new teaching strategies for engaging 

and involving these students.

 Apply what they were learning in their classrooms and 

monitor results. 

During the next few learning team meetings, team members examined 

activities already underway (i.e., Science Olympiad) that could 

The Story of a Professional Learning Team
xii A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Introduction

provide challenging interdisciplinary experiences for their students. 

The teachers also assumed a learner mode as they searched for 

information on modifying their regular classroom curricula for highability students. Each team member read and shared current research 

articles on facilitating learning for gifted students in the regular 

classroom. Through this reading/sharing process, the team began 

focusing on strategies related to open-ended questions, stimulating 

higher-order thinking skills, and encouraging students to express and 

defend personal opinions.

Through ongoing research, team members began to build a toolkit of 

new strategies and ideas for teaching. Members incorporated group 

research projects for gifted and motivated students. They decided to 

allow students to do several individual projects based on interests as 

well as projects related to topics being studied. The team developed 

rubrics and guidelines for these projects. 

The toolkit grew as team members began modifying assignments 

and offering optional assignments that allowed students to build 

on their strengths rather than focus on their weaknesses. They also 

offered compact assignment options for students who finished work 

quickly and correctly and scored high but did not show high ability 

and high interest in their daily work. Teachers established a plan for 

conferencing individually with these students, outlining what each 

student was to do, and establishing time frames for students to 

complete their work. 

Learning team members packed their toolkit with information about 

new cooperative learning designs. They used both homogeneous 

groupings and heterogeneous groupings, depending on the nature of 

the task. They examined case studies for successful elements they 

could incorporate into their practice. As they progressed, team members 

continued to feel a need for more extensive training and knowledge and 

decided to involve the school’s gifted teacher as a consultant. 

As the team members researched, planned, shared, and learned, they 

were already trying new strategies in their classrooms, sharing results 

with the entire team, and asking for advice from one another. 

 The math teacher offered students an alternative 

assignment option—a data analysis involving openended, thought-provoking questions that students had to 

defend with logic. She reported students responded well 

to the assignment, had a higher interest level, and were 

more engaged. 

The Story of a Professional Learning Team
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams xiii

Introduction

At this point, teachers began engaging in a different level of 

collaboration. Instead of trying individual strategies and sharing, they 

decided to begin using the same strategies across disciplines and 

comparing results. 

 The team developed a cross-curricular approach to 

encourage all students to advance in higher-order thinking 

and began an intensive focus on using open-ended 

questions across disciplines. They observed that many 

students tended to be strongly opinionated but were 

unable to support their opinions through reason. Team 

members looked for ways to help students engage in 

logical thinking processes. They also noted that when 

responding to open-ended questions, students were more 

interactive and took more ownership in their learning and 

that classes became more “student-powered.” 

 The learning team members continued to work together 

to develop the open-ended question technique and 

incorporated this into student writing assignments. 

Each teacher used open-ended questions as lead-ins 

for writing activities. At this point, team members also 

began a search for rubrics or other assessment methods 

to use in evaluating responses to open-ended questions. 

During learning team meetings, teachers continued to read and share 

information from the research on instructional strategies for highperforming students. They examined and developed methods for 

encouraging students to explore a topic in depth, ways to involve 

students in peer-editing groups, and ways of engaging students in 

publishing their own work. 

At this point, the team again reevaluated its learning plan. Always 

hungry for more resources, the team brought in the teacher of gifted 

students for specific suggestions. With her help, team members 

targeted library resources, including videos and online research. The 

next learning team meeting took place in the library as the learning 

team members continued to focus on increasing their grasp of best 

educational practices. 

New “out-of-the-box” teaching ideas began to dominate learning 

team meetings. Teachers began providing all students with optional 

assignments they could choose in place of a traditional assignment. 

The social studies teacher reported offering his classes a challenging, 

The Story of a Professional Learning Team

Many students tended

to be strongly opinionated 

but were unable to

support their opinions 

through reason. 
xiv A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Introduction

optional assignment originally intended to motivate and stimulate his 

high-performing students. To his surprise, over 90% of students of 

all levels opted for this more difficult assignment, completed it, and 

turned it in. The quality of the students’ work exceeded that of their 

regular assignments, and students of all levels reported they enjoyed 

doing it. The teacher calculated that 84% of his regular students made 

high scores on the more challenging assignment, compared to 86% of 

high-achievers. He concluded that, in this case at least, the optional 

assignment approach significantly reduced the achievement gap 

between his low- and high-achieving students. 

Following through with the optional assignment approach, the 

language arts teacher offered students the option of engaging in 

dramatic presentations or preparing children’s books rather than 

traditional book reports. She also offered choices in other areas 

and reported that, with the use of optional assignments, a higher 

percentage of students turned in work, and their work quality was 

generally better. 

In math classes, students worked together in heterogeneous 

groups to design surveys, collect and analyze data, and make class 

presentations. The math teacher found all students were more 

actively engaged in determining what to do and how to do it, and 

they tended to take more ownership for their learning. She also 

provided opportunities for students who mastered mathematics 

concepts quickly and accurately to work together during class on 

optional assignments. She met with these students ahead of time and 

explained that these alternative assignments would be more difficult 

and mean more work. Nevertheless, all high-achieving students opted 

for the alternative assignments and performed well. The teacher felt 

this provided a way to reward and encourage students who did good 

work. In the meantime, she was able to direct more class time toward 

helping students who did not master the math concepts as easily. 

The learning team also decided to initiate an information exchange 

with students in a Japanese school. This initiative provided their 

students with additional opportunities for differentiated assignments. 

Science students were preparing brochures on local ecology as a way 

to start this international “conversation.”

Teachers reported the learning team process engaged them in regular, 

systematic thinking about their teaching practice so they could 

better meet the needs of their students. As they learned how to 

challenge high-achievers without simply giving them more work, their 

instructional strategies influenced the learning of all students. Team 

The Story of a Professional Learning Team
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams xv

Introduction

members also reported that the learning team process provided them 

with the confidence to experiment with innovative teaching strategies 

they might otherwise avoid. The team structure provided the support 

they needed to stick with these new strategies rather than to fall back 

into a more comfortable teaching routine. As one teacher put it, “A lot 

of this, I would not have tried by myself. We challenge each other.” 

Looking Back

In looking back on the changes that occurred during this year of 

heightened collaboration and support, a team member remarked: 

“Kids are changing. They are not like they were when I started 

teaching. Teachers need to make adjustments and to challenge all 

kids. Kids will rise to expectations, and teachers are as guilty as 

students in believing that some cannot achieve.” 

Perhaps one of the most rewarding spin-offs of the learning team’s 

efforts was the high degree of parent satisfaction with their children’s 

learning experiences. Parents provided positive feedback throughout 

the year. On Teacher Appreciation Day, parents sent these team 

members so much food that the teachers were hard pressed to find a 

space for it in their team room. 

Teachers acknowledged that changing their practice was hard work 

and took a lot of time. Yet, they found this to be a powerful and 

effective professional development experience. They plan to continue 

systematically collaborating, reflecting, experimenting, documenting 

discussions and classroom applications, and continually learning how 

to improve their teaching. 

In reading this story for accuracy, the teachers on this learning team 

acknowledged that, while the information is accurate, they feel their 

efforts are a work in progress rather than an exemplary model. They 

are correct about this being a work in progress. Many learning teams 

are doing a noteworthy job. This case study is offered as a type of 

road map illustrating one way a team of teachers began thinking 

about their practice, changing, and growing professionally as a result 

of working together to address student needs. The real winners were 

their students. 

The Story of a Professional Learning Team
xvi A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Introduction

How to Use This Book

This guidebook provides a set of tools for implementing Professional 

Learning Teams (PLTs) with an entire faculty or part of a faculty. The 

book is organized in 10 short chapters, or steps. Each step features a 

variety of tools to use while establishing, maintaining, and evaluating 

a specific part of the learning team process. Steps 1 and 2 establish 

a rationale for learning teams and provide a brief overview of the 

process. Each subsequent step explains a different part of that process. 

Step 3 gives suggestions for organizing the teams and finding resources 

and time for them to meet. Steps 4 and 5 guide teams in establishing 

ground rules for their meetings and determining via data analysis 

where they most need to focus their instructional efforts. Steps 7 and 

8 give teachers concrete ideas for how to engage in the real work of the 

teams and support teams as they begin and continue their work. Step 9 

provides tools for assessing the impact of the PLTs and gathering data 

for decision-making. Step 10 provides facilitators with additional tips 

and ideas for successfully supporting the Professional Learning Team 

process. While most schools generally follow this sequence of steps 

when implementing learning teams, the sequence may vary, depending 

on what faculties already know about collaborative work. 

The Professional Learning Team facilitator may be a principal, a 

lead teacher, or another school staff member. Each step begins with 

background information for the facilitator. This is followed by a guide 

that describes the tools for that step and suggests ways to use them. 

Adjust these ideas to best facilitate the process for the teachers you 

work with. Sometimes the best use of a tool may be to stimulate your 

thinking or provide you with a better plan. 

Some tools may suit your purposes better than others. Mix and match 

tools from different steps to best suit your requirements and modify 

them as needed. These tools may be copied and used in workshops 

and learning team settings.

As you read this book you may notice an occasional overlap of 

information in different tools. That’s planned. These tools are 

designed for different parts of the process, and the information may 

bear repeating. 

Notice that each step begins with a brief glimpse into a journal 

kept during the first year I worked to establish Professional Learning 

Teams. You can access the entire text of my action research diary on 

MiddleWeb at www.middleweb.com/mw/images/jollydiary.pdf.

How to Use This Book
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams xvii

Introduction

SERVE has created an area in the Education Leadership section of 

its website to expand the resources provided in this book. Visit the 

“Support for Professional Learning Teams” web page for up-to-date 

information, web links, and other materials. [www.serve.org/

EdQuality/ProfLearnCom/Tools.php]

A Note to the Facilitator

The learning team process you facilitate may involve your entire 

faculty or may engage a few groups within your faculty who create 

teams around topics of interest, subject areas, grade levels, or even 

across school boundaries. In deciding which type of approach to 

use, consider this recommendation by Dr. Shirley Hord, Scholar 

Emerita with the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. 

Dr. Hord studies the change process in schools and colleges, as well 

as leadership factors required to initiate and manage change. In a 

letter to the author, she recently commented:

I must admit that I am prejudiced to the whole school concept of 

a learning community of professionals, rather than a team here 

and a team there, perhaps working on different aspects of student 

work. Therefore, I like the idea of small teams all working toward 

the same overall school goal, for this gives force and significance 

to the effort and means everyone is heading in the same direction, 

albeit in somewhat different ways dependent upon their team’s 

students’ needs. When the school is consistent across its teams’ 

goals, then there is consistency for students when they move from 

one grade to the next. 

Whether you involve your entire faculty or groups within the faculty, 

before you begin implementing Professional Learning Teams, decide 

on two vital issues:

1. How are you going to provide feedback and support to 

these teams? 

2. How are you going to evaluate their progress and 

effectiveness?

The ongoing success of this adventure in instructional change will 

revolve around the quality of follow-up and support you provide. 

In her book, Professional Learning Communities: Communities of 

Continuous Inquiry and Improvement (1997), Hord identifies two 

types of supportive conditions necessary for establishing productive 

learning communities: physical conditions and people capacities. 

A Note to the Facilitator
xviii A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Introduction

Physical conditions include resources and schedules that reduce 

isolation, provide time for collaboration, and provide effective 

communication. People capacities include willingness to learn new 

knowledge and skills, develop respect and trust, and work together to 

improve. Throughout this guidebook, you will find tools that can help 

you with these tasks. 

A second essential factor to the success of Professional Learning 

Teams is careful, upfront attention to how you will determine if this 

collaborative process is working. How will you know if PLTs are making 

a difference for teachers, students, and instructional effectiveness? 

According to Killion, in Assessing Impact: Evaluating Staff Development

(2002), evaluations are often an afterthought and should be planned at 

the beginning of a program or initiative. Ongoing assessment of how 

the Professional Learning Team process is working is crucial to making 

needed changes and adjustments along the way. Some assessment 

tools are included throughout this guidebook, and Step 9 is devoted 

entirely to tools for gauging team progress. 

Before you begin, read this guidebook and select tools that are most 

appropriate for your situation. You can find additional tools on the 

Professional Learning Team support website (www.serve.org/

EdQuality/ProfLearnCom/Tools.php), and you may also find 

effective tools from another source. May you enjoy this adventure 

and find it rewarding!

A Note to the Facilitator
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams

Prepare to Do the Work

Step 1: Build the Foundation ................................. 1-1

Step 2: Preview the Process .................................. 2-1

Step 3: Organize the Teams .................................. 3-1

© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 1-1

STEP 1

This section will 

help the facilitator:

 Provide teachers with 

a research-based 

rationale for working 

together in teams on 

instruction.

 Help teachers 

identify benefits of 

collaboration for 

themselves and their 

colleagues.

 Build teacher 

enthusiasm for 

Professional Learning 

Team participation.

Step 1:

Build the Foundation

Entry 2: For weeks I’ve been reading all sorts of research on professional 

development models. Not exactly fast-paced reading. I’m looking for 

research rooted in something more substantive than traditional “hit-andrun” workshops. This professional development process needs to focus 

directly on instruction and student learning. It needs to take place at the 

school site. A gnawing sense of urgency drives me to get a better handle 

on exactly what this particular process will look like—fast! The only 

thing I feel certain about at this point is that this process needs to result 

in teachers becoming a highly professional community of learners.

—Anne Jolly: An Action Research Diary

Background 

Congratulations on being on the cutting edge of one of the most 

important change processes taking place in schools today. As a 

facilitator, you may already understand the potential of learning 

teams and be eager for action. Along with your personal enthusiasm, 

however, the success of this collaborative process ultimately depends 

on the commitment of all educators involved. 

Ideally, the teachers in your school will buy into the concept of focused, 

collaborative team work. Teachers are often willing—even eager—to 

try new ideas and approaches to instruction. However, the day-to-day 

routines of the school and escalating job demands often make the task 

of taking on new initiatives seem overwhelming. How will teachers feel 

about another meeting during the week? What might motivate teachers 

in your school to buy into Professional Learning Teams? 

Teachers may buy into the idea of working in learning teams for some 

of the following reasons:

Relevance and value: Teachers will likely support Professional 

Learning Teams if they see that the work they do in these teams has 

value for themselves and for their students. Once involved, teachers 

need to find that their efforts produce effective instructional practices 

they can use daily in their classrooms. When teachers recognize that 

students are more successful because of the knowledge and expertise 

that teachers gain through Professional Learning Team work, they are 

likely to become active, faithful participants. 

Build the Foundation
1-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 1 Build the Foundation

Collegial support: No one goes into teaching to become a 

millionaire. Most people who enter the teaching profession have 

a genuine desire to make a difference for students. All too often, 

teachers’ working environments rob them of much needed energy 

and passion for their chosen profession. Learning teams can provide 

teachers with collegial support, build skills and confidence, and 

boost morale. 

A sense of urgency: A strong motivator in jumpstarting school 

change, including implementing a learning team process, is a sense 

of urgency. Many schools currently face serious state sanctions if 

student achievement fails to improve. The threat of these sanctions 

creates a culture of urgency. New teacher quality requirements along 

with national legislation requiring that increasing percentages of 

teachers receive professional development add yet other pressures. 

The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future warns of 

another critical urgency:

There has been no previous time in history when the 

success, indeed the survival of nations and people, has 

been so tied to their ability to learn. Today’s society has 

little room for those who cannot read, write, and compute 

proficiently; find and use resources; frame and solve 

problems; and continually learn new technologies, skills, 

and occupations. Every school must be organized to 

support powerful teaching and learning....America’s future 

depends now, as never before, on our ability to teach.

—What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future, 1996, p. 3

This warning provides two sobering reminders for most teachers:

(a) accomplished teaching may well be the deciding factor in whether 

students succeed in our society, and (b) teachers must continually 

stay abreast of current developments in their fields and find new 

and effective ways of helping students learn. They must engage all 

students in academic work that supports high achievement and help 

all students master challenging curricula. Because they desire to 

see students succeed, many teachers may welcome an opportunity 

to work collaboratively with colleagues as a way of adding to their 

teaching skills. 

A method of mentoring: Teachers may also become enthusiastic 

about this learning team process as a way to induct and mentor 

new teachers. Regularly working with experienced teachers and 

building habits of continual learning are good ways to help new 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 1-3

Build the Foundation STEP 1

teachers jump-start a successful career. Experienced teachers can 

likewise benefit from the up-to-date information and ideas these 

beginning teachers acquired through their recent college experiences. 

On successful learning teams, teachers play the roles of both mentor 

and learner.

Implementing schoolwide initiatives: Teachers may also see 

value in the Professional Learning Team process as a disciplined, 

systematic method for successfully implementing a new schoolwide 

initiative, such as teaching reading in all content areas or examining 

student work to drive instruction. 

These types of needs provide opportunities to generate interest in 

learning teams as a way for teachers to work together, learn, and 

engage in planned, focused, systematic collaboration. The success of 

even a single learning team, when properly shared and showcased, can 

trigger a domino effect as more and more teachers grasp “what’s in it 

for me.” In time, that may change to “what’s in it for us, as a school.” 

Over the next decade, student achievement will hinge increasingly on 

teachers becoming continual learners and constantly adapting their 

knowledge, expertise, and instruction. How can you help teachers 

recognize and appreciate that working together at their school is a 

powerful way to accomplish this? The first step involves building a 

foundation for collaboration by providing teachers with opportunities 

and information to answer four basic questions: 

1. Why do we need to collaborate on instruction? 

2. Why should we use a learning team process?

3. How can this make a difference for us? 

4. How can this make a difference for our students?

The Step 1 Guide and tools can assist you with this task.
1-4 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 1

Step 1 Facilitation Guide

For Step 1 you will find six tools designed to engage teachers in 

exploring the purpose of instructional collaboration, the value of 

learning together, and how this can make a difference for their 

students. Use these tools to help teachers gain understanding of 

and enthusiasm for working together in Professional Learning Teams. 

These tools include checklists, readings, discussion, and role-play. 

Rather than trying to use all of these tools, select the one or two that 

are most appropriate for the teachers you are working with. 

This guide contains an explanation of each tool and a suggested 

method of using that tool with groups of teachers. Note that most 

tools contain one or more questions for reflection. As an option to the 

suggested procedures, you may give teachers a moment to complete 

the activity and reflect quietly, and then ask them to discuss their 

reflections with a partner or a small group. 

In selecting tools, consider your audience. What do they already 

know and believe about collaboration, and how much time, if any, 

will you need to spend in building a foundation for implementing 

learning teams? Also consider the size of your audience, the setting, 

and amount of time available. You can locate Power Point slides 

for presenting Step 1 information at www.serve.org/EdQuality/

ProfLearnCom/Tools.php. You may also find additional tools and 

information related to this step at that site. 

Tool 1.1 What Do I Know? What Do We Know?

This tool can help participants engage in a brief problem-solving 

activity that builds knowledge through collaboration. If participating 

teachers have already selected a focus for their collective efforts 

through Professional Learning Teams, such as teaching reading 

comprehension, you may substitute that topic for the “small group 

instruction” topic suggested on Tool 1.1. 

 Distribute a copy of this tool to each participant. Give 

participants three to five minutes to individually jot down 

responses to the two questions on the activity. 

 Ask teachers to work in groups of 3–4 and share their 

answers. As they share, ask each participant to note 

additional ideas and information he/she learns. 

 Ask participants what value they see in the group sharing. 

Build the Foundation—Facilitation Guide
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 1-5

Build the Foundation—Facilitation Guide STEP 1

Point out that group members gain new information and 

insight and all participants are now on the same page and 

have the same information.

 Ask teachers to suggest what value teacher team work 

might have for a school’s instructional program. Explain that 

increasing teacher knowledge is only one value of working 

together on instruction and that exciting times are in store 

for teachers working in Professional Learning Teams. 

Tool 1.2 Think About Your Professional Development.

Use this tool to introduce teachers to some standards for quality 

professional development. 

 Suggest that teachers individually think about and write 

comments for each statement. If you use this tool in a 

large group, allow time for teachers to briefly “pair and 

share” and to discuss answers. If participating in a small 

group (3−4 people), teachers may discuss their responses 

as a group. Propose that they use a round-robin approach 

if engaging in a small group discussion so that each 

participant has an opportunity to share.

 When teachers complete this activity, point out that each 

of these statements is characteristic of quality professional 

development. When properly implemented, Professional 

Learning Teams can address all of these areas. 

Tool 1.3 Look at Teacher Needs.

Use this tool to help teachers think about the personal and 

professional needs at their school. 

 Ask each teacher to place a checkmark beside all sentences 

that apply. 

 When teachers have completed the activity, ask each one to 

select and share what she considers to be the top three needs.

 Keep track of participants’ responses as a way of 

determining what the faculty sees as its greatest needs. For 

a quick way of determining which needs the faculty sees as 

most pertinent, number 1–12 down the left side of a sheet 

of chart paper. Give each teacher three colorful, adhesivebacked dots. Ask teachers to place one dot beside the 

number of each of their top three areas of concern. 
1-6 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 1 Build the Foundation—Facilitation Guide

 After identifying the top areas of concern for the faculty, 

point out that Professional Learning Teams provide a vehicle 

to help them meet those needs.

Tool 1.4 Will Collaboration Work?

This activity provides an entertaining method of involving teachers in 

thinking about how Professional Learning Teams might work in their 

schools and about barriers that might need to be addressed. It will 

provide the facilitator with information on what the faculty sees as 

important for making Professional Learning Teams work in its school. 

 Duplicate and cut apart the cards. 

 Provide each team with chart paper and markers.

 Ask teachers to work in small teams. Give each team one of 

the cards. (Try to distribute the two different cards evenly 

among teams.) 

 After each team finishes brainstorming, ask a team member 

to share the team’s ideas. List the ideas from “Design, 

Inc.” on one piece of chart paper and the ideas from the 

“Sabotage, Inc.” on a different sheet. 

 Ask teachers to discuss how their current school culture 

and organization can facilitate and/or hinder the success of 

learning teams. If you have a large group, ask teachers to 

discuss this in their teams and have a spokesperson share 

with the whole group.

 Suggest that each team make a list of the things needed at 

the school to successfully implement Professional Learning 

Teams. Collect these lists. 

 Following the work session, compile and distribute a list of 

teachers’ ideas for making collaboration work. Work with 

appropriate school personnel to address as many of these 

concerns and suggestions as possible. 

Tool 1.5 Focus Questions.

Use this tool with Tool 1.4 to help teachers answer four basic 

questions that can help them understand the need for and benefits of 

professional collaboration. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 1-7

Build the Foundation—Facilitation Guide STEP 1

 Give each teacher or group of teachers a copy of the Focus 

Questions. If you are working with groups of teachers at 

tables, cut these apart and fold them to make tents to set 

on the table. (You may prefer to write each question on the 

bottom half of a 4” x 8” card and fold it to make a tent.) 

Place a different question at each table. 

 Ask teachers to look for answers to these questions as they 

read the handout, “What Do the Experts Say?” (Tool 1.6). 

Tool 1.6 What Do the Experts Say?

This handout provides teachers with information on the importance 

of continually improving teaching expertise and the need for ongoing 

professional development. 

 Distribute a copy of this information to each teacher 

as a method of providing additional information about 

collaboration. 

 Ask teachers to look for information to answer the “Focus 

Questions” (Tool 1.5) as they read. Suggest they highlight 

this information.

 If teachers worked on the Focus Questions individually, 

invite them to hold up one, two, three, or four fingers to 

indicate what question they would like to answer. Then ask 

them to locate another person in the room who wants to 

answer that same question and discuss their thoughts with 

that person. 

 If groups of teachers answered different questions, lead 

them to share answers for the question on their table with 

the large group. List their responses on chart paper.

 Ask teachers to turn to a partner and share one reason why 

he or she believes that working in Professional Learning 

Teams will be a valuable experience.
1-8 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Reflect:

What do 

you think 

would be 

the value of 

working with 

a team of professional 

colleagues to create 

this professional 

development program? 

Tool 1.1 What Do I Know? What Do We Know?

Scenario: You are setting up a professional development 

program for teachers in Bingham Elementary School. The 

superintendent has promised you the resources you need 

to engage teachers in effective professional development. 

The purpose of the professional development will be to help 

teachers successfully incorporate small group instruction into 

their classrooms. To help you with your planning, list some 

answers to the following two questions. 

1. What are some characteristics of quality professional 

development? 

2. What are some resources that can help teachers with 

small group instruction? 

Directions:

Answer the questions 

individually. Then 

form a group of three 

to four teachers 

and share answers. 

Make note of new 

information you gain. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 1-9

Reflect:

Why would 

this kind of 

professional 

development 

be valuable?

Think About Your Professional Development Tool 1.2

1. Fits naturally with our school system or school goals.

2. Provides a consistent focus and ongoing training and assistance.

3. Creates a collective commitment among teachers to deepen 

their content knowledge and to learn and use research-based 

instructional practices. 

4. Provides time and opportunities for groups of teachers to meet 

regularly in order to share, reflect, and work together 

on instruction.

5. Empowers teachers to make decisions about their own 

professional learning needs.

6. Is relevant and useful to the situations teachers face each day

in the classroom. 

7. Provides a way for teachers to learn and grow in a supportive 

atmosphere. 

8. Honors the knowledge and skills of teachers. 

9. Provides teachers with a process for addressing student diversity, 

individualizing instruction, and holding high expectations for all 

students.

10. Engages teachers in using multiple sources of data to determine 

student needs.

11. Provides continuing opportunities to grow professionally at

the school site.

12. Engages teachers in spending greater amounts of time in 

professional development. 

Directions: How 

do you think the 

staff development 

you normally receive 

measures up? Here 

are some statements 

that describe some 

benefits of quality 

staff development. 

Write a brief comment 

below each item to 

indicate how your 

usual professional 

learning experiences 

compare. 
1-10 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Reflect:

How could 

regularly 

working 

together 

help us meet 

these needs?

 1. We need a way to increase student achievement. 

 2. We need a way to increase our own knowledge and 

 expertise. 

 3. We need to strengthen professional relationships and 

 become less isolated from one another in our work. 

 4. We need a way to systematically examine whether our 

 teaching is making a difference. 

 5. We need support in changing the way we teach over 

 the long-term. 

 6. We need to develop leadership capacity. 

 7. We need an effective way of mentoring new teachers. 

 8. We need a flexible professional development process. 

 9. We need an efficient way to share ideas. 

 10. We need to be regarded as valuable professionals. 

 11. We need a cost-effective way to engage in professional 

 development and continual learning. 

 12. We need a practical way to implement a new initiative.

Tool 1.3 Look at Teacher Needs

Directions: Think 

about your school 

as you read the 

statements at the 

right. Which of these 

statements describes 

the needs of teachers 

at your school? 

Discuss the items 

you check with other 

participants nearby, 

and explain your 

thinking. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 1-11

Professional Design Team

You are members of Design, Inc., a professional firm that specializes in creating opportunities 

for professionals to engage in on-the-job collaboration and to increase their skills and 

productivity. 

Your firm has been hired by Innovation High School to help teachers regularly work together 

in teams to increase their instructional knowledge and teaching skills. How will you do this? 

What information, opportunities, and working conditions will teachers need in order to do this 

effectively?

Brainstorm ideas and jot your plans on the chart paper. Your design team has 10 minutes.

Will Collaboration Work? Tool 1.4

Professional Sabotage Team

You are members of Sabotage, Inc., a firm that specializes in undermining attempts to allow 

professionals to engage in on-the-job collaboration and to increase their skills and productivity. 

Your firm has been hired to tackle a “problem” at Innovation High School. This school plans 

to create teams of teachers who work together regularly to increase their teaching knowledge 

and expertise. The school plans to provide teachers with information, support, and working 

conditions that foster success. 

Your job is to sabotage this plan. How will you undermine efforts to create a collaborative 

culture at the school? Consider addressing attitudes, information, opportunities, and the 

working environment. 

Brainstorm ideas and jot down your plans on the chart paper. Your sabotage team has 10 minutes. 

✁

✁
1-12 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 1.5 Focus Questions

Question 1 

Why do we need to collaborate on instruction?

Question 1

Why do we need to collaborate on instruction?

Question 2

Why should we use Professional Learning Teams?

Question 2

Why should we use Professional Learning Teams?

Question 3

How can this make a difference for us?

Question 3

How can this make a difference for us?

Question 4

How can this make a difference for our students?

Question 4

How can this make a difference for our students?

✁
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 1-13

Teacher expertise matters.

Recent studies verify that competent, committed, qualified teachers 

are the most important factor in improving student achievement and 

preparing students to meet higher standards. The 1997 follow-up 

report of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 

Doing What Matters Most: Investing in Quality Teaching, spotlights 

teacher knowledge and expertise as the single most important 

influence on what students learn. According to the report, teachers 

who know a lot about teaching and learning and work in school 

environments that allow them to know their students well 

can overcome many of the conditions outside of school that often 

impair students’ chances of success.

 A growing number of studies validate the importance of teacher 

expertise. An analysis of 900 Texas school districts by Harvard 

professor Ronald Ferguson points to teacher expertise as a primary 

influence on student performance. Researcher Linda DarlingHammond points out that the effect of teacher knowledge and skill 

in this study was so strong that, “after controlling for socioeconomic 

status, the large disparities in achievement between black and white 

students were almost entirely accounted for by differences in the 

qualifications of their teachers” (2000). Ferguson also presented 

evidence that “highly qualified teachers have a cumulative effect on 

students, so that those who score low in the early grades may still 

achieve at high levels in the upper grades” (1999). 

More evidence comes from a 2002 report in which researcher Judith 

Langer compared student performance in reading, writing, and English 

in 88 classrooms in California, Florida, New York, and Texas. Unlike 

the Ferguson study, none of these schools was low achieving. In 

fact, all of these schools were characterized by active and engaged 

students and teachers in well-supported classrooms. Yet over a twoyear period, Langer found student achievement to be higher among 

students with more skilled teachers. In fact, students with the most 

accomplished teachers achieved at an even higher level of literacy 

than expected.

The results of Wright, Horn, and Sanders’ 1997 study indicated that 

the most important factor affecting student learning is the teacher. 

In addition, the results show wide variation in effectiveness among 

teachers. The immediate and clear implication of this finding is that 

seemingly more can be done to improve education by improving the 

effectiveness of teachers than by any other single factor (p. 63).

What Do the Experts Say? Tool 1.6

“All teachers will have 

access to high quality 

professional development 

and regular time for 

collegial work and 

planning.”

— National Commission on 

Teaching and America’s 

Future. What Matters Most, 

Teaching for America’s Future, 

1997, p. 63
1-14 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

What, exactly, defines teaching expertise? According to the 

National Staff Development Council’s Standards for Staff 

Development, Revised (2001), 

Successful teachers have a deep understanding of the 

subjects they teach, use appropriate instructional methods, 

and apply various classroom assessment strategies. These 

teachers participate in sustained, intellectually rigorous 

professional learning regarding the subjects they teach, 

the strategies they use to teach those subjects, the findings 

of cognitive scientists regarding human learning, and the 

means by which they assess student progress in achieving 

high academic standards. (p. 32)

The bottom line is that for students to consistently achieve at higher 

levels, a school must have a faculty of teachers who continually 

work on and improve their own knowledge and expertise in content, 

teaching strategies, and assessment. No initiative or program a school 

adopts will substitute for effective teachers who have the knowledge 

and skills to help their students master subject matter. 

Teacher learning opportunities matter.

How will teachers gain more expertise? In its report Teacher Quality: 

A Report on the Preparation and Qualifications of Public School 

Teachers, the National Center for Education Statistics points to three 

criteria as particularly important in bringing about long-term changes 

in teacher skills and performance: 

1. Teachers must spend more time in professional 

development than they currently spend.

2. Teachers must engage in collaboration and on-the-job 

learning in a climate that supports professional growth.

3. Teacher learning must be ongoing and must maintain 

momentum over the long term. 

Although most states, districts, and school systems offer substantial 

amounts of staff development, a recent report by the U.S. Department 

of Education, A Talented, Dedicated, and Well-Prepared Teacher 

in Every Classroom, points out that teachers still have too few 

opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills and spend too 

little time in meaningful professional development. Staff development 

experiences remain largely short-term and are often unrelated to 

teachers’ current needs. In addition, many staff development offerings 

Tool 1.6 What Do the Experts Say? (cont.)
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 1-15

are of low quality. Most professional development is not collaborative 

in nature. Even though teachers and other experts say that regularly 

scheduled collaboration among teachers is more effective than most 

traditional professional development approaches, currently, much 

that passes for professional development falls far short of providing 

teachers with the knowledge and support they need to be highly 

effective.

Clearly, schools need a better way to build teacher expertise. Teacher 

learning should be ongoing, job-embedded, and continually supported. 

Schools must provide more frequent opportunities for teachers to 

gain all the skills and knowledge they need to prepare students for a 

demanding curriculum and an ever-changing, high-tech society. 

Teacher opportunities to work 

together matter.

If school leaders expect teachers to gain expertise, they must provide 

an environment where teachers can continually learn together. The 

payoff can be enormous. James Stigler, author of The Teaching Gap, 

analyzed why working together to prepare and design lessons achieved 

such benefits for students and teachers. In researching the Japanese 

lesson study process, Stigler discovered that by working in groups, 

teachers were able to describe and analyze classroom teaching and to 

teach each other about teaching. Working together provided teachers 

with benchmarks to gauge their own practice and to identify things 

that could be improved. Collaborating with colleagues on instruction 

also created a mindset of teaching as a joint responsibility, rather than 

the responsibility of single individuals. 

According to author Richard DuFour, author of Professional Learning 

Communities at Work, actively participating in a learning community 

can revitalize teachers and teaching because teacher energy stays 

focused where it should be—on the students. A growing body of 

literature and experience supports DuFour’s assertions. Teachers 

engage in a powerful form of professional development when they 

work together in an ongoing, results-focused cycle of inquiry, 

reflection, dialogue, action, analysis, and adjustment. In their 

introduction to Education in a New Era, Ann Lieberman and Lynn 

Miller describe the greater sense of responsibility for the success 

of all students that emerges in collaborative groups. Teachers gain 

assistance and support from each other by sharing teaching strategies, 

trying out new ways of teaching, getting feedback, and redesigning 

“We need systems that 

empower staff to define 

their professional path 

and grow in ways that are 

meaningful in their work 

with students.”

— Wald and Castleberry. 

Educators as Learners: 

Creating a Professional 

Learning Community in 

Your School, Association for 

Supervision and Curriculum 

Development, 1998, p.11

What Do the Experts Say? (cont.) Tool 1.6
1-16 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

lessons and methods of instruction. They make the transition from 

exclusive concerns about “my classroom” and “my students” to a 

more inclusive attitude about “our school” and “our students.” 

Students benefit most when teachers work together. According to 

Linda Darling-Hammond in The Work of Restructuring Schools: Building 

from the Ground Up, schools where teachers worked collaboratively 

on teaching and learning showed academic improvement more quickly 

than schools where this did not happen. These schools provided 

teachers with opportunities to share what they knew, consult with 

peers about problems of teaching and learning, and observe peers 

teaching. Darling-Hammond concludes that teachers must have 

opportunities to reflect critically on their practice and to create new 

knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning.

Shirley Hord examined a large body of literature on teacher collaboration 

for her book, Professional Learning Communities: Communities of 

Continuous Inquiry and Improvement. Hord cites Ernest Boyer, who 

concluded that “the most successful student learning occurs when 

teachers...find solutions together. In such schools, teachers operate 

as team members, with shared goals and time routinely designated for 

professional collaboration. Under these conditions, teachers are more 

likely to be consistently well informed, professionally renewed, and 

inspired so that they inspire students” (p. 25).

Many things influence whether teacher teams accomplish something 

worthwhile for themselves and their students. These include the 

team’s desire for accomplishment, members’ understandings of the 

purpose of the collaboration, the clarity of the goals and focus, and 

the school conditions in which teachers work. Hord concludes that 

professional collaboration among teams of teachers can increase 

teacher effectiveness, but success depends on what the teachers do in 

their collective efforts.

Doing what matters.

Evidence says that teachers must increase their expertise and that this 

should be a continual, ongoing process. Teachers must spend more 

time growing and learning, and much of this activity should occur 

at the school site. Teachers need to work together in a structured, 

disciplined manner, and the school culture, including scheduling and 

staffing, must support this need. In short, schools must be places for 

teacher learning as well as student learning. 

“Professional learning 

communities can increase 

staff capacity to serve 

students, but success 

depends on what the

staff do in their

collective efforts.”

— Shirley Hord. Professional 

Learning Communities: 

Communities of Continuous 

Inquiry and Improvement, 

SEDL, 1997, p. 58

“The best structure for 

fostering collaboration 

is the team—the basic 

building block of the 

intelligent organization.”

— DuFour and Eaker. Professional 

Learning Communities 

at Work, Association for 

Supervision and Curriculum 

Development, 1998, p. 118

Tool 1.6 What Do the Experts Say? (cont.)
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 1-17

Reflect:

What are 

the three 

most 

powerful 

points you 

want to remember 

from this reading?

According to DuFour, “The best structure for fostering collaboration 

is the team—the basic building block of the intelligent organization.” 

Schools that want to support powerful teaching and learning must 

find ways to establish and support powerful teacher learning teams. 

Through the team structure, teachers can build their knowledge 

and skills in their own classrooms. The learning team process also 

provides an avenue to support and extend the training teachers 

gain through workshops and seminars. As teachers work together 

and challenge one another, they are more likely to sustain their 

commitment to new innovative and effective instructional practices. 

Last, but certainly not least, learning teams provide an ideal setting for 

mentoring and inducting new teachers. 

What Do the Experts Say? (cont.) Tool 1.6

© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 2-1

Preview the Process STEP 2

Step 2:

Preview the Process

Entry 6: Teacher collaboration is the heart of the Professional Learning 

Team process. The more I learn about this process, the more convinced 

I am that it will make a significant difference for teachers and students. It 

has all the right ingredients. Imagine groups of teachers working together 

to increase their content knowledge and to design and develop dynamic 

teaching strategies based on student needs. Envision teachers meeting 

regularly, supporting each other, sharing information on what works 

and what doesn’t, and then revising strategies and lessons accordingly. 

Would those things make a difference in student achievement? Yes. 

Studies say those things make a big difference.

—Anne Jolly: An Action Research Diary

Background

How is our Professional Learning Team work going to be different 

from any other teacher meeting? Don’t we work together already? 

Those questions may flash through teachers’ minds as they prepare to 

put learning teams into operation. Before beginning the Professional 

Learning Team process, teachers need an understanding of what this 

process looks like. 

Chances are that teachers in your school already work together in 

school-based committees. Groups of teachers may meet together at 

times to plan specific school activities, develop the school improvement 

plan, or help with a special school initiative. Perhaps teachers in your 

school also meet and plan together as departments. What’s the added 

value of learning team meetings? How are these different? 

Some Step 2 tools clarify some basic differences between working 

on traditional school committees and working in Professional 

Learning Teams. 

Professional Learning Team Basics

Professional Learning Teams provide a strategic, disciplined approach 

for engaging teachers in working together. This collaborative work 

focuses on teacher growth and development and is guided by specific 

goals and purposes. 

This section will 

help the facilitator:

 Clarify the difference 

between learning 

teams meetings and 

other types of team 

meetings.

 Provide teachers with 

an overview of the 

Professional Learning 

Team process.
2-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 2 Preview the Process

Although there are a variety of structures for engaging teachers in 

collaborative learning and action, several elements are common to most: 

 Teams serve as vehicles for teacher professional 

development and ongoing learning focused on instruction. 

 Team goals are determined by student data and needs. 

 Teams meet regularly throughout the school year and use 

a systematic approach to guide their work. 

 Team activities revolve around an action-inquiry cycle 

that engages teachers in questioning, studying, planning, 

experimenting, reflecting, and assessing.

 Team members rotate roles and share responsibilities 

equally.

 Teams keep documentation of their work and share

this publicly. 

In introducing teachers to information about Professional Learning 

Teams, keep in mind that you are up against a formidable foe—years 

of ingrained and accepted practices of teacher isolation. Morton Inger 

(1993) notes: “By and large...teacher collaboration is a departure from 

existing norms, and in most schools, teachers are colleagues in name 

only. They work out of sight and sound of one another, plan and 

prepare their lessons and materials alone, and struggle on their own to 

solve their instructional, curricular, and management problems.”

Stages of Collaboration

Today’s strong student achievement emphasis has catapulted teacher 

collaboration onto the center stage as a way of helping teachers 

acquire new skills needed to help students succeed. Four types of 

collaboration usually exist in schools with regard to teaching and 

instructional practices. These are listed below according to the 

degree to which they result in a change from norms of isolation to 

norms of collaboration.

1. Informal conversations. This is the most basic stage 

of instructional collaboration and generally takes place 

in the hall, lunchroom, and other times when teachers 

meet informally during the school day. While these 

conversations may involve discussion about instruction, 

“Effective schoolwide 

change and enhanced 

student learning require a 

structure or a process for 

greater collaboration among 

teachers.”

— Murphy and Lick. Whole 

Faculty Study Groups: A 

Powerful Way to Change 

Schools and Enhance 

Learning, 1998, p. 14
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 2-3

Preview the Process STEP 2

researcher J. W. Little (1990) reacts skeptically to the 

idea that “brief stories told of classrooms could advance 

teachers’ understanding and practice of teaching.” These 

types of conversations can, however, promote collegial 

relationships among the staff.

2. Individual assistance. Teachers are generally 

agreeable to supplying advice to colleagues when asked. 

How much this advice actually improves a colleagues’ 

teaching practice depends on the quality of the questions 

asked, the advice given, and the follow-up provided. 

Formal one-on-one mentoring programs often produce 

genuine benefits and advancement for new teachers. 

However, a mentoring program alone may not be enough 

to overcome the norms of isolation and individualism 

pervading a school’s culture. 

3. Group sharing. When meeting in groups, teachers 

usually share ideas, lesson plans, and materials with one 

another. Most learning team meetings begin with this 

stage. In fact, group sharing may even be a necessary 

first step in the development of more meaningful 

collaboration. Inger (1993) notes that teachers need 

time to overcome years of habit and organizational 

separation, and sharing can be a safe and enjoyable 

activity for teachers. While this is a good use of time 

during early meetings, without careful nurturing, teams 

may never deepen and expand their collaborative work 

to the next level.

4. Joint work. When groups of teachers work together as 

interdependent colleagues and engage in rigorous mutual 

examination of teaching and learning, they are engaging 

in high-level collaboration. In this type of collaboration, 

teachers work together on teaching and coordinate their 

instructional practices. They feel a collective sense of 

responsibility for the success of each team member and 

joint responsibility for the students they teach. When this 

type of collaboration is schoolwide, the school becomes a 

professional learning community in the truest sense. 

As you introduce teachers to the characteristics of Professional 

Learning Teams, remind them that their teamwork will be an 

evolutionary process. As they stay the course and work together 

”The evolution of each 

learning team is an 

amazing adventure—an 

adventure of risk taking, 

collegiality, and leadership 

development. However, 

students are the real 

beneficiaries of learning 

teams. We know that 

powerful learning occurs 

when teachers are steeped 

in the knowledge of 

best practices and when 

they are confirmed to 

be effective instructional 

decision-makers.”

— Dr. Allan Smith, 

Superintendent, EdentonChowan Public Schools,

North Carolina
2-4 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 2 Preview the Process

over time, their teams can become a great resource for personal and 

professional growth, energy, and support. 

This true story of a Professional Learning Team in a North Carolina 

middle school illustrates the evolutionary nature of learning team 

collaboration. 

Team Progress Over Time

When eighth-grade teacher Molli Rose first heard the news, 

she felt a surge of apprehension. She took a deep breath and 

thought to herself, “How am I going to do this? How are any of 

us going to pull this off?” It’s not that Rose and other teachers 

at Chowan Middle School didn’t see the value in the new, 

schoolwide focus on reading; it’s that some of the staff at 

Chowan, located in Tyner, North Carolina, felt ill-equipped to 

tackle the imposed challenge.

The goal of the initiative was clear: to improve reading scores for 

all students. Determining how to reach this school goal, however, 

was less clear. In the spring of 2001, the school agreed that SERVE 

would provide the professional development to assist teachers in 

learning how to teach reading in all subjects and across the three 

grade levels. As the vehicle for improving instructional strategies, 

SERVE would facilitate the implementation of Professional 

Learning Teams with a disciplined purpose—meeting students’ 

instructional needs in reading better. 

The school already used the teaming concept and common 

planning time for teachers to engage in ongoing, instructionally 

focused learning. SERVE suggested Chowan establish 

Professional Learning Teams to focus on the schoolwide goal 

with teachers spending one 60-minute planning period per week 

in professional inquiry about reading instruction and developing 

research-based reading strategies to pilot in their classrooms. 

Convincing teachers of the benefit of regular collaboration on 

instruction, however, is not as simple as it sounds. Because most 

teachers tend to plan and do their work in isolation, they aren’t 

accustomed to opening up a dialogue about teacher practice 

with their peers. 

Not surprisingly, when the notion of Professional Learning Teams 

was first mentioned, Chowan teachers didn’t express delight at 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 2-5

Preview the Process STEP 2

having to participate in what they suspected was “just another 

meeting” that would eat up their time. In addition, they weren’t 

thrilled at the thought of planning teaching strategies with 

their colleagues in other disciplines on a weekly basis, and they 

weren’t sure how this process looked, why it was necessary, and 

how it differed from other types of planning meetings.

Despite their doubts, the teachers gamely embarked on 

interdisciplinary Professional Learning Teams. Each team 

contained four teachers who shared common students. Team 

members began by sharing what they were already doing to 

assist students in reading. They began looking at information 

about teaching reading and deciding what strategies could best 

help their students. From there, they chose common strategies, 

applied these in their classrooms, met back to reflect on student 

responses, and worked together to revise their strategies and 

monitor students’ learning. Teams also kept logs to document 

their progress and note how effectively they were collaborating 

and meeting student needs. They shared these logs with the 

principal, SERVE staff, and other teams.

Working so closely enabled team members to focus collectively 

on specific problems the students were grappling with and tailor 

their instruction to meet those needs. This process brought an 

instructional uniformity and coherence across classrooms that 

positively affected both students and teachers. Teachers reported 

that students seemed more excited about reading. Additionally, 

teachers gained new knowledge about reading and effective 

teaching practices. 

One key to successful learning teams is building trust among 

teammates, and that may take time. Year One of implementation 

was similar to the commitment someone makes to change his 

or her overall health. A long-term health change means you 

can’t expect to see immediate results; rather, you must adopt 

long-term lifestyle changes and remain committed to keeping 

your focus. The same is true when establishing and maintaining 

healthy Professional Learning Teams. Long-term commitment 

equals long-term results.

“During Year One, most teachers didn’t see the relevance of 

learning teams,” admits Shannon Byrum, an eighth-grade 

teacher at Chowan. In Year Two, however, a noticeable shift in 
2-6 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 2 Preview the Process

thinking occurred when Molli Rose videotaped a lesson in which 

she modeled a reading strategy (called a “think-aloud”) to her 

classroom. The lesson wasn’t highly successful, and Rose knew 

it, which is precisely why she shared the video with her team. 

She asked them to critique her lesson, help her determine why her 

approach didn’t work, and offer suggestions for what she could do 

differently next time. She also had another motive for sharing. 

“Teachers usually see videos of accomplished teaching and don’t 

know how the teacher reached that point,” says Rose. “I wanted 

to show them where I started.” Before long, other Professional 

Learning Teams at Chowan asked to see Rose’s video.

During Year Two, teams e-mailed their logs to the entire school 

staff to encourage schoolwide sharing of ideas. By this second 

year of implementation, teachers not only realized the value 

of collaborating on instruction but also saw for themselves the 

importance of continual learning.

“I know now that last year wasn’t a waste after all,” says Byrum. 

“You have to evolve to this point.”

Over time ,the teams at Chowan progressed from working in 

isolation to sharing individual strategies in a team setting to 

ultimately working together as partners and co-learners in a 

schoolwide learning community.

“Learning teams have become an integral part of the way we 

operate—a way to collaborate and learn together, a way to 

talk about and focus on improving student learning,” observed 

Principal Winborne.

District administrators are impressed as well. “Our goal was to 

create an environment where self-directed learners met high 

expectations,” says Allan Smith, superintendent of EdentonChowan Public Schools. “PLTs have provided the framework 

whereby teachers direct their own focused professional growth 

to this end.” 

—Story by Christy Casbon, SERVE
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 2-7

Preview the Process—Facilitation Guide STEP 2

Step 2 Facilitation Guide

For Step 2, you will find six tools designed to introduce teachers 

to the Professional Learning Team process. Use these tools to help 

teachers get an overview of what the learning team process involves. 

These tools range from FAQ sheets to a skit.

This guide contains an explanation of each tool and a suggested 

method of using that tool with groups of teachers. Adapt these 

suggestions as needed. Note that some tools contain a question for 

reflection. As an option to the suggested procedures, you may give 

teachers a moment to complete the activity and reflect quietly; then 

ask them to discuss their reflections with a partner or a small group. 

In using these tools, consider your audience. What do they already 

know and believe about collaboration, and how much time, if any, 

will you need to spend in previewing this process? Also consider 

the size of your audience, the setting, and amount of time available. 

You can locate additional tools for presenting Step 2 information at 

www.serve.org/EdQuality/ProfLearnCom/Tools.php. 

Tool 2.1 Professional Learning Teams: 

Not Your Ordinary Teams.

This tool identifies characteristics of Professional Learning Teams that 

set them apart from other types of team meetings. 

• Make copies of this tool and distribute it to teachers. 

 After teachers read this, ask them to reflect on the 

question at the bottom of the handout and discuss their 

ideas with a partner. 

Tool 2.2 Glossary of Terms:

Professional Learning Teams.

This glossary can serve a two-fold purpose: it can help to build a 

common language about learning teams and can introduce teachers

to some of the basic components of the process. 

 Give a copy of this glossary to each teacher. 

 Explain that these definitions represent characteristics of 

Professional Learning Teams.

 Ask teachers to work in pairs or small groups to discuss 

the terms and to place checkmarks beside those that 
2-8 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 2 Preview the Process—Facilitation Guide

already characterize professional development in 

their school. 

 Allow time for a question-and-answer session about the 

glossary terms if needed. 

Tool 2.3 Professional Learning Team FAQs.

This FAQ sheet addresses some Professional Learning Team

logistical information. 

 Give a copy of this information to each teacher. 

 Prepare a “holding tank” for questions that will not be 

answered at this meeting. To prepare a holding tank, 

draw a large outline of a cylinder on a sheet of chart 

paper, and write “Holding Tank” at the top. 

 Ask teachers to read the information silently, reflect, and 

list questions they have about the process. 

 Hold a short question-and-answer session. If the answer 

to the question has not yet been determined (for example, “When are our teams going to meet?), write the 

question in the holding tank. Explain that these questions represent important concerns that will be addressed 

when that information is available. 

 Explain that the logistics for each particular school work 

out somewhat differently. However, the central question 

“What do teams do?” describes a cycle that remains 

stable from school to school. 

Tool 2.4 What Did You See and Hear?

This tool is designed for use with the skit. It can help teachers build 

an understanding of some basic components of a team meeting. 

 Distribute this handout to teachers before they watch the 

Professional Learning Team scenario skit.

 Ask teachers to silently read through the handout so 

they will know what to look for during the skit. Invite 

them to jot down answers for the questions as they 

watch the skit, and allow about two minutes following 

the skit for them to complete their responses.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 2-9

Preview the Process—Facilitation Guide STEP 2

Tool 2.5 What Do We Do in Our Team Meetings?

This tool provides a brief overview of some possible components of 

the Professional Learning Team process. Use this tool after presenting 

the skit (Tool 2.4). 

 Distribute copies of this tool after teachers have inferred, 

from the skit, what they consider to be components of 

the Professional Learning Teams. 

 Ask teachers to examine the list, and ask them these two 

questions:

1. What is on this list that you saw happening in 

the skit?

2. What did you see in the skit that is not on the list?

 Give teachers opportunities to examine the list and ask 

questions. Explain that all learning teams are different and 

that their meetings will differ from one meeting to the 

next. All meetings, however, focus on the same outcome: 

teachers learn and work together to improve instruction 

for the purpose of improving student learning. 

Tool 2.6 Professional Learning Team Scenario.

This skit illustrates some basic activities of a Professional Learning 

Team meeting. With a little editing, you can adapt this scenario to a 

variety of meeting situations and team goals. This one focuses on a 

learning team made up of middle school teachers. 

 Make five copies of the skit. Also, have chart paper and a 

marker available.

 Get four coffee cups, a pencil, and a notebook to use 

as props. (Large, colorful cut-outs of coffee cups and a 

pencil add interest and lighten the mood.)

 Invite four volunteers from the audience to read the parts 

of team members. You will read the part of the narrator. 

 Distribute the props. Be sure the person who plays the 

role of Maria has the pencil and Sue has the notebook.

 Invite volunteers to read the parts aloud and to 

pantomime in an impromptu fashion during the skit. 
2-10 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 2 Preview the Process—Facilitation Guide

 After the skit, invite teachers to talk about what they 

saw. Ask them to share their answers from the handout 

(Tool 2.4). From watching the skit, teachers should be 

able to identify some key components of learning team 

meetings such as looking at new information, reviewing, 

planning, decision-making, and so on. They should also 

be able to identify some ways of working together in a 

professional manner.

 List teachers’ responses on chart paper. Compliment 

them on their insight and refer to these responses 

throughout the meeting whenever you discuss 

characteristics of learning teams that they identified. 

 If their insights from the skit address any of their 

questions listed in the holding tank, address these as well. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 2-11

 PLTs focus exclusively on instruction. You will work 

together to increase your teaching skills and students’ 

learning in your classrooms. As you engage in joint work, 

you will assume collective responsibility for the academic 

well being of all students.

 PLTs place decision-making in the hands of the teachers. You 

will determine your own goals as well as procedures and 

activities for meeting those goals. Teachers are in charge of 

what they learn, where they learn, and how they learn.

 In PLTs, teachers focus on developing supportive 

relationships. Important characteristics of PLTs include 

developing collegial relationships, supporting one another, 

and relying on one another. Teams have shared norms and 

values and interdependence among members. Your PLT work 

should create a welcoming, friendly meeting environment. 

 PLTs provide ongoing teacher professional development. You 

will learn and grow as a teacher in the best possible context—

at the school site and possibly during the school day. 

 PLTs increase teaching expertise for participating teachers. 

If implemented throughout the faculty, these teams can 

raise the quality of teaching throughout the school. This 

pays vast benefits for students and teachers.

Professional Learning Teams: Not Your Ordinary Teams Tool 2.1

Directions: Read about the differences between 

Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) and traditional 

teacher teams. Then, reflect on the questions at the right 

of the page, and share your thoughts with a neighbor. 

Reflect: 

How do 

PLTs differ 

from 

traditional 

meetings 

in which teachers are 

involved?

Reflect: Based on 

this information, 

how would 

working together in 

Professional Learning 

Teams help your 

students?
2-12 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 2.2 Glossary of Terms—Professional Learning Teams

❏ Collaborative—involves working together with 

other teachers 

❏ Continual learning—updating knowledge and skills 

on a regular, ongoing-basis

❏ Data-driven—based on an analysis of student data 

and information

❏ Instructional focus—meetings focus totally and 

only on classroom instruction

❏ Job-embedded—professional development occurs 

at the school site

❏ Logs—written records of team discussions and 

activities during meetings

❏ Norms—rules and procedures for how members will 

work together

❏ Professional Learning Team—a group of three to 

five teachers who work together systematically to 

increase their knowledge and skill in teaching and 

help their students learn at higher levels

❏ Research-based—instruction built on studies of 

education theory and practice that have been 

tested and found to be effective

❏ Shared leadership—team responsibilities rotate 

weekly or monthly

❏ Systematic—meetings occur on a regular basis, 

preferably once each week or more often

Reflect:

Which of 

these terms 

already 

characterize 

professional 

development at

your school?

Directions: Read 

and discuss the 

terms in this glossary 

with others. Put a 

checkmark by those 

terms that describe 

current professional 

development in your 

school.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 2-13

How large are the teams?

Learning teams typically include 3–5 teachers. This allows all team 

members to participate, share leadership, and develop supportive 

relationships. 

Who are on the teams?

The teams may form around grade levels, interdisciplinary teaching 

teams, subject areas, or other criteria. 

When do the teams meet?

Teams meet on a regular basis. For best results, teams should meet a 

minimum of one to two hours each week. Optimum meeting time is 

during the school day. 

What do teams do?

Each learning team:

• Establishes ground rules (norms) to ensure effective 

meetings.

 Examines student and school data.

 Determines a goal. What do team members want this 

team to accomplish?

 Develops an initial plan to increase teacher expertise and 

knowledge and the quality of instruction.

 Engages in a process of questioning, studying, planning, 

designing, and/or implementing new teaching strategies, 

assessing progress, reflecting, revising, and documenting. 

What kinds of documentation do teams keep?

Each team keeps written records (logs) of all meetings. These include 

summaries of conversations and activities during the meeting. (Note: 

All learning team meeting conversations and activities should pertain 

to the team’s instructional goal.) 

Tool 2.3 Professional Learning Team FAQs Tool 2.3

Directions: You 

will receive further 

information about 

each of the following 

questions. This tool 

is intended to give 

you a quick overview 

of what Professional 

Learning Teams 

involve. 

Reflect:

What other 

questions 

do you have 

about the 

learning team 

process?
2-14 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

As you watch the skit, notice...

What are the teachers talking about?

How do they interact?

What activities do they engage in during/between 

meetings?

Tool 2.4 What Did You See and Hear?

Directions: You are 

about to get a glimpse 

of a team conducting 

a Professional Learning 

Team meeting. 

Answer the questions 

as you watch the skit, 

and prepare to share 

some of your ideas. Reflect: After watching this skit, what 

things do you think are characteristic of a 

Professional Learning Team?

Reflect: How do PLT meetings differ from other 

meetings in which teachers are involved?
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 2-15

All meetings

❑ Document! Document! Document! Keep written records 

(logs) of all team meetings. These include summaries of 

conversations and activities during the meeting. 

❑ Share best practices or ideas

from each week.

Initial meeting(s)

❑ Take care of team logistics. 

❑ Set team norms.

❑ Determine a long-term goal. 

1. Look at student data/school improvement needs.

2. Decide on an area in which teachers need to increase 

expertise.

3. Examine current assumptions and beliefs about 

teaching in this area.

4. Determine the “teaching gap” between current 

practices and desired practices.

5. Plan an initial course of action.

6. Determine what information and resources are needed.

7. Plan teacher actions between meetings. 

Early meetings

❑ Look at research, and discuss information (books, articles).

❑ Share new learning from research and information.

❑ Begin to apply new ideas in the classroom.

❑ Reflect on and discuss classroom applications. 

❑ Decide on common approaches/strategies to try.

❑ Plan teacher actions between meetings.

Continuing meetings

❑ Look at research, and discuss information (books, articles).

What Do We Do in Our Team Meetings? Tool 2.5

Directions: While 

there is no one “right” 

way to conduct 

PLT meetings, this 

tool overviews a 

common framework 

for conducting 

collaborative teacher 

meetings. Use this to 

examine and discuss 

activities that might 

occur during PLT 

meetings. 
2-16 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

❑ Plan joint work on an instructional approach or strategy and 

coordinate teaching activities among team members. 

❑ Develop joint or coordinated lessons.

❑ Examine student work and responses to particular activities and 

strategies.

❑ Examine teacher work, such as classroom assignments. 

❑ Observe teachers using specific activities with their students.

❑ Reflect on the effectiveness of teaching strategies and 

approaches. 

❑ Share, develop, and/or modify instructional practices. 

❑ Share challenges and problems, and plan methods for 

overcoming these. 

❑ Reflect on the team’s progress toward instructional goals.

❑ Reflect on the team’s functioning as a collaborative group.

❑ Plan teacher actions between meetings.

❑ Make the team’s work “public.” Engage other teachers, run 

ideas by the faculty, let them know what the team is doing, and 

honor their input. Build enthusiasm for Professional Learning 

Teams among the faculty.

❑ Develop a toolkit of information and practices that can help 

all teachers grow professionally, work together, and increase 

teaching expertise. 

❑ Revise your plans and course of action as needed.

❑ Modify and improve the PLT process throughout the year.

Note: The process described on these pages and in the following steps is adapted from a 

variety of sources, including DuFour and Eaker, Professional Learning Communities at Work 

(1998); Garmston and Wellman in The Adaptive School (1999); Murphy and Lick in Whole 

Faculty Study Groups (1998); Wald and Castleberry in Educators as Learners (2000); and 

Richardson in Tools for Schools (August 2001).

Reflect: In 

what other 

ways can 

teachers 

work 

together 

during PLT meetings 

to learn, grow, and 

increase their teaching 

expertise?

Tool 2.5 What Do We Do in Our Team Meetings?
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 2-17

Team members sit in the designated area, with coffee cups, notebooks, 

and pens in hand. (You may use large cut-outs for the cups and pens.)

Narrator: (standing to the side and gesturing to the team 

members) Since teachers do not normally work together 

on a regular basis to examine instruction closely, knowing 

exactly what to do during learning team time may be 

puzzling, at least at first. To give you an idea of how to 

proceed, consider the following scenario.

 Your learning team members are geared up and ready to 

go. Your team has already met and decided on a goal and 

guidelines for the meeting. Now you’ve come together as 

part of a yearlong process of working together to grow 

professionally—coffee cups and notebooks in hand. You are 

looking expectantly at one another. Now what?

 These team members—Sue, Maria, Roy, and John—are 

members of a middle school learning team. They are 

working together to learn how to help students in reading 

comprehension. Each teacher teaches a different core 

subject—science, math, social studies, and language arts. 

They share the same group of students.

 As team members take their seats, Sue opens the notebook 

where the team keeps logs of their meetings and takes 

out a blank log form. Maria volunteers to record today’s 

discussions and activities on the log. Looking at last week’s 

log, Sue begins: 

Sue: At our last meeting, we decided to learn some ways of 

teaching that will help our students improve their reading 

comprehension. To reach that decision, we looked at their 

test scores which indicate that they need help in reading 

comprehension. We’ve also noticed that many of them 

don’t read their assignments. When they do, some of them 

either don’t remember what they read or don’t seem to 

understand it. We agreed that teaching reading strategies 

in each of our subject areas would be the best way to 

help our students understand their textbooks. Roy, you 

volunteered last week to look for some strategies we can 

use with our students. What did you come up with?

Narrator: Roy gives everyone a copy of some information

he found. 

Professional Learning Team Meeting Scenario Tool 2.6

Instructions to 

volunteers: Thank 

you for participating 

in this skit! Please 

read your part with 

expression and, when 

appropriate, use the 

actions and body 

language suggested by 

the script. You can also 

pantomime the actions 

suggested as I read the 

narrator’s part. 
2-18 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Roy: Well, I found out that our kids are typical of kids all over the nation. I located several 

research-based ideas for helping our kids learn to read and understand their textbooks. 

Best of all, these strategies can help our students develop strategic thinking skills and take 

responsibility for their own learning. 

Narrator: For the next 15 minutes, Roy shares information with his team members. (Pause, then 

continue.) Then Maria, the math teacher, comments: 

Maria: So, basically, we’re turning our kids into good thinkers, and that helps them to understand 

what they read. That makes me feel better! To be honest, I was having trouble figuring out 

how and when I was going to teach reading comprehension. I had nightmares about having 

to spend time in math class doing something totally different from math. But, if I have this 

right, what I need to do is teach my students how to use the same thinking strategies that 

you will be using in your subject areas—like graphic organizers, prior knowledge, and thinkalouds—only I can apply these strategies to math concepts.

Roy: Sure looks that way to me. But that brings up a question. Exactly which of these strategies 

are we going to use? And are we all going to use the same strategies? 

Narrator: Team members have a conversation about various reading strategies they could use with 

their students. The team agrees to initially focus on working with students to develop critical 

thinking skills in two areas: pre-reading strategies and vocabulary understanding and use.

John: Okay, so what now? Do you want me to look for more information on these two topics 

before our next meeting and come up with some suggestions for specific activities we can use? 

Roy: Sounds good to me. You know, I have some language arts journals at home that have 

information on reading strategies. I’ll bring them and leave them in the workroom. Why 

don’t we all look for information related to pre-reading and vocabulary strategies next week 

and see what we come up with? That way, we’ll already know something about these two 

topics when we meet.

Sue: Hey, I just had another idea! Ms. Duke does some of this pre-reading stuff with her students. 

How about if I go to one of her classes next week and watch her teach those strategies?

Maria: Good idea. Think she could meet with our team for 15 minutes or so one day and give us 

all some tips?

Narrator: Team members like Maria’s idea, and Sue recalls that Ms. Duke has conducted several 

teacher workshops on reading comprehension. The team decides to ask Ms. Duke to be a 

resource for them throughout the year. 

Sue: Okay, so we’ve decided what strategies we’ll focus on as a group in our classes. During 

the week, we’ll gather information on how to help kids build the vocabulary they need in 

Tool 2.6 Professional Learning Team Meeting Scenario (cont.)
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 2-19

order to understand their textbooks. And, we’ll look for pre-reading strategies to help them 

develop strategic thinking skills for reading and understanding their textbooks. 

Roy: Are we moving fast enough with this? I mean, what are we going to do in our classrooms 

this week? What if the principal comes in and says, “Hey, Roy. What are you doing to help 

your kids with reading?”

Maria: (Waving the log in the air) That’s one reason we have this log. Here, we have a record 

of when we’re meeting, what we’re learning, and how we’re planning and preparing. That’s 

part of any good professional development process. With this log, we can keep track of our 

progress and document what we are doing.

Narrator: The team goes over its plan to work together all year to locate, design, and fine-tune 

a set of common strategies that work to help students read and understand their textbooks. 

Team members decide that they all will use these same strategies so that they will become 

second nature to the students. 

John: Hold on a minute. How are we going to know that these thinking strategies really help our 

students understand what they read? What kind of evidence are we going to collect? 

Narrator: The team discusses different kinds of data and information they can gather, and John 

volunteers to call the reading specialist to ask for ideas to bring back to the team at the 

next meeting. 

John: You know, I could put together a web page where we can post information about reading 

strategies and assignments and examples of what our kids are doing. 

Roy: What a great idea! Want to post our team logs there also? Then our students and parents 

can all see what we’re doing. The kids can see that we believe learning is important because 

we’re learning, too. 

Narrator: Team members agree that a web page would be a valuable resource and that 

continual learning is an important concept they can model for their students. They decide 

to ask the media specialist about setting up a learning team center in the library. In it, they 

plan to keep information and materials on reading strategies and will invite other learning 

teams to do the same.

Sue: Okay, now let’s recap what we’ve done. Today, Roy gave us information and an overview 

on critical thinking strategies for teaching reading in content areas. Then we decided on 

two areas to focus on. We’re starting with pre-reading and vocabulary strategies. All of us 

will get some information on these two strategies before our next meeting. Roy will check 

with the librarian to see about setting up a teacher resource area in the library. John will 

talk to the reading specialist to get some ideas on ways to tell if we’re making a difference 

for students. John will also start developing a web page. Maria will get our team logs ready 

to post on the web page. I’ll ask Ms. Duke to meet with our team one day after school, and 

Professional Learning Team Meeting Scenario (cont.) Tool 2.6
2-20 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

I’ll also see if I can observe her working with students on pre-reading strategies. Now, who 

wants to be the team leader next week?

Roy: What does the leader do? 

Sue: Well, as this week’s team leader, I checked with all of you to be sure you remembered this 

meeting. I asked Roy occasionally how he was coming along with getting information for the 

meeting. I also asked the office folks not to interrupt us during the meeting, and I reminded 

the librarian that we’d be using this corner in the library for our meeting. Basically, I just tried 

to keep the meeting on everybody’s front burner. Once we got here, I tried to help keep us 

on track by summarizing where we were from time to time.

Maria: I guess I can do that next week. 

Sue: Now, does anyone have any concerns or recommendations about today’s meeting? 

John: We don’t have enough time. This is the kind of stuff we need to be doing more of as 

teachers. We’ve just scratched the surface today. Maybe we need to meet more often, at 

least until we get some specific procedures and materials in place for teaching reading in our 

subject areas.

Narrator: The team discusses the possibility and then decides that they will stick to one meeting 

per week and meet more frequently when they can. 

Maria: Before we go, what’s one idea from our meeting today that we can share with other teams? 

Narrator: The team agrees that setting up a library center where teams can contribute 

information is an idea worth sharing. They also decide to share their idea about setting up 

a web page, and John volunteers to work with other teams that want to do the same thing. 

Maria records this information on a sheet titled “Today’s Best Ideas” and prepares to put this 

in the principal’s box for copying and distributing to other teams. Grabbing their now-empty 

coffee cups, team members head for their classrooms.

Tool 2.6 Professional Learning Team Meeting Scenario (cont.)
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 3-1

STEP 3

Step 3:

Organize the Teams

Entry 16: The middle-school faculty considered three learning team 

options. (1) Each team would determine its own focus based on needs of 

students on that team. (2) Teams within each grade level would decide on 

a common focus based on needs of students at that grade level. (3) The 

entire faculty would focus on the same student needs.

After some discussion, the faculty voted for a whole faculty focus on 

reading and writing. What a difference for students this faculty will make, 

with each learning team focusing on the same areas of student need!

—Anne Jolly: An Action Research Diary

Background 

The first step in establishing Professional Learning Teams as a school’s 

way of doing business involves taking care of some organizational 

logistics. Who will participate? What will the teams look like? When 

and where will they meet? What resources will they need initially?

Who Will Participate?

Deciding whether Professional Learning Teams at the school will be 

voluntary or required poses an interesting dilemma. Some researchers, 

such as Gable and Manning (1999), suggest participation in 

collaborative groups should be voluntary. Murphy (1998) suggests that 

the whole faculty should participate when a high percentage (75%) 

of the faculty agrees. Others, such as DuFour (1998), believe that 

“[c]ollaboration by invitation does not work.” DuFour asserts teacher 

isolation is such an ingrained way of doing business in our schools that 

invitations to collaborate aren’t enough. He recommends purposely 

incorporating meaningful teacher collaboration into the school day and 

embedding it into the daily way of doing business in the school. 

Whether these teams are voluntary or required is a decision best made 

at the school level and determined by the reason for implementing 

Professional Learning Teams. 

Consider requiring teacher participation if the answer to the following 

questions is yes. 

Organize the Teams

This section will 

help the facilitator:

 Introduce teachers 

to options for team 

organization.

 Provide teachers with 

information to help 

them decide when and 

where teams will meet.

 Assist with other 

organizational logistics.

“The isolation of teachers 

is so ingrained...that 

invitations to collaborate 

are insufficient. Meaningful 

collaboration must be 

systematically embedded 

into the daily life of the 

school.”

—Richard DuFour, Professional 

Learning Communities 

at Work, Association for 

Supervision and Curriculum 

Development, 1998, p.118
3-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 3 Organize the Teams

 Is there a specific initiative that needs to be implemented 

schoolwide? 

 Do teachers need to address a schoolwide student 

achievement problem in a specific area? 

 Does the school need a way to embed ongoing 

professional development and continual learning into the 

school day? 

 Does the school culture need to become more 

collaborative? 

Professional Learning Teams may be voluntary if the answer to the 

following questions is yes. 

 Do teachers want to meet regularly with colleagues to 

work on personal professional development plans? 

 Does the school need an effective process for mentoring 

new teachers? 

 Do teachers in one department or subject area want to 

accomplish specific instructional goals? 

In order for Professional Learning Teams to be successful either as a 

voluntary or a required activity, the school must have a principal or 

key leader who is committed to making the process work. 

What Will the Teams Look Like?

Professional Learning Teams typically include three to five teachers. 

Most experts recommend no more than six. This small number allows 

all participants to play an active, involved role and to rotate leadership 

positions. The teams can be organized in a variety of ways to address 

student needs. 

In some schools, all teams may work on a single initiative such as 

teaching reading comprehension across all content areas. At other 

schools, teachers may organize around topics of interest such as 

examining student work, student learning styles, or small group 

instruction. Teams at still other schools may organize around specific 

subject areas. The bottom line: Organize the teams in a way that 

will produce the best results for the students rather than the one that 

is most familiar and comfortable for teachers. 

Different organizational options are overviewed in “Learning Team 

Options” (Tool 3.1). Note that this is not an exhaustive list and other 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 3-3

Organize the Teams STEP 3

options may apply. Also note that teams within the same school may 

be organized in different ways, and a team may meet the criteria for 

more than one option. 

In the best-case scenario, teachers will have input into how the teams 

are organized and will base their decisions on their analysis of student 

data. However, in some schools, the principal decides how the teams 

will be organized. In either case, this decision needs to be based on 

student data and information. If the faculty needs to take a firsthand 

look at the data at this point, you can use some Step 5 tips and tools 

to help them examine and analyze that data. 

When and Where Will Learning 

Teams Meet? 

Most experts suggest that teams meet weekly. Some suggest meeting 

for one hour per week, and others suggest two hours or more. Since 

learning team meetings ideally take place during the school day, time 

for teachers to meet must be built into the school day and year. All 

teams should meet on a regular basis and at scheduled times. 

Lack of time for teams to meet during the school day can stifle the 

whole learning team initiative. Tool 3.2, “Time to Meet,” can help the 

principal and faculty think through ways to make time for this initiative. 

Teams also need to decide where they will meet. This location needs 

to be as comfortable and as free from interruption as possible. A 

teacher’s classroom, a conference room, or a special area set aside 

in the school library might suit the purpose. Holding learning team 

meetings in the library has an added advantage of allowing students 

to see teachers studying and learning together. Teachers can publicly 

model learning as a valuable activity that continues throughout a 

person’s life. 

If your school library is large enough, the librarian might set up a 

special learning team resource center. In that way, teams can share 

articles, books, and other information and resources with one another 

by leaving them on shelves in the designated area. This resource 

center could house a central collection of learning team materials and 

include a bulletin board or location to post questions and information 

for other teams. Teams could also leave records or logs of their 

meetings in this area as a means of sharing their work with teachers, 

parents, and administrators. 

We recommend that 

teachers be provided with 

the professional time and 

opportunities they need to 

do their jobs.

—Prisoners of Time, The National 

Education Commission on 

Time and Learning, 1994
3-4 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 3 Organize the Teams

What Resources Will Teams

Need to Begin?

While teams may add more resources to their wish lists as they begin 

meeting, the minimal necessities for each team include these items:

 A team notebook (three-ring binder) and a set of tabs 

 A school calendar with holidays and important dates 

marked

 Chart paper and markers for recording team members’ 

ideas during group discussions

 Multiple copies of log forms (one for each meeting) 

unless teams will use computers to keep meeting logs 

 Handouts with information about the learning team 

process (some tools in this book provide useful 

information for teams)

 Books, articles, and other sources of information relating 

to student needs the team will address, if determined

Teams also need a place to keep their work. Items they need to store 

may include the team notebook, a team portfolio, samples of student 

work, and information they have gathered about their particular 

instructional focus. 

After taking care of logistics, teams will be ready to begin the next 

step in the Professional Learning Team process: reaching consensus 

on some teamwork basics.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 3-5

STEP 3

Step 3 Facilitation Guide

This tool box contains an explanation of three Step 3 tools and a 

suggested method of using each tool with groups of teachers. Decide 

whether you need to use a particular tool based on the current 

decisions that need to be made. Then, adapt the tool and suggested 

procedures as needed for the size of your group and the amount of 

workspace. You may also find additional tools and information for this 

step at www.serve.org/EdQuality/ProfLearnCom/Tools.php. 

Often, decisions about team organization are best addressed after a 

look at student data. If an examination of student data needs to come 

first, use tools in Step 5 to help the faculty with this. 

3.1 Learning Team Options.

If teachers will decide how the learning teams will be organized, this 

tool can help them consider a variety of options. As they reflect on 

each option, ask them to consider this question: “What can we learn 

using this option that will help our students?” 

 Ask teachers to work individually or in pairs to decide on 

student needs that might be addressed using each option. 

 Ask teachers to answer the reflection question silently 

and to check the option(s) they selected. 

 When they complete the activity, ask, “Which of these 

options seems most suitable for your faculty to use in 

addressing the learning needs of your students?” 

 Clarify options as needed, and insist that everyone’s view 

be heard and respected. Invite teachers to suggest other 

options that may better fit their school situations. 

 Record the most popular options on chart paper, and 

canvass teachers to reach a consensus. 

 At this point, the principal may use this information to 

make a final decision. If teachers will make this decision, 

lead the group to discuss the following questions, and 

record their answers on chart paper. 

1. What is the decision that needs to be made? (Who 

will be on each learning team?)

Organize the Teams
3-6 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 3 Organize the Teams—Facilitation Guide

2. What are some things we need to take into 

consideration when assigning teams? (Common 

planning times, teachers who want to work together, 

student needs that will be addressed, etc.)

3. Do we want a committee to look at these 

considerations and make a recommendation? 

4. If yes, who should be on the committee? What time 

frame should the committee follow?

5. If no, how will we proceed? If teachers decide to 

make this decision now, you may use the following 

procedure to help teachers form teams, such as 

special topics teams. Note that you would not 

necessarily use this process for forming grade-level 

teams or teams with common planning times. Those 

teams are usually already “set.”

 Give each teacher a sticky note, and ask each one to 

write his/her name in it.

 Suggest they go to blank wall space and place their sticky 

notes in groups according to the topic or the team they 

want to work with. Remind them that no group should 

have more than five people.

 Have blank sheets of paper and markers available in case 

you need to make titles for groups before teachers place 

their sticky notes.

 Ask one person in each group to make a list of group 

members. 

3.2 Time to Meet.

This tool can give the faculty and administration ideas for ways to 

make time for Professional Learning Teams to meet during the school 

day. While not all ideas are workable for each school, this activity 

can generate some “out-of-the-box” thinking by both principals and 

teachers and help them consider creative ways to organize the school 

day so that teachers can work together.

 Suggest that participants work individually or with one or 

two partners in their area to complete the activity. 

 Ask the principal and a subcommittee of teachers to tally 

these preferences and determine which options are doable. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 3-7

Organize the Teams—Facilitation Guide STEP 3

3.3 Resources on Time.

This tool provides an annotated bibliography of articles on finding 

time for professional development during the school day. Distribute 

copies to teachers and administrators. Explain that these articles can 

be accessed on the Web, and invite teachers to check the Professional 

Learning Team site at www.serve.org/EdQuality/ProfLearnCom/

Tools.php for updates. 
3-8 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 3.1

Option Description Advantages/

Disadvantages

Whole-Faculty 

Teams

The entire faculty 

participates in learning 

teams focused on the 

same initiative.

Special-Topic 

Teams

Teachers group 

themselves in teams 

around topics of 

interest that relate to 

instruction. 

Interdisciplinary 

Teams

Teams of teachers work 

together who share 

common planning 

times and the same 

students.

Grade-Level 

Teams

Teachers work 

together on effective 

instructional practices 

for students at a 

particular grade level.

Grade-Range 

Teams

Teachers work together 

across grade levels 

to address specific 

student needs across 

grades. 

Subject-Area 

Teams

Teachers address 

instructional and 

learning needs within 

their subject areas.

BetweenSchool Teams

Teachers from 

different schools work 

together on a common 

initiative.

Directions: Read 

each option, decide 

what student learning 

needs you could 

address using each 

option, and record 

your thoughts in the 

right-hand column. 

Reflect: 

Which 

option(s) 

will produce 

the best 

results for 

your students?

Learning Team Options
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 3-9

Bank time

❑ Lengthen the regular school day. Save the extra minutes to 

create larger blocks of time when teachers can plan or learn 

together.

❑ Adjust arrival and dismissal times so that school begins 30 

minutes early on Monday through Thursday and dismisses 

two hours early on Friday so that teachers can meet 

collaboratively each Friday. 

❑ Create regularly scheduled early dismissal/late start days.

❑ Shave minutes off the lunch period and “save” that time for 

teacher learning time. 

❑ Total the number of hours teachers meet after school and do 

not require teachers to report to school for that amount of 

time on regularly scheduled teacher work days. 

Buy time

❑ Use paraprofessionals to release teachers during the school 

day for meetings. 

❑ Hire a team of rotating substitute teachers to release teachers 

and enable them to plan or learn together.

❑ Hire one or two “permanent” subs to regularly fill in for teachers 

in order to free them for Professional Learning Team meetings. 

❑ Schedule a team of substitute teachers for a day to release 

teachers on a rotating basis for learning team meetings. 

❑ Hire more teachers, clerks, and support staff to expand or 

add learning time for teachers.

Use common time

❑ Use common planning time to enable teachers working with 

the same students, the same grade level, or the same 

subjects to meet in Professional Learning Teams.

❑ Organize nonacademic subjects into blocks of time to create 

common time for teachers to meet. 

❑ Link planning periods to other non-instructional times, such 

as lunch periods, giving teachers the option to use their 

personal time for shared learning time. 

Free teachers from instructional time

❑ Enlist administrators to teach classes. 

Time to Meet Tool 3.2

Directions: Place a 

checkmark (✔) by 

ideas that appeal to 

you, and circle those 

you think are most 

workable for your 

school. Talk your 

decisions over with 

others from your 

school or with nearby 

participants. 
3-10 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 3.2 Time to Meet (cont.)

❑ Authorize teaching assistants and/or college interns to teach 

classes, always under the direction of a teacher.

❑ Pair teachers so one teaches while the other meets with his/

her Professional Learning Team.

❑ Plan daylong, off-site field experiences for students, and use 

the large block of time created for teacher Professional 

Learning Team meetings.

❑ Ask parent volunteers to take classes for an hour for a 

learning team to meet. 

❑ Arrange educational activities for students led by 

professionals from local colleges, businesses, governmental 

agencies, and community agencies. 

Free teachers from non-instructional requirements

❑ Use non-homeroom teachers to occasionally perform 

homeroom duties so teachers can meet for an extended time 

before school and through homeroom. 

❑ Reassign school personnel to allow teachers to meet during 

pep rallies and assemblies. 

❑ Provide more time for teachers to engage in collaborative 

work by removing non-instructional paperwork, clerical, and 

school management tasks from teachers’ plates and 

encouraging teams to use that extra time to meet and focus 

intently on instruction.

Add professional days to the school year

❑ Create multi-day summer learning institutes for teachers to 

give them needed depth in the areas of focus for the 

Professional Learning Teams.

❑ Create a mid-year break for students, and use those days for 

teacher learning.

Use existing time more effectively

❑ Set aside faculty meeting times for professional learning, and 

put all general faculty announcements in newsletters and/or 

emails to teachers. 

❑ Spread time from existing planning days across the calendar 

to provide more frequent, shorter school-based opportunities 

to learn.

Adapted from Richardson, “Think 

Outside the Clock: Create Time 

for Professional Learning.” Tools 

for Schools, 2002, National Staff 

Development Council. Reprinted 

with permission of the National Staff 

Development Council, www.nsdc.org, 

2004. All rights reserved. 

Reflect: 

Your 

thoughts, 

please! 

Which 

options do 

you prefer? 

Reflect: Which 

options do you think 

are most doable 

from the school’s 

standpoint?
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 3-11

Finding Time for Faculties to Study Together by Carlene 

Murphy

Murphy states that if a faculty agrees that schools are learning 

organizations for the adults in the building as well as for children, 

time will be found. She cites numerous examples of real schools that 

are finding time for staff development. 

Making Time for Adult Learning by Pricilla Pardini

Pardini cites eight real-life examples of schools that use a variety of 

strategies to find time for professional development. She provides 

contact information for each school cited.

Target Time Toward Teachers by Linda DarlingHammond

Darling-Hammond writes about numerous schools that have 

restructured for ongoing professional development. She discusses 

strategies that (a) allow for shared planning, (b) support stronger 

relationships and deeper knowledge of learners, and (c) create longer 

blocks of instructional time while reducing teaching loads and 

increasing planning time. 

Time, It’s Made, Not Found by Stephen Barkley

Barkley argues that school reform is slowed due to lack of time for 

professional learning. He cites examples of making time, including 

periodically regrouping students into larger classes, thus freeing up to 

half the faculty for meeting together. 

Think Outside the Clock: Create Time for Professional 

Learning by Joan Richardson

Richardson offers examples of real schools that have made time for 

teachers to learn during the school day. She cites experiences of staff 

developers and consultants who offer insights into the problems and 

possibilities of finding time. 

Prisoners of Time by the National Commission on Time 

and Learning

This is an excellent resource that thoroughly examines the challenge 

of time for teaching and learning. The Commission makes realistic, 

powerful recommendations concerning the use of time as a 

factor to support learning, not a boundary that marks its limits. 

The entire document is available online at www.ed.gov/pubs/

PrisonersOfTime.

Resources on Time Tool 3.3

Directions: The 

articles at left are 

available online at 

www.nsdc.org/

library/resources.

cfm. This section 

of the National 

Staff Development 

Council’s online 

library website offers 

links to additional 

articles and web links 

related to finding and 

effectively using time 

for onsite professional 

development. If 

finding time is an 

issue, check these out!

© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams

Do the Work

Step 4: Define Team Expectations ...................................4-1

Step 5: Analyze the Data ................................................5-1

Step 6: Plan for Learning and Action ................................6-1

Step 7: Conduct Successful Meetings ...............................7-1

Step 8: Maintain the Momentum .....................................8-1

© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 4-1

Define Team Expectations STEP 4

Step 4: Define Team 

Expectations

Entry 21: Most learning teams probed to find out exactly what I want 

them to do, or whether or not some idea is “right.” I have to keep 

explaining that “right or wrong” is not the issue. And what I want has 

nothing to do with anything. Learning-team members decide what they 

need to do to grow professionally and to help their students succeed. 

Then they set up some regular meeting times, establish some team 

norms, and they’re off and running! Initially, most teachers looked 

uncertain, then thoughtful, and then brightened when they realized 

that they have autonomy under this process—autonomy, reduced 

isolation, and an opportunity to succeed at a challenging activity. 

Sounds like a recipe for success to me!

—Anne Jolly: An Action Research Diary

Background

The first Professional Learning Team meeting should focus on 

establishing rules that team members agree to follow as they work 

together. Teachers typically do their work in isolation from one 

another, and meeting with colleagues on a regular basis to share 

professional skills and knowledge may be foreign to their school 

experience. Consequently, teachers often find themselves in 

unfamiliar territory when sitting down together to hold professional 

conversations about their instruction and to take action based on 

group decisions. Assumptions for how to go about working together 

on a team will probably vary from teacher to teacher, and team 

members need to be explicit about what they expect from each other 

before beginning work on instructional issues. Tool 4.1 can provide 

teachers with an opportunity to think about valuable traits for good 

team members. 

Occasionally, team members will bypass this norm-setting step in 

beginning their team work. Teams may be made up of teachers who 

have already worked together in some capacity and who believe 

they are capable of operating effectively without formal procedures 

in place. Their attitudes may mirror the attitude of this fictitious 

teacher quoted in the August/September 1999 issue of The National 

Staff Development Council (NSDC) publication, Tools for Schools: 

“Everyone attending these meetings is an adult. Adults know how 

This section will 

help the facilitator:

 Introduce teachers to 

traits of good team 

members.

 Guide teachers in 

establishing team 

norms.
4-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 4 Define Team Expectations

to behave and participate in meetings. We just want to get to work 

when we get into one of these meetings. We don’t want to sit around 

and talk about how we’re going to do that work.”

The NSDC article suggests that norms are necessary to ensure that all 

team members participate fully in meetings. Many team members are 

thoughtful individuals who don’t push their way into conversations. 

Without some rules of participation, dialogue, and decision-making, 

one or two people may end up dominating the conversation and 

coming up with ideas and actions other team members can’t support, 

even though they may not say so openly. Establishing norms helps 

teams build discipline and trust. If the team does not operate 

smoothly, then meetings will not be productive, and team members 

will feel frustrated. 

Introduce Norms

Before the first meeting, ask your team members to read Norms Put 

the ‘Golden Rule’ into Practice for Groups. You can obtain a copy of 

this short publication from the National Staff Development Council 

(NSDC) by calling 513-523-6029. The NSDC allows you to make 

copies of this tool for workshops. You may also obtain the opening 

article of this tool from the “Staff Development Library” link at the 

NSDC website: www.nsdc.org.

During the first meeting, team members should clarify expectations 

and procedures for attendance, preparation, participation, 

confidentiality, and decision-making. Tools 4.2 and 4.3 can assist 

with this task. Note that each team may choose different norms to 

emphasize—norms must fit the group. For example, a middle school 

in Mobile, Alabama, was composed of a team of teachers who were 

extroverted and chatty. Team members set a norm to “stay on task 

for the entire meeting” but found this to be difficult because of their 

tendency to share personal information. They finally agreed to modify 

the norm so that they had five minutes for personal sharing and then 

stayed on task for the remainder of the meeting. 

Assess Meeting Quality

Throughout the year, the team needs to monitor the quality of 

its meetings by reviewing team norms, assessing team members’ 

adherence to these norms, and making needed changes. Taking 

stock of the current situation and answering the following 

questions may help team members decide how much time they 

need to spend revisiting norms, procedures, and expectations. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 4-3

Define Team Expectations STEP 4

Tools 4.4 and 4.5 contain self-assessments that teams can use to 

evaluate their functioning. 

You can also determine whether teams are functioning smoothly by 

carefully reading team logs, visiting team meetings, and debriefing 

teams from time to time. As you work with teams, look for some of 

these characteristics of high-performing teams. These characteristics 

are adapted from The Adaptive School: A Sourcebook for Developing 

Collaborative Groups by Garmston and Wellman, 1999, p.157. 

High-performing teams are more likely to:

 Have a sense of identity as a group.

 Gain more knowledge.

 Be better organized.

 Plan efficient and effective meetings.

 Do more in less time with less effort.

 Maintain good relationships with other team members.

 Become better at their work as time goes on.

 Spend a greater amount of time trying to understand a 

problem with students’ learning or a teaching strategy.

 Effectively plan, field test, and revise their approach to 

improving their instructional practices.

 Monitor the results of their instructional strategies on 

student learning.

 Be reflective and continuously learn through experience 

when exploring new ways of teaching.

 Arrive at creative solutions for helping students learn.

 Reach ingenious and insightful solutions for effectively 

instructing students.

 Have fun working together.

Deal With Conflict

Team members may become discouraged if initial meetings do not 

go smoothly. Learning to work together is a gradual process that may 

begin with friction among team members. As the team establishes 

procedures and coalesces around a common purpose, meetings 

usually evolve into collegial interaction, interdependence, and trust. 

As you work with teams, advise team members not to smooth over 
4-4 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 4 Define Team Expectations

or cover up conflicting ideas and perspectives. Different perspectives 

often lead to rich understandings and creative solutions. However, 

personal conflict is another matter. Following norms of respect, 

listening, and honoring all ideas can keep conflict focused on ideas 

rather than people. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 4-5

STEP 4

Step 4 Facilitation Guide

Step 4 offers five tools designed to help teachers establish rules 

for working together, along with an explanation of each tool and a 

suggested method of using that tool with groups of teachers. Note 

that some tools contain a question for reflection. As an option 

to the suggested procedures, you may give teachers a moment 

to complete the activity and reflect quietly, and then ask them to 

discuss their reflections with a partner or a small group. You may 

also find additional tools and information related to this step on the 

Professional Learning Team website at www.serve.org/EdQuality/

ProfLearnCom/Tools.php. 

In selecting tools, consider your audience. What do they already 

know about working together, and how much time will you need to 

spend helping them understand the value of norm-setting? What level 

of help will you need to provide in engaging them in serious thought 

about their team’s operating procedures? 

In the event that you need to provide structured guidance to teachers 

to help them establish norms, use this procedure:

Guiding Teams in Setting Norms

1. Provide sticky notes and pens/pencils.

2. Provide examples of norms by distributing these tools 

from Step 4. Allow time for teachers to look over these. 

 Tool 4.1 Traits of Successful Team Members

 Tool 4.2 A Norm Sampler

 Tool 4.3 Team Norms

3. Give each team member at least six sticky notes and a 

writing tool. (Giving the same kind of writing tool to 

each teacher will help ensure anonymity for participants.)

4. Ask teachers to think about behaviors they consider ideal 

for working on a team. Ask them to write one idea on 

each of their sticky notes. 

5. Invite team members to place their sticky notes on the 

chart paper. Then ask them to examine the sticky notes 

and group similar ideas together. 

6. When all of the sticky notes have been sorted into 

groups, ask the teachers to identify the norm suggested 

Define Team Expectations
4-6 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 4 Define Team Expectations—Facilitation Guide

by each group of sticky notes. Record these norms on a 

new sheet of chart paper.

7. Review the proposed norms with the team. Determine 

whether team members can support each of the norms. 

8. Ask team members to examine the tools and information 

they have and to pull from their own experiences to 

determine if they need to include additional norms. Add 

those on which the group reaches consensus. 

9. When the team feels satisfied with its list of ground 

rules, ask a team member to record the norms on the 

“Team Norms” tool and put this in the team notebook. 

Tool 4.1 —Traits of Successful Team Members.

This tool describes some attitudes and interpersonal skills that 

characterize successful team members. 

 Distribute a copy of this tool to each teacher.

 Ask teachers to follow the directions on the handout. 

 Allow individuals to reflect quietly on their effectiveness 

as team members. 

 Invite volunteers to suggest reasons why each of these 

traits is important.

Tool 4.2 A Norm Sampler.

This tool provides an example of types of norms that a typical team 

might develop. These cover expectations for team members and 

meeting procedures. 

 Distribute copies to each teacher.

 Ask teachers to read the Norton High School norms. 

Then, invite them to check the norms they think are 

worth considering for their own teams. 

 Request that teachers discuss the questions at the 

bottom of the page with a partner.

 Ask volunteers to share one norm they feel is a “keeper” 

for teams.

Tool 4.3 Team Norms.

This tool offers five questions team members should consider when 

setting group norms. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 4-7

Define Team Expectations—Facilitation Guide STEP 4

 Give each teacher a copy of this tool. 

 Ask teams to establish norms for each section. Request 

that team members give serious thought to suggestions 

rather than jotting down every idea that comes to mind. 

Use the nine steps suggested under “Guiding Teams in 

Setting Norms.” 

Tool 4.4 Quick Check.

This is a self-assessment tool that can be used following team 

meetings to generate brief discussions of how well the group is 

functioning. 

 Give several copies of this tool to each team to place in 

the team notebook. 

 Explain that teams can use this tool following each 

meeting to determine whether members are following the 

ground rules. This tool is useful if team members tend 

to get off-track or if team meetings seem less productive 

than they should be. 

 Suggest that teams set aside two minutes of “think 

time” after a meeting to evaluate the team’s success in 

following its own norms. 

Tool 4.5 Revisiting the Team’s Norms.

This tool can help team members fine-tune their meeting guidelines 

and procedures to make sure they’re using team time efficiently. 

 Give several copies of this tool to each team to place in 

the team notebook. 

 Explain that teams should use this tool for routine, 

periodic “tune-ups.” Is the climate supportive? Do the 

team’s products reflect the work of the whole team and 

not just a few members? The team may also use this tool 

when meetings seem out-of-focus or negative behaviors 

surface and disrupt the flow. 
4-8 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 4.1

4 Strongly Agree

3 Agree

2 Disagree

1 Strongly Disagree

Trait Comment Score

1. I am committed 

to the Professional 

Learning Team and 

its goals. 

2. I show respect 

and understanding 

toward other team 

members.

3. I contribute to a 

team culture of 

help, support, and 

mutual trust. 

4. I participate in a 

way that creates 

a comfortable 

atmosphere for 

sharing both 

successes and 

failures.

5. I have a high 

tolerance for 

discussion, debate, 

and disagreement.

6. I am willing to 

question, get 

outside my current 

mindset, and be 

open to new ideas 

and solutions.

Traits of Successful Team Members

Directions: In their 

training materials 

on Transformational 

Leadership, Ruth 

Ash and Maurice 

Persall list six traits 

of successful team 

members. Assess 

yourself on these 

traits. Use the 

scale to rate each 

statement in terms of 

how well you think 

it describes you (or 

will describe you) as 

a team member. Add 

comments to explain 

or clarify your scores.

Reflect:

What other 

traits can 

make me a 

successful 

team 

member?
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 4-9

What rules will govern attendance?

❑ All members will arrive on time and stay for the entire meeting.

❑ We will start on time and end on time.

What rules will govern how we talk together?

❑ No “zingers” or put-downs.

❑ All members will join in the team’s discussions.

❑ Each member will listen attentively as others speak.

❑ No one will dominate the discussions.

❑ Everyone’s point of view will be considered.

❑ Our conversations will reflect our respect for and acceptance of 

one another.

❑ We will disagree with ideas, not individuals.

❑ We will keep confidential any information shared in confidence. 

What other expectations do we have for team members?

❑ Each team member will commit to participate actively for the 

school year.

❑ We will rotate the team leader role.

❑ All members will be prepared for the meeting when they arrive.

❑ All members will be “totally present” during the meeting and 

will refrain from grading papers and working on other things.

❑ All members will turn off cell phones. 

❑ All members will work to keep team meetings positive and 

productive. 

❑ The atmosphere will remain cordial and friendly throughout the 

meeting.

❑ We will have fun and enjoy working together.

What decision-making procedures will we use?

❑ We will reach decisions by consensus.

How will we assess our team functioning?

❑ We will revisit our norms periodically and decide which ones 

we need to follow better and which ones we need to change. 

A Norm Sampler Tool 4.2

Scenario: A learning 

team at imaginary 

Norton High School 

has decided that this 

set of norms will 

help them operate 

efficiently and 

productively as a 

team. What do you 

think?

Reflect:

How might 

these norms 

affect team 

meetings? 
4-10 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 4.3 Team Norms

What procedures 

will govern meeting 

attendance?

❑ Will team members arrive 

on time and stay for the 

entire meeting?

❑ Will they stay on task, 

avoid side conversations 

and interruptions, and 

focus on the task at 

hand? 

What procedures will 

govern teacher dialogue? 

❑ How will team members 

react to others’ work and 

ideas? 

❑ Are “out-of-the-box” 

and “off the wall” ideas 

welcome? 

❑ Are differing opinions 

welcome? 

❑ Will what members say 

be held in confidence?

❑ How will the team 

encourage listening and 

discourage interrupting? 

What rules will govern 

decision-making? 

❑ Will the team reach 

decisions by consensus?

❑ How will members 

deal with conflicts and 

differences of opinion?

Directions: As 

you begin working 

together, establish 

some rules and 

procedures to guide 

the way the team does 

business. Ideally, your 

team meetings will 

enhance interpersonal 

skills, trust, and 

mutual respect among 

team members. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 4-11

Team Norms (cont.) Tool 4.3

What do you expect from 

team members? 

❑ Are all team members 

expected to be prepared 

and participate? 

❑ Will they be “fully 

present,” both mentally 

and physically? 

❑ Will they put away other 

work (grading papers, 

filling out reports, etc.)?

How often will your team 

evaluate its functioning, 

and what indicators will 

you evaluate? 

❑ Are team members 

abiding by the team’s 

agreed-upon norms? 

❑ What ground rules did 

you use well? 

❑ What norms do you need 

to reemphasize, add, or 

adjust? 

Reflect:

Are there 

any missing 

categories?
4-12 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 4.4

❑ Did every member join in the team’s discussions?

❑ Did each member listen attentively as others were speaking?

❑ Did any single member (or two) dominate the discussions?

❑ Did all members arrive on time and stay for the entire meeting?

❑ Were all members prepared for the meeting when they arrived?

❑ Were all members “totally present” during the meeting?

❑ Did each member of the group believe that his or her time 

at the meeting had been well spent?

Adapted from the August/September 1999, Tools for Schools, NSDC. Reprinted with permission 

of the National Staff Development Council, www.nsdc.org, 2004. All rights reserved. 

Quick Check

Directions:

After each meeting, 

take a minute to 

consider whether 

team members 

followed some basic 

ground rules. 

Remember:

 Have FUN working on 

a Professional Learning 

Team!

 Laughter (so long as it 

is not at the expense of 

others) and a sense of 

enjoyment can boost 

collegiality and morale. 

 Deadly serious teams 

sap energy levels and 

can create a mindset 

that lowers chances for 

success. 

 Try humor and fun!
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 4-13

1. What norms do we usually observe well? 

2. Which ones do we seem to ignore?

3. What behaviors are team members using now that seem to 

be useful?

4. What behaviors surprise you or make you uneasy?

5. Based on our answers to these questions, what norms do 

we need now?

List new and adjusted norms below.

Revisiting the Team’s Norms Tool 4.5

Directions: If team 

meetings need some 

smoothing out, the 

team should revisit 

the norms set during 

earlier meetings. Have 

chart paper available 

to record any new 

procedures and 

ground rules on which 

the team reaches 

consensus. The leader 

for this meeting can 

use these questions to 

guide the discussion. 

The recorder should 

document any 

changes in the team 

notebook.

© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 5-1

Analyze Student Data STEP 5

This section will 

help the facilitator:

 Provide teachers with 

help in examining 

student data.

 Guide teachers to 

identify areas of 

student strengths 

and weaknesses.

 Assist teachers in 

determining where 

they most need to 

focus their instructional 

efforts.

Step 5:

Analyze Student Data

Entry 79. In August, teachers will use two days of staff development to 

prepare for the Professional Learning Team process prior to the beginning 

of school. During that time, teachers will analyze student data and adopt 

a faculty-wide focus....For the moment I have the feeling that things are 

in order. Obviously, I’m not a quick learner. 

—Anne Jolly: An Action Research Diary 

Background 

Effective Professional Learning Teams are driven by a sense of purpose. 

They accomplish good things for students because they focus their 

collective energy toward an instructional goal that addresses specific 

student needs. Without a clear goal, teams may meet faithfully and 

engage in an impressive amount of sharing, swapping, and exchanging 

of information and activities, but their lack of purpose generally 

guarantees that they wind up nowhere in particular. 

A strong sense of purpose and a clear sense of where they’re going 

can also keep teams on track after their initial enthusiasm for this new 

initiative wears down. Consider what teachers are attempting to do 

through learning teams—they are trying to change the way they teach 

while they are teaching. This requires extraordinary commitment. 

Daily brush fires and competing responsibilities, coupled with the 

already difficult demands of teaching, undermine teachers’ energy 

levels and compete for their limited time. Discouragement can set 

in because changes in teaching do not necessarily produce quick, 

obvious results in student performance. Concrete, targeted goals 

are crucial, along with short-term milestones that give teams the 

sense of accomplishment they need to maintain their energy level 

and motivation. The first step in developing team goals involves 

examining a variety of information about school and student 

performance. In successful schools, goals flow from data.

Examine the Data

Collect student data. If the school is like most, teachers will 

have plenty of standardized test data to examine to identify student 

academic strengths and needs. Their examination of data must not 

“Staff development that 

improves the learning 

of all students uses 

disaggregated student 

data to determine adult 

learning priorities, monitor 

progress, and help sustain 

continuous improvement.”

— National Staff Development 

Council’s Standards for Staff 

Development, Revised, 2002, 

p. 5
5-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 5 Analyze Student Data

stop there, however. Gather up recent school surveys, state writing 

and math assessments, student grades, samples of student work, and 

other information on the students. Too often, we think of “data” as 

just test scores or report card grades. But schools that are truly “datadriven” are increasingly creative in uncovering information that can 

help improve student and school performance. See Tool 5.1 for some 

examples of data that teachers can use in making decisions about 

their students. 

Disaggregate the data. To measure academic performance, teams 

should probably collect, at a minimum, standardized test scores, 

grades, and classroom assessments. Using at least three types of data 

for any study leads to more valid conclusions. Team members (or 

the entire faculty) should disaggregate (separate) the academic data 

by categories such as gender, race, socio-economic factors, English 

language ability, and other categories that apply. 

Analyze the data. Early on, teachers may need specific guidance 

to analyze patterns among groups of students and draw valid 

conclusions about student needs. As an example, team members 

might examine student demographics in relation to test scores and 

answer questions such as these:

 Do some groups of students achieve at higher levels 

than others? 

 If so, in what specific areas?

 If so, to what degree? 

 Is there evidence that students who were challenged 

more also achieved more? 

 What are the implications of this data for the team’s 

goal and learning plan? 

The “Subgroup Analysis Chart” (Tool 5.2) can help team members 

analyze subgroups and patterns within the data. 

In analyzing available data, teachers might focus primarily on student 

data relating to a specific school initiative such as improving reading 

comprehension. Or teachers might examine data about their own 

groups of students. Depending on the scope of the team’s inquiry, 

it may be useful to look at data across subjects or grade levels. 

Whenever teams examine student performance, they should identify 

both strengths and weaknesses. Building on strengths is often a more 

effective strategy than focusing only on weaknesses. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 5-3

Analyze Student Data STEP 5

“Reflecting on the Data” (Tool 5.3) can engage teams in discussing 

the data, targeting central concerns, and identifying areas for 

instructional focus. 

Decide on Data-Driven Goals

Identify areas of relative weakness. As team members analyze 

data, areas of relative weakness will appear in student achievement 

categories and probably among subgroups. This information can 

provide teams with areas of focus for goal-setting. When deciding on 

the team goal, team members should make sure that:

 The goal is important to all team members. 

 The goal focuses on academics and instruction.

 The goal centers on teacher learning that results in 

higher student achievement.

 The goal is challenging.

 The goal is doable.

Each team should write the goal in sufficient detail to provide team 

members with a clear focus throughout the year and make the goal 

plain to those outside the team.

Ask the right question. Wald and Castleberry suggest phrasing 

the team goal as a question, such as, “What can we do differently 

to [help students achieve in...]?” This might be called a “focus 

question” because it helps teachers focus in on specific actions 

they can take to address student needs. Stating the goal as a 

teacher-centered question also provides a powerful reminder that 

Professional Learning Team meetings focus on teacher learning and 

change. While teams vary in their method of stating goals, the goal 

should give teams a sense of purpose in their learning team work. 

Use the “Deciding on Our Team Goal” (Tool 5.4) to guide 

team members in the goal-setting process. Suggest that teachers 

post their team’s goal/focus question on the walls of their 

classrooms and readily advertise that they are working and learning 

together. This makes students aware that learning is ongoing and 

important at any age. 

The No Child Left 

Behind legislation 

suggests that schools:

 Analyze data from state 

assessments and other 

examples of student 

work to identify and 

address areas of need.

 Identify and 

implement professional 

development, 

instructional strategies, 

and methods of 

instruction to improve 

a school's weak areas.
5-4 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 5 Analyze Student Data

Sample Topics From Some Professional

Learning Team Schools

Curriculum area focus

 Reading comprehension in the content areas

 Math manipulatives and hands-on instruction

 Inquiry-based teaching approaches in science

 Effective approaches for teaching social studies

 Special needs students

 Writing across the curriculum

Topical focus

 Looking at student work

 Differentiated instruction

 Inclusion

 Small group instruction

 Alternative assessments

 Critical thinking strategies

 Active learning strategies

 Using technology for learning

 Teaching reading in physical education

Sample Focus Questions or Goals

Stated as focus questions: 

 What can we do differently in our classrooms to improve 

student achievement in math across all grade levels?

 What research-based teaching strategies can we use to 

increase student reading comprehension in all content 

areas? 

 What differentiated instruction practices can we use in 

our classrooms to effectively teach all ethnic groups in 

our school?

 What can we do differently in our classrooms to assess 

students effectively and use this information to guide our 

instructional strategies?
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 5-5

Analyze Student Data STEP 5

Stated as declarative sentences:

 We will build a literacy program based on researchbased assessment and instructional practices that will 

result in ongoing improvement in student learning and 

achievement. 

 We will gain knowledge and skill in using inquiry-based 

methods of teaching science to engage students in 

higher levels of thinking and learning.

 We will use small-group instruction and other 

research-based methods of increasing students’ writing 

proficiency. 

 We will use research-based teaching strategies designed 

for gifted students to motivate and engage all students 

in higher-order thinking and to help them take more 

responsibility for their own learning. 
5-6 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 5 Analyze Student Data—Facilitation Guide

Step 5 Facilitation Guide

For Step 5, you will find four tools designed to help teachers 

gather, analyze, and use data. 

This guide contains an explanation of each tool and a suggested 

method of using that tool with groups of teachers. Adapt these 

suggestions as needed. Note that some tools contain a question for 

reflection. As an option to the suggested procedures, you may give 

teachers a moment to complete the activity and reflect quietly and 

then ask them to discuss their reflections with a partner or a small 

group. In using these tools, consider your participants. Are they 

experienced in analyzing data? How much time, if any, will you need 

to spend in explaining this process? You can locate additional help 

for presenting Step 5 information at www.serve.org/EdQuality/

ProfLearnCom/Tools.php. 

5.1 What Are Data?

This tool can introduce participants to a variety of school and student 

information sources and spark new ways of thinking about identifying 

needs and establishing goals.

 Ask teachers to work in small groups. If they have already 

formed Professional Learning Teams, ask teams to work 

together. Distribute copies of this tool to each teacher. 

 Suggest that teachers scan the list of data sources and identify 

data that are present in the school and are potentially useful. 

 Ask groups to brainstorm other available data sources. They 

may use this list, along with other data sources they identified, 

to help them decide which sources of data they need in order 

to get necessary information about their students. 

5.2 Subgroup Analysis Chart.

This tool can help team members with data disaggregation. In 

other words, it can help them “take apart” the data and look at it in 

different ways. 

 Make multiple copies of this tool for teachers—one for each 

subgroup they will analyze. 

 Provide data from which teachers can gain information 

about students. 

 Ask team members to fill in the name of the subgroups, such 

as “Gender,” in the “Subgroup” section of the table header. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 5-7

Analyze Student Data—Facilitation Guide STEP 5

They should then list the subject or other area about which 

they will be getting data. (Note: team members may work 

together disaggregating the data for the same subgroup, or 

each member may work on a different subgroup.) Next, team 

members should fill in the categories in that subgroup, such 

as “Female” or “Male.” Not all of the columns will be filled in 

for every subgroup.

 Ask team members to go through available data and fill in 

the remaining categories with as much of the information 

as possible about each subgroup. 

5.3 Reflecting on the Data.

This tool can help teachers personalize the student data they 

examined by reflecting on “ahas!,” questions, concerns, and 

implications for teaching and learning. 

 Make multiple copies of this tool so that participants can 

respond to the questions for each set of data they examine. 

 If you are working with a large group, ask teachers to 

discuss the questions in groups of three or four so that 

everyone will have a chance to process and explain their 

ideas.

 Ask a volunteer from each group to share some of that 

group’s ideas. 

 Ask a volunteer to record teachers’ responses and make 

copies available to all teams. 

5.4 Deciding on Our Team Goal.

Use this tool with individual learning teams or with the entire faculty 

after using tool 5.3 to help teams (or the faculty) reach consensus on 

where their Professional Learning Teams should focus their time and 

energy this year.

 Give each teacher a copy of the tool. 

 Ask teachers in each group to discuss and reach consensus 

on the answers. 

 Instruct team members to focus on recommendations for 

a team goal. Remind them that they may state this goal in 

the form of a focus question, and they may begin this with 

the phrase, “What can we do differently in our classroom 

to...?” This phrasing will keep them focused on their own 

learning and professional growth. 
5-8 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 5.1 What Are Data?

Directions: Grades 

and test results are 

important to datadriven schools, but a 

lot more information 

is available that can 

help teams as they 

think about ways to 

improve teaching and 

learning. This is a 

sample of data sources 

reported by Alabama 

schools that use 

data as an important 

part of their school 

improvement process.

State and National Test 

Results

 State-mandated, subject-area 

assessments

 Writing assessments

 Graduation exams

 College entrance exams

 Advanced placement exams

 Annual yearly progress 

reports

 Achievement gaps among 

subgroups

Commercial Assessments

 Packaged program 

assessments

 Individual reading 

assessments 

Classroom Assessments

 Daily and unit tests

 Student portfolios

 Checklists

 Running records

 Evaluations of student 

projects

 Evaluations of student 

performances

 Examples of student work

Surveys

 Student

 Parent

 Community

 Uncertified staff

 Targeted teacher surveys 

by grade level and content 

area (program effectiveness, 

staff development needs, 

technology, library, 

paperwork, duty, etc.)

School Climate

 Attendance

 Counseling referrals

 Discipline reports

(with trend analysis)

 Student comments to 

counselors and/or teachers

Schoolwide Assessments

 School report card

 School Improvement Plan 

yearly assessments

 Student work 

 Schoolwide writing 

assessments

 Products of accreditation 

processes

 Reports from school

“walk-throughs” 

Other Student Data

 Course assignments

 College admission data

 Quarterly, interim, and final 

grades

 Dropout data

 Minutes/records of student 

support teams

 Special education referrals 

Other Data

 Student and parent 

demographic information

 Results of teacher action 

research 

 Reports from teacher book 

study groups

 Academic lab/library usage

 Faculty turnover rate

 Kindergarten registration data

Adapted from Norton, “Data Driven 

Schools,” Alabama Best Practice 

Center’s Working Toward Excellence 

Journal, Summer 2002 (Volume 2, 

Number 3). Compiled with the help 

of Ruth Ash, Dean of the School of 

Education at Samford University. Used 

with Permission of the Alabama Best 

Practices Center. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 5-9

Directions: Use this chart to guide you as you analyze student data by subgroups.

Subgroup

Subject or area

of focus

Categories within 

this subgroup

Percentage of 

students in this 

subgroup

Results/scores/

performance

Change from 

previous years

(Is this a consistent 

trend?)

Consistency across 

grade levels (Is this 

trend similar in all 

grades?)

Consistency across 

subject areas (Is this 

trend similar in all 

subjects?)

Strengths

(What are the 

strongest areas for 

this subgroup?)

Weaknesses

(What are the 

weakest areas for 

this subgroup?)

Patterns and trends 

(What patterns and 

trends jump out 

at you?)

Other data and 

observations

Subgroup Analysis Chart Tool 5.2
5-10 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

 What sources of data did we examine?

 What parts of these data really caught our attention?

 What differences, if any, are there in grades, attendance,

and behavior among our students?

 Do some groups of students achieve at higher levels than 

others? If so, to what degree? 

 What students are not working to potential? 

 Which groups need instruction more tailored to their

learning styles? 

 What parts of these data encourage you the most?

 What parts concern you the most?

 What other questions do these data raise for you?

Tool 5.3 Reflecting on the Data

Directions: Think 

about what you 

learned from 

examining student 

information and data, 

and discuss these 

questions with your 

team members. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 5-11

Deciding on Our Team Goal Tool 5.4

 What student strengths do these data highlight?

 What student needs do these data highlight?

 What are the implications of these data for your 

learning team? 

 What results do we want by the end of the school year? 

Directions: What 

is your team’s 

instructional goal? 

Discuss and record 

this information 

after analyzing and 

reflecting on student 

and subgroup data. 

Keep this goal in your 

team notebook.

Our Team Goal/Focus Question

© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 6-1

STEP 6

Step 6:

Plan for Learning

and Action

Special Entry: When this team kicked off its meetings last November, 

team members wrote a plan describing what they intended to do. Their 

plan included splendid goals. After four frustrating meetings, however, 

they decided that they weren’t focusing on the right stuff—the need for 

their students to be more engaged in learning. So, in early December, the 

team rewrote its entire plan. Members unanimously decided to research 

and develop ways to motivate and challenge the high-performing 

students in their classrooms. They decided that developing successful 

approaches and experiences for high-performing students would provide 

them with a toolkit of teaching/learning strategies that would spill over 

and help all of their students.

— Anne Jolly: An Action Research Diary

Background

Once teams establish a clear goal, the next step of the process engages 

teams in drawing up a plan that will guide them on their journey. 

Throughout the planning process, keep in mind that Professional 

Learning Teams address student needs through a focus on increasing 

teachers’ knowledge and expertise. For example, suppose a school 

chooses to focus on increasing student reading comprehension across 

content areas. Some teams may address this focus by increasing 

their knowledge and use of research-based teaching strategies to 

help students understand what they read. Other teams may plan to 

expand their use of research-based practices in areas such as learning 

styles or brain-based research and apply this to student reading. Still 

other teams might address their goal through examining student work 

together, scrutinizing and developing quality assignments for students, 

using more appropriate student assessments, or designing new inquirybased approaches to teaching reading. 

The team plan is the projected route that team members will follow 

throughout the year and adjust whenever needed—the strategy 

that will keep them on track as they work to reach the team goal. In 

developing this plan, team members should:

This section will 

help the facilitator:

 Assist teachers in 

examining their 

current beliefs and 

assumptions. 

 Guide teachers in 

developing a team plan 

based on the team goal.

“Collaboration is more 

than activities; it is about 

producing results through 

acting together.”

— Garmston and Wellman,

The Adaptive School: A 

Sourcebook for Developing 

Collaborative Groups, 1999, 

p. xvi

Plan for Learning and Action
6-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 6 Plan for Learning and Action

 Focus on the team goal.

 Examine team members’ beliefs and assumptions about 

their teaching, learning, and students.

 Identify teachers’ current knowledge and instructional 

practices.

 Specify steps teachers will take to increase their 

expertise. 

 Identify resources teachers will need. 

 Explain evidence the team members will gather to 

confirm that their efforts are increasing both teacher and 

student learning. 

Everyone has unexamined assumptions about teaching and learning. 

In fact, teaching is rooted in a long chain of underlying assumptions, 

values, and beliefs. For example, the practice of tracking students is 

rooted in the belief that students learn best when they are grouped 

with students of similar ability. If teachers use just one teaching style, 

such as a lecture, this projects the belief that all students learn in the 

same way. Teaching can be unconsciously influenced by assumptions 

such as, “Some children are unable to learn because of poverty,” 

“Children of some races are smarter,” “Intelligence is fixed at birth,”

or “Not all children can learn at higher levels.” 

As a first step toward developing a plan, team members need to 

examine and discuss their underlying assumptions about students, 

teaching, and learning as they relate to the team’s goal. Laying 

assumptions on the table will help team members understand one 

another better and can lay the groundwork for more productive team 

dialogue. As an added benefit, when teachers become aware of the 

assumptions that drive their own teaching, they are often willing—

even eager—to learn new ways of instructing students. Use Tools 6.1 

and 6.2 to guide teams through this process. 

In the second step of the planning process, teachers take a look at 

the knowledge and experience they already bring with them to the 

meetings. Throughout the year, they will have opportunities to share 

this skill and knowledge with one another. They next examine the 

gap between their current knowledge and the knowledge they need 

in order to successfully reach the goal. From this information, they 

can begin to identify specific areas they will focus on for research and 

study. “Designing a Plan for Learning and Action” (Tool 6.3) provides 

a place for teams to think through and record this information. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 6-3

Plan for Learning and Action STEP 6

Now the team can begin establishing priorities and constructing a 

timeline for the process. What must be accomplished first? What are 

some likely steps? As they build a timeline, teachers should set shortterm goals, or milestones, they can use to measure progress toward 

their goal. (Limit short-term goals to five or less. Too many interim 

goals can deflect the focus from the main objective.) Teams should 

enter all timeline information on the team calendar. 

What evidence can teams collect to determine whether they are 

successfully reaching their goals? Teachers will decide this in the next 

step of their plan. At a minimum, teams should document changes in 

the following throughout the year: 

 Student performance (classroom and standardized scores)

 Student attitudes and motivation 

 Teacher classroom practices 

 Teacher attitudes about working together

 Team functioning

In practice, teams often have difficulty completing their plans at the 

beginning of the Professional Learning Team process because they 

do not yet know enough about their area of focus to make decisions 

about what they need to learn, how to prioritize tasks and what 

milestones to establish. In that case, teams should begin by planning 

ways to expand their own knowledge base. They might decide to 

do this through reading journal articles and books, observing other 

teachers, attending workshops, watching videos, and/or inviting an 

expert in the area to work with them for a time. Initially, teams need 

not complete all parts of their learning plan, such as the section 

“Specific Activities and Tasks” (Step 2 of Tool 6.3). As they learn 

more about their target areas, they can revisit and complete their 

plans. Frequent revisiting is always a good idea, both to keep teams 

focused and to refine the plan as knowledge and insight increase. 

If a team “stalls” while designing a plan, ask questions to re-ignite 

members’ thinking. Questions might include these: 

 What do we want students to be able to do by the end 

of the year? 

 What are some reasons that our students are not 

achieving in that particular area? 

 How can we use students’ own strengths to help them 

with weak areas? 

Teams should be sure to 

capitalize on students’ 

strengths as well as focus 

on their areas of weakness.
6-4 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 6 Plan for Learning and Action

 What information do we need to do this? 

 Where can we find research-based teaching strategies? 

A Final Note on Team Plans 

Teams should focus on a scope of work that is doable. Teachers’ 

natural enthusiasm for students and their learning may prompt team 

members to bite off more than they can chew as they plan together. 

Later, the team may feel overwhelmed and become discouraged. 

Teams should continually re-evaluate the direction they are traveling. 

They must be flexible, willing to reflect on their journey, and willing 

to change routes. There are many ways to reach a destination. If the 

original plan team members designed doesn’t get them where they 

want to go, they can alter directions. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 6-5

STEP 6

Step 6 Facilitation Guide

This guide contains an explanation of two Step 6 tools and a 

suggested method of helping teachers to unpack their assumptions, 

recognize their knowledge gaps, and develop a team plan. Decide 

whether you need to use a particular tool based on the current 

knowledge level of your teachers. Adapt these tools and the 

suggested procedures as needed for the size of your group and 

the amount of work space. You can locate information and tools 

for presenting parts of this step at www.serve.org/EdQuality/

ProfLearnCom/Tools.php. 

6.1 Current Beliefs and Assumptions.

This tool can help teachers think through their current teaching 

practices and examine what these say about their beliefs concerning 

students, teaching, and learning. Use this as a team activity rather 

than a whole faculty activity.

 Share the information about assumptions and how 

teaching practices may reflect assumptions that have 

been embedded in education for decades. You will find 

this information in paragraphs three and four in the 

“Background” section of this step. 

 Give each team member a copy of this tool. Provide one 

extra copy for each team recorder. 

 Suggest teachers take five minutes to think about and jot 

down answers for the questions. Encourage them to look 

beneath the surface at why they teach as they do. 

 Suggest that teachers share their answers with fellow team 

members using this structured conversation process:

1. Ask each team member to share answers for question 

one with teammates. Team members should not discuss 

or react to other’s answers during this sharing time.

2. Invite teachers to discuss and reach consensus on 

information the recorder should include for the team’s 

answer to question one. 

3. Repeat this process for each question, allowing time 

for the recorder to document the team’s thinking and 

responses on the extra copy you provided.

Plan for Learning and Action
6-6 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 6 Plan for Learning and Action—Facilitation Guide

 Ask teachers to think about this question: “What beliefs 

about your students do you want your teaching to 

reflect?” Suggest that teachers design a plan that can 

help them bring their beliefs to life in the classroom. 

6.2 Design a Plan for Learning and Action.

This planning tool provides questions for engaging team members in 

gathering ideas and planning the direction for their learning team. It 

also involves them in deciding on some methods of evaluating their 

progress. 

 Distribute this tool and give teachers a choice of how 

to proceed. These questions may be answered by 

individual members and then discussed, or the team 

may brainstorm answers as a group. If team members 

decide to brainstorm answers, lead them in an effective 

brainstorming process. You may use the following 

protocol:

Brainstorming Protocol

1. Begin with the first question and record team members’ 

knowledge and experience on chart paper.

2. Ask teachers to brainstorm answers for the rest of the 

questions. Explain that brainstorming is designed to 

generate a collection of ideas quickly. 

3. Give team members these guidelines:

 Ideas should be developed as fast as possible. 

 Do not critique or evaluate ideas during the 

brainstorming period.

 Everyone on the team should contribute ideas. 

4. Continue until teachers generate a list of answers for 

each of the questions. 

5. Invite team members to explain their ideas or to ask 

questions about ideas that others suggested. 

6. With a marker, put a checkmark by “keepers”—those 

suggestions that all team members agree to include as a 

part of their team plan.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 6-7

Plan for Learning and Action—Facilitation Guide STEP 6

7. Cross out ideas that team members do not think fit well 

with their goal.

8. Lead team members to reach consensus on remaining 

suggestions, and decide whether or not to make them a 

permanent part of their plan.

 Ask a team member to write the components of the 

plan in the appropriate spaces on Tool 6.2.

 Invite a team member to read the team’s plan aloud, 

one section at a time, and invite other teachers to 

put the final touches on the plan. Remind them that 

this plan can and probably will change as they gain 

more information about their goal.
6-8 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Team Goal or Focus Question:

Tool 6.1 Current Beliefs and Assumptions 

Directions: Write your responses to the questions. 

Then discuss this with others on your Professional 

Learning Team.

1. What specific needs 

do our students have 

in this area? 

2. What do we believe 

about accomplished 

teaching in this area? 

What does it look like?

3. What are our current 

instructional practices 

in this area? 

4. What assumptions 

about teaching, 

learning, and students 

drive these practices?

5. Is there a gap between 

what we believe and 

what we do? If so, 

why? What keeps us 

from changing?
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 6-9

Team Goal or Focus Question:

Directions: Write your responses to the questions. 

Then discuss this with others on your learning team and 

reach consensus.

Design a Plan for Learning and Action Tool 6.2

Learning Plan

1. What knowledge 

and experience do 

we already have in 

this area? 

2. What do we need 

to know, explore, 

learn, and be able 

to do in order to 

reach our goal?

3. How and where 

will we get this 

information and 

skill?

4. What resources 

will we need?
6-10 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Team Goal or Focus Question:

Directions: Write your responses to the questions. 

Then discuss this with others on your learning team and 

reach consensus.

Action Plan

1. What specific tasks 

do we need to 

accomplish by the 

end of the school 

year? (Keep this 

doable.)

2. What are our main 

tasks for the first 

month? 

3. What kind of 

timeline do we 

propose for the 

remainder of the 

tasks? (Put on 

calendar.)

Tool 6.2 Design a Plan for Learning and Action (cont.)
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 7-1

STEP 7

Step 7: Conduct 

Successful Meetings

Entry 21: The countdown is underway! Today I grasped the spiral 

notebook, which functions as my brain, and headed in the direction of 

the first learning team meeting. My face registered a smile as I walked 

briskly down the hallway, but my feelings kept flip-flopping from “Oh, 

boy!” to “Uh, oh!” How was this going to work?

— Anne Jolly: An Action Research Diary

Background

By now Professional Learning Teams have reached consensus on 

some ground rules, agreed to one or more initial goals, and roughed 

out a learning plan for the year. At this point, team members should 

be ready to think more deeply about how they can take maximum 

advantage of one of their most precious commodities—meeting time.

This step introduces several ideas and procedures that set the stage 

for productive team meetings. These include:

Keep team meetings high on the priority list.

Professional Learning Teams depend on regular meetings 

to accomplish ambitious work. If team members fail to 

make attendance and active involvement a high priority, 

their paper goals will never come alive for them and their 

students. Perhaps teachers began this enterprise because 

they believe that teachers—the people closest to the 

students—should be the ones solving teaching and 

learning problems. They are right! But, like every other 

thing worth doing, they must do it well, and the path 

to success for learning teams leads directly through the 

meeting room door.

Approach learning team meetings as a problemsolving process. Problems that can seem insurmountable 

shrink down to life-size when teachers work on them 

together. Learning team meetings are the places where 

teachers join forces, target specific student learning needs, 

and create and apply solutions. 

Conduct Successful Meetings

This section will 

help the facilitator:

 Introduce ideas that 

can help teachers 

conduct successful 

team meetings.

 Ease teams over 

“bumps” as they begin 

meeting. 

 Give teachers concrete 

ideas for how to 

engage in the real work 

of the team. 

“The way a team plays 

as a whole determines 

its success. You may 

have the greatest bunch 

of individual stars in the 

world, but if they don’t 

play together, the club 

won’t be worth a dime.”

—Babe Ruth
7-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 7 Conduct Successful Meetings

Recognize that learning to solve problems 

together and developing effective ways of 

interacting with one another will take time.

Teachers are in this together for the long haul, and they 

probably won’t see results immediately. Team members 

should expect some conflict and frustration when they 

begin working together. Most teams go through several 

stages that Dr. Bruce Tuckman (1965) identifies as 

“Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.” 

1. In the Forming stage, team members often begin with 

a sense of anticipation and optimism, coupled with 

some suspicion and anxiety. The team may initially 

have difficulty getting a clear picture of its direction, 

and teachers may feel that they accomplish little, if 

anything, during the initial meetings. This is normal. 

2. As teams continue with initial meetings, they enter 

a difficult stage—Storming. They realize this is going 

to be rigorous work and will take time and effort. 

Teachers may be impatient, resistant, defensive, and 

argumentative. They may even question the wisdom 

of this collaboration. Often team members cling to 

their current teaching experience and resist going 

much deeper. This, too, is normal and may last for 

three or four meetings. 

 Getting off to a good start can help teams sustain their 

commitment during these two critical early stages 

when the work seems to outweigh the benefits. Teams 

may prepare meeting agendas with the purpose of the 

meeting and what team members want to accomplish 

during their time together. Adding the team goal at the 

bottom of each week’s agenda will help everyone stay 

focused. To help teams stay on track with their ground 

rules, pull out Tools 4.4 and 4.5 from Step 4. Provide 

teams with encouragement and resources during these 

stages, and reassure them that their experience is a 

common one. 

3. When team members begin to better understand 

their focus and to get concrete steps in place, they 

enter the Norming stage. Enthusiasm returns, and 

teachers may even get off track because they are 

tempted to go beyond their original goal. Team 

members accept ground rules and roles, and a team 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 7-3

Conduct Successful Meetings STEP 7

spirit emerges. Relationships typically become 

increasingly harmonious and accepting.

4. In the Performing stage, the team establishes trust and 

accepts each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They 

perform as a cohesive unit rather than as a collection 

of individuals. Team members engage in joint work 

and feel a collective sense of responsibility for the 

success of the whole team. In this stage, teams make 

concrete steps toward changing teaching practices and 

exploring more effective ways to instruct students. 

Students generally begin showing signs of increased 

motivation and achievement as well.

Decide team member roles and responsibilities.

Team members need to rotate roles and responsibilities 

during the year. They might set up a rotation schedule. 

Who will be leader, and for how long? What will the 

leader’s responsibilities involve? Who will record meeting 

information? (A laptop computer might be helpful.) Who 

will gather materials or information needed for the next team 

meeting? Roles and tasks may vary from meeting to meeting, 

depending on what directions the team takes. Take a minute 

or two at the end of each meeting for individual members 

to summarize their upcoming responsibilities. “I’ll be the 

recorder next week. That means I will....”

Maintain detailed records of each learning team 

meeting. Teams must not skip this step, tempting though it 

may be! Logs allow team members to review past strategies 

and directions and to track their effectiveness. Logs also supply 

evidence that teachers are regularly engaging in professional 

development. They provide vehicles through which teams can 

channel ideas and practices to others and serve as idea maps 

for future teams. Logs also become a critical data source when 

evaluating the whole learning team process. Sample learning 

log forms and related information are in Tools 7.3, 7.4, and 7.5.

Establish a team portfolio to document the team’s 

progress over time. Portfolios can be valuable supplements 

to logs. The portfolio might contain lessons teachers develop, 

notes on the success of these lessons, and copies of revised 

plans. Portfolios might document specific strategies teachers 

use and contain copies of research and information teachers 

gather. Samples of student work, teacher assignments, and 

According to researcher 

Robert Gable, evidence 

shows that teams 

benefit from maintaining 

a cumulative written 

“memory” of their 

discussions and work. 

Murphy and Lick strongly 

recommend completing 

a log—a brief, written 

summary of each 

meeting—during or 

immediately after each 

meeting as a way of 

keeping a history of the 

group’s work.

— Gable ( ) p.

— Murphy & Lick, Whole-Faculty 

Study Groups, 1997, p. 53
7-4 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 7 Conduct Successful Meetings

team reflections could also go into the portfolio. Both logs 

and portfolios create portraits of progress over time and 

engage teachers in systematically examining and documenting 

their practice.

Begin an inquiry-action cycle. Successful learning team 

members are willing (and often eager) to experiment, think, and 

teach in new ways. Wald and Castleberry (2000) describe five 

stages of work for teams during a collaborative learning cycle. 

They’ve labeled these stages: “Define, Explore, Experiment, 

Reflect, and Share.” These labels also describe the Professional 

Learning Team well, along with an additional stage: “Assess.”

1. Define what the team is going to learn and 

work on together. Teams have already completed 

this step if they have developed team plans in Step 6. 

2. Identify current practices, explore new 

research-based practices, and revise the team 

plan as needed. Team members begin to research 

and gain new information. Teachers might observe 

other teachers who are accomplished at using a 

particular strategy, seek out experts for advice, look 

at journal articles and research, watch videos that 

provide needed information, and use other ways of 

gaining knowledge. They can compare their current 

instructional practices with what research says they 

need to be doing to help their students and add 

activities to their team plan to fill in the gaps. 

3. Design actions and experiment with new 

instructional strategies, practices, ideas, and 

theories. In this part of the cycle, team members 

zero in on approaches they believe may increase their 

teaching effectiveness and look for opportunities to 

apply these in their classrooms. Team meetings might 

become a time to design lessons, tools, materials, 

and assessments around new teaching methods. 

Team members may then visit each other’s classes 

when colleagues are experimenting with these new 

strategies. If the school schedule makes it difficult for 

teachers to observe one another teaching, they might 

videotape teaching sessions and share the videotapes 

during team meetings. Tool 7.2 offers a protocol for 

analyzing a live observation or a videotaped session. 

“A school must become a 

place where teachers are 

involved in a community 

of learning, caring, and 

inquiring.”

— Hord, Professional Learning 

Communities, 1997, p. 58
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 7-5

Conduct Successful Meetings STEP 7

4. Reflect on the results individually and 

collectively. Individual team members might keep 

personal journals where they record their thoughts 

and insights. As they reflect, team members should 

think deeply about their shared work. 

5. Thoughtfully assess results. Team members 

should keep track of how students respond as 

they try different ways of teaching. Collectively 

studying samples of student work—including the 

work of struggling students—often provides new 

insight into problems. Often, teams will compare 

teacher assignments and student work products for 

“disconnects.” Teachers continually refine tools, 

approaches, and strategies based on their discussions 

and observations. 

6. Share regularly with other teams, teachers, 

students, administrators, community leaders, 

and other interested people. Murphy and 

Lick (1999) emphasize the importance of teams’ 

communicating information about what they are 

doing and learning. They suggest many ways to do 

this—newsletters, videos, bulletin boards, shared logs, 

snapshots, slideshows, workshops, discussion groups, 

poster displays, and samples of activities and work 

designed and refined by learning teams. Teams could 

also invite people to their meetings and post a weekly 

“Best Idea” in the school newsletter or parent bulletin.

Teams will not address every step in the learning cycle during 

every learning team meeting. In some meetings, the team may 

address only a single event in this cycle, such as developing 

new materials or exploring a research-based teaching strategy. 

Reflect on what your team meeting accomplished.

At the conclusion of each team meeting, take a few minutes 

to reflect on what happened during your time together. This 

should be a rapid-fire conversation that gives team members 

information for making adjustments to their next meeting. The 

conversation guide “Reflecting on the Meeting” in Tool 7.2 

contains some good summary questions.

To help team members stay focused and on track during the 

meetings, conversation guides are a useful tool. The Conversation 

Guide tools in this step were created using a four-stage process 

“We encourage members 

of the group to gather 

ongoing data that answer a 

simple question: ‘What is 

happening?’”

— Wald and Castleberry, 

Educators as Learners, 2000, 

p. 53
7-6 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 7 Conduct Successful Meetings

described on page 18 of The Art of Focused Conversation: 100 Ways 

to Access Group Wisdom in the Workplace (Stanfield, ed., 2000). 

(Apologies to the editor for the times when I misapplied this process!) 

Briefly outlined, the focused conversation process involves asking 

questions at four levels:

1. Objective questions—questions about facts

2. Reflective questions—questions that elicit personal 

reactions and feelings

3. Interpretive questions—questions that draw out 

meanings, values, and implications

4. Decisional questions—questions that lead to 

resolution and a decision about the topic

Other tools in this step include sample log forms and self-checks to 

help teachers keep track of their teams’ progress. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 7-7

STEP 7

Step 7 Facilitation Guide

For Step 7, you will find five tools designed to engage teachers in 

conducting successful team meetings. These tools include posters, 

conversation guides, and methods for documenting team discussions 

and activities. Prepare sets of these tools for all teams so that they 

will have them when needed. This guide contains an explanation 

of each tool and a suggested method for teachers to use that tool. 

You can find additional tools and information related to this step at 

www.serve.org/EdQuality/ProfLearnCom/Tools.php. 

Tool 7. 1 The Inquiry-Action Cycle.

This table-top display can serve as a reference throughout the year to 

help teams stay on track with their discussions and activities.

 Prepare the display by making a copy of this page on 

heavy paper and folding along the center line to form a 

table tent. If you laminate the table-top display, cut apart 

along the center line and tape the halves together to 

form a table tent.

 Give each team a copy of this display. Ask teams to place 

it on their meeting table or in a visible location in their 

team meeting room and refer to it to keep them focused 

during their Professional Learning Team meetings.

Tool 7. 2 Conversation Guides.

Give this tool to teachers to use as a reference throughout the year to 

help them stay on track with their discussions and activities. 

 Give each team a copy of the conversation guides. Some 

teams may wish to retype the guides so that each one is 

on a separate sheet of paper. 

 Explain that when a team has an important matter to 

discuss, a conversation guide can lead to a productive 

conversation and a decision.

 Provide time for team members to look through the 

conversation guides. Suggest they use the conversation 

guide, “Plan for the Next Meeting” to think through their 

next Professional Learning Team meeting. 

Tool 7.3 Team Log Information.

This tool provides teams with an explanation of information they 

might include in their learning logs. 

Conduct Successful Meetings
7-8 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 7 Conduct Successful Meetings—Facilitation Guide

 Distribute copies of this tool to all team members. Ask 

them to scan the handout silently. 

 Explain that names, dates, and times should be included 

in every log, along with a summary of the team 

discussion. 

 Clarify that other items may or may not be included 

at any given meeting, depending on whether they are 

appropriate for that team meeting. 

 Ask teachers if they have questions or suggestions for 

other items to include on the form. 

Tool 7.4 Team Log Form.

This form contains items of information that the team recorder may 

need to include, depending on the meeting activities. 

 Make multiple copies of these log forms for each team. 

 Explain that teams may use this form to write 

information on, or they may prefer to type information 

into a computer during the meeting.

 Ask teams to keep a copy of their logs in their team 

notebooks. Depending on how you will work with 

teams, you may want the teams to give you a copy of 

the log and/or to send one to the principal. 

 Place the team notebook in a central location, such as a 

library resource center, where others can read what the 

team is doing and offer feedback.

Tool 7.5 Team Log Self-Assessment.

As facilitator, you need to keep your finger on the pulse of team 

meetings. The team logs provide one way for you to do this and to 

give meaningful feedback to teams. This tool can help teams evaluate 

and improve the usefulness of their logs. Ask teams to take this selfassessment when they complete their first four logs. Then use it once 

every four to six meetings to help teams remain on track. 

 Make multiple copies of these log forms for each team. 

 Explain that the purpose of this self-assessment is to 

invite teams to examine their logs and determine the 

usefulness of the information they provide to their team, 

to the facilitator, to the faculty, and to others. 

 Suggest that teams do this self-assessment every four 

to six weeks, looking only at the logs for that period of 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 7-9

Conduct Successful Meetings—Facilitation Guide STEP 7

time. Ask them to consider all logs for the four-to-sixweek period when making a decision on how to rate a 

category. Remind them that they will not (and should 

not) include every category in every log. 

 Remind teams that their focus is on the information 

contained in the log and not on the grammar and 

punctuation.

 Call attention to the reflection questions at the bottom 

of the page. Ask teachers to discuss these questions after 

each self-assessment and make plans for any needed 

adjustments to the logs.

 Ask teams to keep copies of their log self-assessment in 

their team notebooks.

Tool 7.6 Team Progress Self-Assessment.

This tool can help teams evaluate the quality of their meetings. 

 Give all teachers a copy of this tool and suggest that 

teams use this tool once every four or five meetings 

to determine whether team members feel the team is 

operating well. 

 Explain that each team member should respond as an 

individual to these descriptors by placing an “X” along each 

line to indicate where he or she thinks the team scores. 

 Ask team members to then discuss their responses and 

fill out one chart as a team.

 Suggest that team members use the information to 

determine what areas of their team meetings are 

strongest and which ones need improvement.
7-10 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 7.1 The Inquiry-Action Cycle

Directions: Place this 

table-top display in a 

visible location during 

team meetings.

These steps were adapted from Wald 

and Castleberry. (2000). Educators 

as Learners: Creating a Professional 

Learning Community in Your School. 

Association for Supervision and 

Curriculum Development, p. 46.

DEFINE: Identify your overall purpose and long-term and 

short-term goals. 

EXPLORE: Gather and share research-based information from 

a variety of sources. 

EXPERIMENT: Plan, develop, and try new strategies and 

joint teaching approaches. 

REFLECT: Engage in rigorous reflection and dialogue about 

these practices.

ASSESS: Monitor, observe, gather evidence, analyze, 

document, and evaluate the effectiveness of approaches.

SHARE: Share progress and effective practices in a variety of 

ways with the faculty, administrators, and others.

 Identify your overall purpose and long-term and DEFINE:

short-term goals. 

 Gather and share research-based information from EXPLORE:

a variety of sources. 

 Plan, develop, and try new strategies and EXPERIMENT:

joint teaching approaches. 

 Engage in rigorous reflection and dialogue about REFLECT:

these practices.

 Monitor, observe, gather evidence, analyze, ASSESS:

document, and evaluate the effectiveness of approaches.

 Share progress and effective practices in a variety of SHARE:

ways with the faculty, administrators, and others.

✃
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 7-11

Review and Share

Books or Articles

Directions: When team members are ready to share 

information about a book or article, use this discussion starter 

to keep the discussion focused and productive. Keep the 

conversation focused and brisk. 

1. What part of the book/article really caught our 

attention?

2. What can we learn from this book/article that would 

help us in our team efforts? 

3. What would we like to know that is not included in this 

book/article?

4. What actions or activities (if any) do we want to plan 

based on this book/article? 

5. What challenges would we face in taking these actions?

6. What specific activities do we want to plan today?

Discuss a Video

Directions: The leader for this meeting can use these questions 

to guide the discussion. The recorder should jot down responses 

to put in the team’s log.

1. What scenes from the video caught our attention?

2. What were some of the key points the video made?

3. What ideas impressed us as most important?

4. What was missing in this video that we’d like to know 

more about?

5. How, specifically, can this video be useful to our team?

6. What actions (if any) do we want to take based on 

this video?

7. What specific action steps do we want to plan today?

Conversation Guides Tool 7.2

Directions: Use 

these Conversation 

Guides to engage in 

productive learning 

team discussions. 

These were developed 

or adapted using a 

process described 

in Brian Stanfield’s 

The Art of Focused 

Conversation: 100 

Ways to Access 

Group Wisdom in the 

Workplace. 
7-12 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Develop a Teaching Activity

Directions: When team members want to try a particular 

teaching strategy, use this guide to keep your planning on target. 

1. What do we want this activity to accomplish?

2. What are some things about this activity that might 

work well with our students? 

3. What are some things that might not work well? 

4. What adjustments do we need to make to this activity?

5. When will team members use this activity?

6. What student information will we collect during or 

following this activity? 

Discuss a Colleague Observation

Directions: When team members observe a colleague trying 

a particular teaching strategy, use this guide to keep your 

observation and discussion focused, productive, and on track. 

1. What did we want this activity to accomplish?

2. What teaching strategies did our colleague use?

3. What worked well with this activity?

4. What did not work well?

5. How did the students respond to the activity?

6. Was there evidence of student learning?

7. Do we think this activity is a “keeper”?

8. If it is a “keeper,” what modifications does this 

activity need?

9. What are our plans for trying the activity again?

Tool 7.2 Conversation Guides (cont.)
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 7-13

Discuss the Results of

a Teaching Activity

Directions: When team members have tried a particular 

teaching strategy, use this guide to keep your discussion of 

this activity focused, productive, and on track. 

1. What teaching method/strategy are we currently 

working on?

2. What do we want this strategy to accomplish?

3. What worked well with this activity?

4. What frustrations are we experiencing?

5. What surprised us about the way students responded 

to the activity?

6. Is this activity a “keeper”?

7. If it is a “keeper,” what modifications does this 

activity need?

8. What are our plans for using the activity again?

Examine Student Responses

Directions: When team members plan and/or develop a 

specific strategy or activity for classroom use, use this guide 

to debrief team members on how it worked.

1. What did students say about this activity? 

2. What are your (the teacher’s) personal impressions 

of the activity? 

3. What did students learn from the activity?

4. What did they not learn that you expected them 

to learn?

5. What data (information from student work) do you 

have related to this activity?

6. What conclusions can we draw about this activity?

7. What are our next steps? 

Conversation Guides (cont.) Tool 7.2
7-14 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Plan for the Next Meeting

Directions: At the conclusion of the meeting, take time to look 

ahead to the next meeting. Use this guide to help plan team 

member tasks and responsibilities. 

1. What do we want to accomplish at the next meeting?

2. What are the major tasks that need to be done before 

the next meeting?

3. Who will be responsible for each task?

4. Who will be the team leader for the next meeting? 

5. Who will be the recorder for the next meeting?

Assess Team Progress

Directions: Revisit the actions and activities listed in the team 

plan. Use this checklist to clarify team priorities and to set 

realistic timelines. 

1. What tasks did we plan to accomplish by this time?

2. Which of these tasks remain to be accomplished?

3. Which remaining tasks are important to accomplish?

4. What skills and resources do we have that could help 

us accomplish each task?

5. What skills and resources do we lack?

6. What possible barriers need to be resolved? 

7. What are the main tasks to accomplish during this 

month? Next month? (Continue until the tasks are 

appropriately spaced for the remainder of the school year.)

8. What are our next steps? 

Tool 7.2 Conversation Guides (cont.)
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 7-15

Reflect on the Meeting

Directions: At the conclusion of a team meeting, take two or 

three minutes to reflect on what happened. This conversation 

needs to move quickly. 

1. What did we accomplish today?

2. What was the high point of our team’s work today

(or this week)?

3. What was the low point?

4. What did we learn today?

5. What is a key insight from the day?

6. What unfinished business do we need to continue at 

the next meeting? 

Conversation Guides (cont.) Tool 7.2
7-16 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 7.3 Team Log Information

Logs must contain the following information: 

❑ Team name

❑ Log number

❑ Date and time of meeting

❑ Length of meeting

❑ Members present

Logs may contain some or all of the following information, 

depending on what the team does during the meeting: 

1. Main meeting activities

2. Team discussions

3. New ideas and information

4. Joint work team members are doing

5. What we’re doing differently in our classrooms 

6. Evidence of progress 

7. Reflections

8. Challenges and recommendations

9. Decisions

10. Activities before the next meeting 

11. How we are sharing our work with parents, students, 

other faculty

12. Today’s best idea!

Reflect: Do 

you have 

additional 

suggestions 

for categories 

to include in 

your team logs from 

time to time?

Documentation:

Keep written records 

(logs) of all team 

meetings. These 

include summaries 

of conversations 

and activities during 

the meeting. Team 

meetings may 

involve the following 

activities, and these 

should be reflected in 

the team logs. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 7-17

Subsection title Team Log Form Tool 7.X Tool 7.4

Directions: Fill in all of the information pertaining to the team and the attendees. Include other information 

as needed to give a clear picture of your meeting activities. (See Tool 7.3 for appropriate categories to include.) 

Or, make a computer template and type information under appropriate categories during or after meetings.

Team: Log #: 

Date: Time: to 

Team members present: 

Meeting Activities and Decisions:
7-18 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 7.5 Team Log Self-Assessment

Log number, date, time of meeting,

and people present

❍ We always give all of this information.

❍ We always give some of this information.

Main meeting activities

❍ We clearly describe our meeting activities on each log.

❍ We list meeting activities but give few specifics on 

what happens.

❍ We list meeting activities but do not describe them.

❍ We do not list any activities.

Summary of the team discussions 

❍ We give details about our discussions.

❍ We make a few notes about discussions.

❍ We list words or phrases with no elaboration.

❍ We do not include this. 

New ideas and information 

❍ We give details about new ideas and information we learn.

❍ We make a few notes about new ideas and information.

❍ We list ideas with no elaboration.

❍ We do not include this.

Joint work team members are doing

❍ We describe common materials or activities we are designing.

❍ We mention but give few specifics on what we are 

doing together. 

❍ We share only what we are doing as individuals in our 

classroom.

❍ We do not include this.

What we’re doing differently in our classrooms

❍ We list all differences in instruction resulting from our learning 

team work.

❍ We list some of the things we are doing differently.

❍ We are not doing things differently at this point. 

❍ We do not include this.

Evidence of progress

❍ We clearly explain how we are making a difference for students.

❍ We list some evidence but do not explain it. 

Directions: Each 

four to six weeks, 

examine your logs 

for that period to see 

how they measure up. 

Your logs will not and 

should not include all 

of these categories at 

each meeting.

Reflect: In 

what areas 

are your 

logs the 

strongest?
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 7-19

Team Log Self-Assessment (cont.) Tool 7.5

❍ We do not clearly identify ways we are making a difference.

❍ We do not include this.

Reflections

❍ We give examples and some details of our thinking and 

deliberations.

❍ We list the issues or questions we think through but give 

few details.

❍ We list our issues or questions but give no details of our 

thinking.

❍ We do not include this.

Challenges and recommendations

❍ We explain specific challenges and recommendations that arise.

❍ We list these but do not explain them fully.

❍ We make occasional comments here.

❍ We do not include this.

Decisions

❍ We clearly describe the decisions we make during meetings.

❍ We list most of the decisions we make.

❍ We seldom record decisions our team makes.

❍ We do not include this.

Activities before the next meeting

❍ Our logs give specific details about our plans.

❍ We make occasional notes about our plans.

❍ We list words or phrases with no elaboration.

❍ We do not include this.

This week’s best practice or idea

❍ We always include an idea to be shared with other teams.

❍ We usually include an idea to be shared with other teams.

❍ We seldom include an idea to be shared with other teams.

❍ We do not include an idea to be shared with other teams.

Log usefulness

❍ Our logs give a clear and complete history of the way our

team progressed. 

❍ Our logs give a partial record of our struggles and successes. 

❍ Our logs don’t give much information about what we actually 

accomplished.

❍ Our logs are sketchy and not especially informative.

Reflect:

What could 

someone 

outside your 

team learn 

from your 

logs?

Reflect:

What 

changes will 

you make in 

your logs? 
7-20 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 7.6 Team Progress Self-Assessment

Directions: First, 

respond as individuals 

to these descriptors by 

circling how you think 

your team ranks for 

each descriptor. Then, 

discuss responses, and 

fill out the chart as a 

team. Cold indicates 

you do not think the 

phrase describes your 

team at all. Hot means 

you think the team is 

doing great!

With regard to our 

learning team: Cold--Cool--Lukewarm--Warm--Hot

We have a sense of 

accomplishment. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

Our team is supportive and 

collegial. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We trust one another. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We enjoy working together. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

Everyone feels accepted. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

Diverse ideas are respected. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We are solving some problems. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We actively listen to each other. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We stick with our team norms. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We have a high energy level. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We are curious and inquisitive. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We know where we are going. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We are organized. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We are learning more about 

teaching. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

Our meetings are productive. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We spend more time talking 

about instruction. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We share what we are learning 

with other teachers and teams. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We hold ourselves more 

accountable for student learning. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We have a feeling of shared 

responsibility for student learning. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--

We are becoming stronger 

teachers. --/---------/---------/----------/--------/--
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-1

STEP 8

Step 8

Maintain the Momentum 

Entry 43: As I’ve been working with this project, one thing is 

becoming increasingly clear—teachers need some sort of recognition 

and payback for the extra time and energy this requires, no matter how 

worthy the effort. Intrinsic motivation and altruism are already stressed 

to the max in the teaching profession. Today the central office gave 

official permission for the teachers engaged in this process at both 

schools to get credit toward recertification. Yes! In addition, teachers 

at school #2 will get time off from scheduled teacher workdays as 

compensation for the extra time they put into the learning teams. (They 

meet before school and after school because they do not share common 

planning times.)

My next goal is to get the principals to look at some creative ways of 

providing teachers with more time. As teachers engage in this intensive 

professional development process, what responsibilities might be 

removed from them during the school day? Lunch duty? Responsibility 

for some administrative paperwork? Freedom from supervising school 

events such as pep rallies? Just what would a school culture look like 

that really places student learning and opportunities for teacher growth 

ahead of everything else?

— Anne Jolly: An Action Research Diary

Background

Getting one or more Professional Learning Teams off the ground may 

seem like a Herculean task, but the most critical phase of the process 

is still ahead—building and sustaining momentum. Teachers are 

typically energized by workshops and other opportunities to gather 

for a professional purpose. They enjoy planning, preparing, and 

brainstorming together, especially when they’re exploring new ideas 

they believe can help their students. Given this admirable teacher 

trait, the learning teams will probably get off to a great start. But once 

teachers return to the day-to-day demands of school life, including 

some unanticipated demands on their time, their good intentions may 

take a back seat to the crisis of the moment. 

When teachers agree to join a Professional Learning Team, they’re 

making a major commitment of time and energy. School leaders who 

Maintain the Momentum

This section will 

help the facilitator:

 Support teams as they 

begin and continue 

their team work.

 Arrange for effective 

team communication.

 Make a variety of 

resources available.
8-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 8 Maintain the Momentum

create incentives and provide resources for these professionals will be 

recognizing and honoring teachers’ commitments, underscoring the 

importance of their work to the entire school’s success, and enssuring 

that teams have the encouragement they need to be successful. 

It generally takes three to five years before a significant new process 

becomes part of the standard practice in a school. How will school 

leaders nurture and sustain interest over that length of time? What 

incentives and conditions can they provide? What likely obstacles can 

they remove? Some of the issues here need to be addressed by school 

leaders looking for ways to support learning teams.

Provide Supportive School Conditions

Examine the environment in which teachers meet 

and collaborate. Do school policies and procedures 

promote teacher inquiry and collaboration? Does the school 

culture and climate reflect the belief that teachers are 

professionals and that instruction is teachers’ most important 

job? Keep a close eye on teacher work loads and be sure that 

what teachers are being asked to do on a day-to-day basis 

relates to instruction. When teachers remain “catch-alls” 

for clerical, bookkeeping, and managerial tasks, keeping an 

instructional focus during the day (and during learning team 

meetings) becomes an unattainable goal. 

 Teachers’ physical environment also affects learning team 

effectiveness. A professional meeting room with good 

lighting, pleasant surroundings, and easy access to materials 

can promote team focus. A poorly-lighted area with 

makeshift chairs and a mildewed carpet can drain energy. 

Teachers need comfortable places to meet that are free from 

interruption and distractions. 

Give team members permission to take risks.

Experimenting with new ways of teaching can be 

uncomfortable if teachers lack the support of school leaders. 

Teachers must be willing to take risks with new instructional 

strategies and to know that they have permission from 

school leaders to do this. Tool 8.1 can ease risk-taking 

anxiety by giving teachers permission to try new things, 

even if they are not immediately successful.

Successful change of 

individuals’ knowledge and 

practices in classrooms 

and schools appears to be 

accompanied by ongoing 

support and assistance 

to them as they are 

implementing the changes.

— Hord, Facilitative Leadership: 

The Imperative for Change, 

1992
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-3

Maintain the Momentum STEP 8

Build Professional Learning Team meetings into the 

school day. Perhaps the most daunting challenge teachers 

face is the need for more time, especially time to work 

together to improve their teaching. If school leaders define 

“teacher work” only as time when teachers are actively 

engaged with students, either instructing or supervising, 

then job-embedded professional development cannot be 

successful. Rethink teachers’ workday. Look again at Tools 

3.2 and 3.3, and decide how to create blocks of time for 

professional development. 

Build the Professional Learning Team process into 

the school improvement plan and into individual 

teacher professional growth plans. Provide 

connections between Professional Learning Team activities, 

school goals, and daily practice. Give high visibility to 

learning teams’ goals, as well as the school’s improvement 

plan, mission, and vision. Make learning teams a central, 

ingrained part of the school’s commitment to improved 

teaching and learning. 

Celebrate Professional Learning Team activities 

and successes. Spotlight teacher and student activities 

that are outgrowths of Professional Learning Team work. 

Post announcements in the teacher workroom, in school 

newspapers, and in office areas where parents can see the 

progress. Schedule a time for learning teams to share their 

successes during faculty meetings. Occasionally, provide 

refreshments for team meetings. Provide surprise baskets for 

each team with a combination of office supplies and food 

items. Ask teachers to provide you with other ideas for how 

they would like to celebrate their learning team adventure. 

 Arrange for groups outside the school to provide recognition 

for learning teams. Your local paper might print an article 

about this initiative. School adopters may wish to recognize 

your faculty and may be able to provide assistance and 

materials to teams. Be sure to provide all teams with public 

recognition during the school year. Find some effective 

ways to keep telling the stories of the school’s Professional 

Learning Teams. 

Conduct periodic team tune-ups. Even the most 

enthusiastic teams need a periodic “tune-up” to ensure they 

Plan special celebrations, 

fun times for groups to do 

creative things to excite 

others about the status of 

learning in the school.

—Murphy and Lick, WholeFaculty Study Groups, Corwin 

Press, 1998
8-4 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 8 Maintain the Momentum

are operating efficiently, remaining purposeful, and moving 

steadily toward their objective. To help them with this task, 

members may need to revisit the team goals and learning 

plan, rethink their norms, and possibly engage in some 

troubleshooting. Step 7 provides some tools to engage teams 

in self-reflection. (See Tool 7.5 and 7.6.)

Communicate Regularly

Read and respond in writing (or via e-mail) to 

team logs. Documentation is the “homework” of the team. 

Regularly gather logs and keep track of team progress. These 

team logs provide one of your most important opportunities 

for supporting teams. Your timely feedback on their logs can 

encourage them and keep them focused on their purpose. 

Include constructive comments and suggestions and praise 

for work well done. Tool 8.3 provides an example of a way to 

provide quick feedback. 

 In using the logs as a way of following-up and supporting 

teams, e-mail is especially efficient and effective. The 

team recorder may e-mail team logs to you and other team 

members. You can respond to each person on the team. 

Consider this example of a good use of e-mail in schools in 

the Edenton-Chowan Public Schools in North Carolina. After 

the first year of working in Professional Learning Teams, 

teachers developed a sense of trust and interest in what 

other teams were doing. Now the teams in these schools 

e-mail their logs to everyone on the school staff and even 

to administrators in the central office! In replying to team 

logs in a situation such as this, find out if teams want you to 

send your responses to their logs to the individual teams or 

to the entire staff. 

Give learning teams opportunities to share 

what they are doing. Faculty meetings can be great 

environments for sharing, provided those meetings are not 

filled with general announcements, school management 

issues, and negativity. Sharing by one or more learning teams 

should be the first thing on the faculty meeting agenda. This 

arrangement not only makes conversation more meaningful 

but also puts instructional issues in their proper place at the 

top of the agenda in terms of importance. What an excellent 

message for school leaders to model! 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-5

Maintain the Momentum STEP 8

Arrange for teams to use technology to 

communicate information to each other, 

administrators, and interested community 

members. E-mail messages, electronic logs, and web-based 

newsletters can spread the word as well as promote the 

potential of technology to support professional development 

in general. A technology coordinator might set up an area on 

the school website where teams can engage in discussions 

and post announcements and best ideas and practices. This 

is an ideal forum for best ideas from team logs.

Use bulletin boards or other areas in the school 

office and the faculty workroom to post team 

schedules and announcements. One way to support 

Professional Learning Team meetings is to emphasize the 

importance of this dedicated work time for teachers. Office 

personnel, other teachers, and students should honor each 

team’s meeting time and avoid interruptions. (See Tool 8.4.)

 When learning teams send messages, these messages 

should be colorful, attractive, and unique. Include graphics 

when possible. Teams might all agree on a Professional 

Learning Team logo and memo format. Be sure that learning 

team communiqués look different from the standard memos 

and reminders teachers usually find in their boxes. The 

message should be clear: There’s nothing ordinary about 

learning teams!

Make the work of the Professional Learning 

Teams public. For example, invite a team to explain at 

PTA meetings what teachers are accomplishing through 

Professional Learning Teams. Parents may be a valuable 

source of assistance for this process, both in acquiring 

resources for learning teams and in supervising students 

while teams meet. Keep the central office in the loop by 

inviting them to faculty meetings when learning teams are 

presenting their work. 

Help Teams Find Resources 

How will teachers acquire current research and information to help 

them learn about new teaching practices and grow professionally? 

Teachers at some schools that use Professional Learning Teams for 

professional development have acquired resources in these ways: 
8-6 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 8 Maintain the Momentum

 Principals provided teachers with copies of a current book 

related to the learning team focus area.

 Teachers obtained articles from a university on topics 

related to their learning teams’ goals. These articles came 

from a variety of teacher magazines and journals. A 

facilitator or team member organized the articles in threering binders and placed them in a learning team resource 

area in the school library. In some instances, teachers were 

able to access an online professional library catalog at the 

university to ferret out appropriate articles. In the absence 

of a facilitator, a university graduate assistant might agree 

to locate and copy these articles for a school.

 Teachers brought in their own resource materials. Members 

of one learning team brought in books and magazines 

with relevant articles from home. They also brought in 

workshop materials they had collected on their focus topic. 

During several learning team meetings, they reviewed these 

materials and began compiling a team archive of effective 

teaching strategies for use in their classrooms. 

 The school librarian ordered videos and books related 

to the learning team goals. The principal also ordered 

materials. Teams also put out a general call for materials 

on a particular subject by distributing a notice to the entire 

school faculty. 

 The school librarian joined several national organizations 

known for their best-practice periodicals and publications 

(e.g., National Staff Development Council, Association 

for Supervision and Curriculum Development, grade-level 

associations, subject-area associations).

 The SERVE Regional Educational Laboratory provided copies 

of relevant publications free of charge or at minimal cost. 

Each school in the U.S. is served by a Regional Educational 

Laboratory (REL), and these RELs also maintain extensive 

downloadable resources at their websites. To locate the REL 

serving your state, go to www.ed.gov/prog_info/Labs.

 Some teachers attended workshops. Upon returning to the 

school, they shared new information, handouts, and other 

materials with their team colleagues.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-7

Maintain the Momentum STEP 8

 In one school, teachers developed a form that they posted 

when they needed help from fellow faculty members with 

expertise in a particular strategy. (See Tool 8.5.)

 Facilitators gathered a list of needed resources and assistance 

from teams—see Tool 8.6—and searched for web-based 

journal articles on specific topics that would help teachers in 

their team work.

 Through a faculty survey—see Tool 8.7—members 

discovered, often for the first time, a wealth of skills and 

knowledge within their own faculty and began using one 

another as resources and peer coaches. 

 District-level instructional supervisors and college professors 

in the community were often able to lend a hand to learning 

team members. Many of these educators enjoyed working 

with groups of energetic teachers, and both groups benefited.

 The World Wide Web proved to be a rich source of 

lesson plans and teaching strategies on almost every topic. 

The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEMs) site at 

www.thegateway.org provides one reliable website that 

provides an organized portal to many excellent lesson plan 

sites. This site is a service of the U.S. Department of Education, 

and its lesson plan sites have been screened for quality. 

 A faculty survey of favorite websites for lesson planning 

provided teachers with a ready-made list of Internet sites to 

visit and analyze for research-based lessons. (See Tool 8.8.)

 Online collaboration helped some team members stay in 

touch between meetings and proved invaluable in helping 

off-site facilitators support teams. Listservs allow members 

to send e-mail messages to a single address and have them 

distributed to all of the list’s subscribers. Team members 

might approach the district technology coordinator to help 

create a private listserv for Professional Learning Teams. Or, 

they can create such a list themselves by taking advantage 

of one of the many free online listserv services. See, for 

example, www.epals.com/chat.

 Large-scale education listservs provided a rich source of 

ideas and information for one group of middle school 

teachers looking for ideas on teaching reading in the content 
8-8 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 8 Maintain the Momentum

areas. Many grade-level and subject-area associations 

sponsor Internet conversations among their members 

and other interested teachers. Teachers who regularly 

participated in these “virtual professional communities” 

enjoyed sharing successful strategies and supporting one 

another in trying out new ideas. 

 Students in one school were an unexpected source of help 

in locating compelling lesson plans and teaching strategies. 

A teacher from one school located an intriguing student 

assignment on the Internet that related to her learning 

team’s focus on inquiry-based teaching. The day after giving 

students the assignment, one student announced he had 

located the website where she found it. He gave her two 

more related lesson plans he found online that he thought 

looked interesting! Other students then took part in an online 

search for student activities related to inquiry-based learning. 

When team members used these student-researched teaching 

strategies, students’ buy-in was automatic.

Provide Other Incentives to

Move Teams Forward

Set up a Professional Learning Team resource 

center in the school library. Include space to put copies 

of team notebooks, logs, resources, and materials. Logs and 

team information may also be placed in a designated area in 

the teacher workroom. Faculty members can use feedback 

forms (Tool 8.3) to comment on log entries and offer ideas, 

tips, and encouragement to teams. The feedback, of course, 

should be helpful and non-evaluative.

Provide learning team members with professional 

development credit. These meetings might count toward 

recertification, and this can usually be arranged through your 

local school or your central office. Learning teams can easily 

provide documentation of their professional development 

activities through meeting logs, team plans, and portfolios 

that contain evidence of their work. 

Involve the school principal as a key figure in the 

learning team process. Leadership, encouragement, 

and involvement from the school principal are essential. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-9

Maintain the Momentum STEP 8

The principal might meet briefly with each learning team 

periodically to emphasize the value of the process. He or she 

might also read and respond to team logs and take the lead 

in publicizing the work of the team. 

Reward team members by sending them to 

meetings and conferences that support their work 

in Professional Learning Teams. This spotlights the 

importance of what teams are doing by placing a high 

priority on special professional development needs growing 

out of their work. 

Provide support and troubleshooting help for 

individual teams or individual team members. Help 

team members clarify instructional issues and problems. 

Throughout the year, be on the lookout for ways to provide teachers 

with incentives as a way of saying “thank you” for putting extra time 

and effort into upgrading skills, changing teaching practice, increasing 

knowledge, and better preparing students. 
8-10 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 8

Step 8 Facilitation Guide

The Step 8 tools provide facilitators with assistance in keeping 

Professional Learning Teams motivated and moving. Each tool contains 

an explanation and a suggested method of using that tool with groups 

of teachers. Decide whether you need to use a particular tool based 

on the needs of teachers you work with. You may adapt any tool or 

suggested procedure as needed to meet your needs and the needs of 

your teachers. You can locate information and tools for this step at 

www.serve.org/EdQuality/ProfLearnCom/Tools.php. You may 

also find additional tools and information for this step at that site. 

Tool 8.1 It’s Okay!

Use this tool to give teachers permission to take a risk, fail, and

try again. 

 Copy and cut apart the tickets. Give each team member 

a ticket. 

 Explain that changing the way we teach is difficult and 

requires some trial and error. Although teachers will 

be using research-based strategies, instruction will not 

always go smoothly. You want teachers to feel free to 

take a risk. This ticket gives them permission to try a 

new strategy, fail, and try again in a “safe” environment. 

It also entitles them to support from you and their 

colleagues as they do so.

Tool 8.2 Are We on Target?

This poster can help teachers focus on what they should be 

accomplishing through their team meetings. 

 Prepare a copy of the poster for each team. You may make 

this larger and more attractive using a word-processing 

program and larger paper. Laminate it if possible. 

 Give each team a copy of the poster.

 Ask teams to place the poster in their meeting area. 

Ask them to place a checkmark in the correct box for 

each descriptor after every third meeting. If the poster is 

laminated, suggest they use a water-based marker that 

they can wash off. If the poster is not laminated, make 

multiple copies for each team.

 Explain that if they are not “Doing great!” in an area, 

they should check the left-hand box. Explain that 

Maintain the Momentum
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-11

Maintain the Momentum—Facilitation Guide STEP 8

“Doing great!” means that all members are doing this 

regularly, and this is now a normal part of the way the 

team does business. 

Tool 8.3 Feedback Form for Team Logs.

This tool provides a memo for teachers, facilitators, principals, or 

other individuals to use to give teams feedback on logs. 

 Make multiple copies of the form for anyone who will be 

providing feedback to teams on their logs, and cut these 

apart. Include enough feedback forms to place in the 

teacher workroom if teams will leave their logs there for 

other teams to read.

 Explain to the persons using the log feedback form that 

their responses should be constructive and encouraging. 

 Instruct responders to be sure the feedback form gets to 

the correct team. 

Tool 8.4 Protect These Teams!

This poster can help teams protect their meeting times from

outside interruptions. 

 Prepare a copy of the poster for each team; or, you may 

prefer to make this poster larger and laminate it. 

 Tell each team to write its meeting day and time on its 

individual poster and to place this on the office bulletin 

board or in another designated area. 

 If you made one large poster and laminated it, place 

water-based or dry-erase markers near the poster and ask 

teams to write their meeting times on the poster. Post 

this in a prominent place where office staff, students, 

and other teachers will see it. 

 Copies of this poster can also be placed near team meeting 

areas as a reminder that, during this time, teachers are 

focusing on instruction and must not be interrupted. 

Tool 8.5 Teacher to Teacher.

This tool can be used by teams to request that a particular faculty 

member share specific knowledge and skills with them. 

Make several copies of this tool for each team.

 Explain that as teams look for resources and information 

on specific topics and instructional strategies, they may 
8-12 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 8 Maintain the Momentum—Facilitation Guide

wish to put out an “all call” for faculty help. These forms 

can help them locate people within the faculty willing to 

provide assistance.

 Suggest they fill in the appropriate information, duplicate 

the form, and place the forms in teachers’ boxes or in the 

teacher workroom.

 Recommend that if a faculty member volunteers 

assistance, the team provide a special thank-you card or 

other gesture of appreciation. 

Tool 8.6 What Do You Need?

This tool serves a dual purpose. It is part of a strategy to regularly 

communicate with teams, and it also provides a way for teams to 

obtain resources and assistance. This tool can keep teams alert to the 

fact that they need to continually search for new resources to help 

them grow and learn. 

 Provide copies of this form to teams on a regular basis. If 

teams meet weekly, use this form once a month. 

 Ask teachers to think carefully about resources that 

could help them, list these on the form, and return this 

form to you. 

Tool 8.7 Database of Teacher Talent.

This tool offers a method for gathering information about the talents 

and skills of teachers in a school (or throughout a district). Use this 

information to determine what information and skills your faculty can 

share with one another. 

 Provide a copy of this tool to every teacher. 

 Ask teachers to fill out the requested information. 

Explain that this is not a competition and you are not 

going to compare teachers with one another. You will 

use this information to identify specific faculty expertise, 

teaching strategies, and interests. In this way, faculty 

members will know whom to call on if they need a 

consultant or peer coach in a particular area. 

 Collect this information. If the technology capability 

exists in your school, ask a volunteer to use it to build 

a Web database or to organize the information so it’s 

easily accessible by everyone.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-13

Maintain the Momentum—Facilitation Guide STEP 8

Tool 8.8 Share a Site.

This tool provides a vehicle for teachers to identify and share their 

favorite education websites. 

 Provide a copy of this tool to every teacher. 

 Ask teachers to list sites directly related to topics that 

Professional Learning Teams in the school are addressing; 

or they may list websites that display lesson plans and 

other relevant online resources. 

 Arrange for teachers to return this form to you at a 

designated time. 

 If the technology capability exists in your school, ask 

a designated person to use this information to build a 

database of online resources for your faculty. 
8-14 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

It’s OKAY!

I used a new 

teaching strategy, 

and it did not work 

as well as I’d hoped. 

This ticket entitles 

me to continue 

trying new ideas to 

help my students be 

more successful and 

to have support 

from my colleagues 

while I do so. 

It’s OKAY!

I used a new 

teaching strategy, 

and it did not work 

as well as I’d hoped. 

This ticket entitles 

me to continue 

trying new ideas to 

help my students be 

more successful and 

to have support 

from my colleagues 

while I do so. 

It’s OKAY!

I used a new 

teaching strategy, 

and it did not work 

as well as I’d hoped. 

This ticket entitles 

me to continue 

trying new ideas to 

help my students be 

more successful and 

to have support 

from my colleagues 

while I do so. 

It’s OKAY!

I used a new 

teaching strategy, 

and it did not work 

as well as I’d hoped. 

This ticket entitles 

me to continue 

trying new ideas to 

help my students be 

more successful and 

to have support 

from my colleagues 

while I do so. 

Tool 8.1 It’s Okay

Directions: Cut the 

cards apart, and give 

one to each teacher. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-15

Are We on Target? Tool 8.2

Not there yet Are We on Target? Doing great

Working together smoothly 

as a team

Maintaining a regular 

meeting schedule

Reading and sharing

current research

Using new teaching 

strategies in the classroom

Maintaining a focus

on our goal 

Seeing changes in

student performance

Directions: Place this poster in a prominent place in the 

team meeting area. 
8-16 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 8.3 Feedback Form for Team Logs

Feedback for Team

I read your learning team log, and here are 

my thoughts:

Feedback for Team

I read your learning team log, and here are 

my thoughts:

Feedback for Team

I read your learning team log, and here are 

my thoughts:

Feedback for Team

I read your learning team log, and here are 

my thoughts:

Directions: Cut the cards apart, and distribute them to person(s) who will provide 

feedback on the Professional Learning Team logs.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-17

Protect These Teams!

The following is a list of the days and times that different 

learning teams meet. Please help these teams guard against 

interruptions during this important meeting time! 

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Protect These Teams! Tool 8.4

Directions: Place this 

poster in a prominent 

place in the office or 

other designated area. 
8-18 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Our learning team is working on this topic:

We are looking for fresh ideas and expertise

in this area: 

Would you please contact me or write your name 

below if you are willing to talk with us or act as a 

resource for us? 

Thanks!

 (Contact person)

Tool 8.5 Teacher to Teacher

Directions: Use 

this form to identify 

teachers who can 

assist teams with 

specific topics.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-19

Now that learning teams have been underway for awhile, 

your team probably needs further information and resources 

to help with research and information. Please list any 

additional resources and assistance you need in the space 

below. Thanks!

Team:

Books on...

People who can... 

Research articles on...

Workshops to help with...

Other...

What Do You Need? Tool 8.6
8-20 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Name:

Effective teaching strategies you use

Workshops you’ve attended

Presentations you have made

Other professional interests 

Additional information about you

Tool 8.7 Database of Teacher Talent

Directions:

Please give us some 

information on your 

professional skills and 

interests. No modesty 

allowed!
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 8-21

Share a Site Tool 8.8

Website name

and address What’s it about? Why do you like it?

Directions: List your favorite education websites, and give some information about them.

© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams

Examine Results

Step 9: Assess Team Progress .........................................9-1

© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 9-1

STEP 9

Step 9:

Assess Team Progress

Entry 41: I dragged two padded chairs with arms from the teacher 

workroom into my small office area. Deftly, I arranged the folders I’d 

prepared containing teachers’ names, schedules, and room numbers. I 

rescued two clipboards from a box beneath my desk where I’d stuffed 

as much of the office clutter as possible, squeezed a stack of evaluation 

forms under each clip, and placed them with the folders. By that time, 

Barbara and Pam from SERVE in North Carolina had arrived to begin 

conducting a two-day evaluation of the learning team project. I heaved 

a sigh of relief and gratitude. I need some frank feedback from these 

professionals outside the project—someone to bounce around ideas with.

—Anne Jolly: An Action Research Diary

Background

Collaborative learning teams are designed to improve results for 

students, teachers, and the school as an organization. Consequently, 

evaluating the effectiveness of this process solely on the basis 

of teacher satisfaction would be an inadequate approach. Your 

assessment strategy must measure changes in teaching practice 

and the impact of the process on student learning. Evaluation must 

assess results. 

Begin planning the learning team project evaluation early. Think 

about what should happen through the collaborative efforts of 

the learning team. Teachers should grow, develop, learn from 

experience, become more knowledgeable, and become more effective 

at their work. Team members should also grow in their ability to 

work together to improve teaching. Students should become more 

knowledgeable and perform better. You might reasonably expect the 

school culture to change. Develop or locate a variety of instruments 

to evaluate some or all of these factors. 

Gather the Right Data

Before introducing Professional Learning Teams to teachers, decide what 

kinds of information you will gather to determine the effectiveness 

of the initiative. To help you think through kinds of information you 

need to collect, look at “Types of Data to Gather” (Tool 9.2). Donald 

Assess Team Progress

This section will 

help the facilitator: 

 Assess the impact 

of Professional 

Learning Teams on 

teacher growth and 

development.

 Determine if the 

process is changing 

classroom instruction.

 Gather data for making 

decisions about next 

steps for Professional 

Learning Teams.
9-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 9 Assess Team Progress

Kirkpatrick describes four stages of evaluation in his book Evaluating 

Training Programs: The Four Levels. Applying Kirkpatrick’s process to 

the learning team evaluation, you need to consider (1) how teachers 

reacted to the initial training, (2) what knowledge and skills teachers 

gained through working in learning teams, (3) whether teachers applied 

what they learned in the classroom, and (4) whether that application 

achieved results for students. 

In assessing your school’s readiness for this new initiative, note 

that several things need to be in place to enable this new learning 

team effort to grow and flourish. Allison Rossett, in her book First 

Things Fast, refers to these as drivers. She mentions four drivers 

specifically, and these have been adapted for the Professional 

Learning Team process. To determine the probability of success 

with implementing a Professional Learning Team, look at (1) teacher 

skills and knowledge about collaboration, (2) teacher motivation, 

(3) the school environment in which teachers will be working, and 

(4) incentives that are in place to help sustain teachers’ efforts. 

Determine which ones are in place and which ones you need to 

address to set the stage for successful learning teams. 

You can get some of this information using the Pre/Post Survey 

instrument (Tool 9.3). Also collect up-front information on teacher 

expectations and beliefs. How much experience have teachers 

had with collaborative teamwork and learning? How often do they 

currently call on fellow teachers for help with teaching ideas and 

strategies? How important is it to teachers to work together? What 

benefits do teachers expect from this process? What disadvantages 

do they perceive? 

If possible, collect information on current classroom instructional 

practices, especially in the areas learning teams are addressing. In 

one school implementing Professional Learning Teams, the facilitator 

conducted forty 10-minute classroom observations to get a “school 

snapshot” of instructional strategies. No records were kept of what 

strategies particular teachers used, and this was not used as a 

teacher evaluation instrument. The faculty agreed with this 

approach of gathering baseline data on current instructional 

practices. Late in the school year, another set of school snapshots 

was taken and the results were compared to determine if and how 

schoolwide instructional practices had changed. 

“An infertile environment 

can block the success of 

even the most skilled and 

motivated individuals.”

— Allison Rossett, First Things 

Fast, 1999, p. 41
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 9-3

Assess Team Progress STEP 9

Other Assessment Strategies

Include benchmarks for team members that can help them 

judge their own progress along the way. These may include 

looking at their personal growth by examining their engagement in 

study and research, use of new instructional strategies, changes in 

teaching practices among team members, frequency of team meetings, 

and so on. The benchmarks would indicate teachers’ personal and 

collective growth and would provide teams with concrete goals and 

feedback on their progress. (See Tool 9.4.) Additional sources of 

information for project evaluation can include samples of student 

work, norm- and criterion-referenced tests, and measures of student 

engagement. You may want to provide some documentation through 

pictures and photographs as well.

If possible, arrange for an outside evaluation midway 

through the year and at the end of the year. Evaluators 

could be consultants, college professors, or business people who 

know about teamwork, education, and learning organizations. Ask 

evaluators to conduct structured focus groups with teachers to 

determine what changes are occurring as a result of the learning team 

process and to collect teacher reflections on the process. Use this 

information to rethink the project direction and facilitation as needed. 

Keep a variety of documentation throughout the course of 

the project. Retain copies of items such as faculty meeting agendas 

that might reflect changes growing out of the learning team process. 

At one school, the faculty meeting time targeted to instructional 

issues was near zero in September. The amount of faculty meeting 

time devoted to instructional issues rose steadily through January, 

until items such as teachers demonstrating new teaching practices 

and discussing learning team progress occupied most of the faculty 

meeting time, with administrative matters at the bottom of the list. 

This trend continued the rest of the year. 

Plan to conduct individual debriefing sessions with 

learning teams once per quarter. You can examine the sample 

questions provided here (Tool 9.6), but rely on your own awareness 

of group challenges and successes in your school as a guideline 

for deciding what information you need from debriefing sessions. 

Remember that assessment and evaluation data will provide a basis 

for making adjustments in the learning team process to ensure 

continuing progress. 
9-4 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 9 Assess Team Progress

Assess group development and collaboration. Garmston 

and Wellman’s The Adaptive School: A Sourcebook for Developing 

Collaborative Groups provides samples of assessments and 

evaluations that address collaborative norms and group development. 

A sample evaluation that SERVE developed for use with Professional 

Learning Teams is included in this step (Tool 9.7). 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 9-5

STEP 9

Step 9 Facilitation Guide

The Step 9 tools are designed to be used by facilitators. These include 

copies of data-collection tools that facilitators may use throughout the 

project to collect evidence on the effectiveness of Professional Learning 

Teams in producing results. Each tool contains an explanation and 

a suggested method of using that tool. You may also find additional 

tools and information for this step at the Professional Learning Teams 

area at www.serve.org/EdQuality/ProfLearnCom/Tools.php.

Tool 9.1 School Readiness Indicators.

This tool can help you do a quick up-front analysis of school factors 

that can affect the success of an initiative such as Professional 

Learning Teams. 

 Make a copy of this tool to use as a survey instrument, 

or use these questions to design your own survey form. 

 Survey all participating teachers and administrators, or 

collect this information from interviews with randomly 

selected teachers and administrators within the school.

Tool 9.2 Types of Data to Gather.

This tool focuses on different types of data you should gather about 

the Professional Learning Team initiative. 

 Use this tool as a checklist to help you plan assessments 

and evaluations. Be sure you plan to gather some 

evidence from each level.

Tool 9.3 Pre/Post Survey.

This tool provides an instrument for collecting information from 

teachers who will be participating in the learning team process. It can 

help you determine where the training and support should focus. 

 Make a copy of this anonymous survey for each 

participating faculty member. 

 Distribute the survey to teachers before they begin the 

Professional Learning Team process and at the end of the 

first school year of implementation. You may give this 

survey at intervals throughout the process.

 Compare responses to determine what changes are 

occurring in teachers’ thinking and feelings concerning 

Professional Learning Teams.

Assess Team Progress
9-6 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 9 Assess Team Progress—Facilitation Guide

 Also consider putting this survey online in an easy-touse format through a free online survey service. (Type 

“online surveys” into an Internet search engine to locate 

free online survey services.)

Tool 9.4 Team Self-Assessment.

This tool provides a reflective questionnaire that can encourage teams 

to assess their progress and pinpoint areas for improvement. 

 Make a copy of the tool for each team member. 

 Suggest that members reflect and write answers for each 

question individually. Ask them to take no more then 

five minutes for this.

 Ask team members to share and discuss their responses 

for each question. 

 Ask teams to summarize the main points of their 

discussion for each question and keep a copy in the 

team notebook for reference. Ask them to give you a 

copy of their responses if they feel comfortable doing so. 

Explain that you will use this as information for providing 

guidance and assistance as needed and for insight into 

the teams’ collective thinking. 

 Give teams this questionnaire at intervals during the year. 

Suggest they compare each set of responses with their 

responses from previous questionnaires. 

Tool 9.5 Evidence from Logs.

Use this tool to help you examine and analyze team logs over time. 

 Make a copy of this tool for each team.

 Use this tool at regular intervals, perhaps once per 

quarter, to help you productively glean information 

about the team’s functioning from the logs. 

 Share this information with teams if the results of your 

work can help and encourage them. 

 Keep track of the amount of time individual teams spend 

in learning team meetings. This gives you useful data 

for comparative purposes. It also allows you to provide 

members with certificates specifying the amount of time 

they spent in this professional development initiative.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 9-7

Assess Team Progress—Facilitation Guide STEP 9

Tool 9.6 Learning Team Debriefing Questions.

Use this tool at the end of the Professional Learning Team process for 

the school year to gather information from teams or individual team 

members. 

 Meet with each team, or with a representative sample of 

learning team participants from the faculty. 

 Explain that you need honest feedback on these 

questions in order to make adjustments and 

improvements in the Professional Learning Team process. 

 Ask team members the questions and record their 

responses. Do not comment except for clarification. 

Remind team members to follow their team norms for 

responding, with no one person dominating and with 

everyone participating. 

 As an alternative way of debriefing teams, you could 

make a copy of this form, distribute the questions to 

teams, and ask teams to respond in writing.

Tool 9.7 Professional Learning Team Survey.

This survey gathers a variety of information on Professional Learning 

Teams and teachers’ perceptions of them. 

 Make a copy of this survey for each Professional Learning 

Team participant. 

 Administer this survey to individual team members at the 

end of the year. 

 When tallying results, disaggregate information carefully 

in order to draw accurate conclusions about learning 

teams’ values. 

 This survey may be easier to manage if the questions are 

administered through an online survey that automatically 

tallies teachers’ responses as they complete the survey.
9-8 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Teacher knowledge, skills, and information

Does the faculty know...

❑ How to collaborate with other adults?

❑ Why they are using Professional Learning Teams? 

❑ How learning teams are structured?

❑ What to do in a learning team meeting? 

❑ What they need to learn?

❑ How they can acquire needed information, resources, 

and assistance?

Teacher motivation (persistence of effort) 

Does the faculty...

❑ See learning teams as relevant?

❑ Value the opportunity to work collaboratively?

❑ Feel confident they can succeed?

❑ Exhibit enthusiasm?

❑ Think this effort will help their students?

School environment and processes

How will learning teams be affected by...

❑ Policies and procedures at your school?

❑ Your school culture and organization?

❑ Availability of resources?

❑ Non-instructional responsibilities and other timerobbers?

Incentives 

How will the school encourage learning team participation?

❑ Exchanges

❑ Recognitions

❑ Frequent feedback

❑ Support and appreciation 

❑ Student successes

❑ Intrinsic rewards 

Adapted from a process described by Allison Rossett in First Things Fast: A Handbook for 

Performance Analysis.

Tool 9.1 School Readiness Indicators

Directions: Use 

this tool to gather 

information from 

school leaders and 

teachers. Once you 

have this information, 

plan for addressing 

areas of need. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 9-9

Gather Data to Measure...

Teachers’ reactions to Professional Learning Team training

 Collect information on how teachers reacted to initial learning team 

training. Were they confused? Was information missing? Were teachers 

engaged? Did they see new possibilities for improving their teaching? 

 Give teachers a questionnaire at the end of the training that measures 

their satisfaction with the training and asks them to evaluate different 

parts of the training. If their feelings about the initial training are 

good, they will be more supportive of the process in the important 

early stages. 

Learning resulting from the Professional Learning Team process

 Measure the extent to which teachers increased their knowledge, 

developed new skills, and changed their thinking as a result of working 

in learning teams. 

 Pre-test and post-test measures work well here. Data might also be 

reflected in team logs and team portfolios. 

Changes in the way teachers do business

 Look for changes in teacher interactions. Are teachers meeting regularly 

in teams, becoming more interdependent as team members, looking at 

research on teaching and learning, observing other teachers, developing 

new instructional materials, and so on? 

 Team logs, focus groups, retrospective surveys, samples of newly 

developed materials, and observation are good ways to locate this 

evidence. 

Learning applications in the classroom

 Gather evidence of teachers transferring knowledge and skills from 

Professional Learning Teams to actual classroom practice. 

 Collect data via team learning logs, classroom observation, team 

portfolios, focus groups, and/or retrospective surveys. 

Results

 Look for evidence of changes in teacher performance and student 

achievement. 

 When you look at student test scores, be careful about attributing 

increases in test scores to the impact of the learning team process. To 

do this, you will need a strong research design that controls for other 

variables that might also affect these scores.

Types of Data to Gather Tool 9.2

Directions: Use 

this tool in planning 

what data to gather 

to assess Professional 

Learning Team 

effectiveness. Be sure 

to gather evidence 

from each level. 

Adapted with permission of the 

publisher from a process described in 

Evaluating Training Programs: The Four 

Levels (2nd ed.) by Donald Kirkpatrick, 

1998, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 

San Francisco, CA. All rights reserved
9-10 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

4 Strongly Agree

3 Agree

2 Disagree

1 Strongly Disagree

1. I am familiar with the concept of teachers 

collaborating on classroom instruction.

2. I know the basic procedures that make up 

structured learning team meetings. 

3. I feel that meeting regularly in teams to focus on 

increasing teachers’ knowledge and expertise would 

be a valuable activity.

4. I prefer to work alone to learn and to increase my 

teaching expertise.

5. I prefer to participate in regular meetings with 

colleagues to learn and increase my teaching 

expertise. 

6. When we work together on committees at this 

school, the atmosphere is collegial.

7. When teachers at my school work in groups, all 

members participate and share responsibilities.

8. I regularly read professional journals and current 

research on teaching and learning.

9. I regularly look for different teaching strategies and 

adjust or change my teaching practices throughout 

the year.

10. I want to change the way I teach.

Thanks for your time and participation!

Tool 9.3 Pre/Post Survey

Directions: Please 

use the following scale 

to rate each statement 

in terms of how well 

you think it describes 

your knowledge and 

feelings about teacher 

collaboration.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 9-11

Team Logs

1. What do our logs indicate about our team progress?

2. What happens in our teams that does not make its way into our 

logs? (Consider things that would inform an outside reader.) 

3. How can we change the logs to make them a better source of 

information about our progress?

Team Progress

4. What are some things that indicate our team is making progress? 

5. What new information are we learning that will improve our 

instruction?

6. What new teaching methods are we trying in our classrooms?

7. What evidence do we have that these methods are/are not 

working?

8. Do you think this time in learning teams has been time wellspent? Why or why not?

9. What would make this learning team experience more valuable? 

10. What, if anything, is happening that would NOT be happening if 

not for learning teams?

11. Where do you want your team to be at the end of the school year? 

Team Self-Assessment Tool 9.4

Directions: Answer 

these questions as a 

team. Make a copy of 

your answers for the 

facilitator. 
9-12 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

To what extent are team members engaging in 

regular, focused team meetings?

Total number of 

meetings

Total number of 

hours

Participant 

attendance

How is the nature of team meetings changing 

over time?

Working 

relationships 

Realizations and 

understandings

Moral support 

Teacher learning

Enthusiasm

Productivity

How are team members interacting and working 

together?

What evidence of progress is apparent?

Tool 9.5 Evidence From Logs

Directions: Use these 

questions to help you 

analyze team logs 

over time. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 9-13

Directions: Use this 

tool to debrief teams 

at the conclusion of 

the first Professional 

Learning Team year. 

You may debrief each 

team, or you may 

debrief a representative sample of participating teachers. 

Change, omit, or add 

questions as needed.

Regarding the Professional Learning 

Team process...

What part of the process do you feel has been most successful? 

Why?

What part of the process do you feel has been least successful? Why?

What part of the learning team procedure needs to be adjusted? How?

What additional support would you like to have? 

What would make learning teams more valuable for teachers?

What changes have occurred as a result of working together in 

learning teams (individual, team, classroom, students, school)?

What would you like to see happen in Professional Learning Teams in 

the future?

What other comments would you like to make?

Learning Team Debriefing Questions Tool 9.6
9-14 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

School: Subject/Grade Level: 

1. How many times have you met with your learning team? ❑ 1−6 ❑ 7−12 ❑ 12+ ❑ Have not met

2. How many people are in your learning team? 

3. On a scale of 1−10 (with 10 being the most positive), what rating best describes your feelings about these meetings?

Most Negative (-) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Most Positive (+)

Unproductive Productive

Not task oriented Task oriented

Not well facilitated Well facilitated

Incompatible group members Compatible group members

Less than honest communications Honest communications

4. What, if any, are the positive impacts of these meetings on you personally? 

5. What, if any, negative impacts or concerns have you had with the learning team meetings? 

6. Rate the extent you feel you have benefited by participating on a learning team.

Rating scale: 1 (not at all) to 5 (a great deal)

To what extent have you gained . . . (Circle choice)

New knowledge about teaching and learning? 1 2 3 4 5

New insights about how to reach certain students? 1 2 3 4 5

New ideas about how to improve the way you teach? 1 2 3 4 5

New perspectives on your strengths and weaknesses in teaching? 1 2 3 4 5

A new outlet for expressing and sharing frustrations, concerns, and problems

with teaching? 1 2 3 4 5

Greater confidence in using a wider range of instructional and assessment methods? 1 2 3 4 5

A stronger sense of connection or support from other teachers? 1 2 3 4 5

A greater sense of yourself as a professional? 1 2 3 4 5

7. With regard to your selected team focus, how successful has your group been with each activity listed below?

Rating scale: 1 (not at all successful) to 5 (extremely successful)

How successful has your learning team been with . . . (Circle choice)

Analyzing and discussing student needs? 1 2 3 4 5

Reading research about and studying successful strategies for addressing student needs, and 

discussing applications of what we have read/studied?

1 2 3 4 5

Discussing similarities and differences in teachers’ approaches and beliefs about teaching? 1 2 3 4 5

Investigating programs, strategies, and materials that might help students? 1 2 3 4 5

Tool 9.7 Professional Learning Team Survey
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 9-15

How successful has your learning team been with . . . (Circle choice)

Designing new materials, lessons, or assessments for students? 1 2 3 4 5

Trying out new techniques, materials, and approaches in teaching and assessing students? 1 2 3 4 5

Sharing successful strategies you currently use? 1 2 3 4 5

Assessing and sharing results of new approaches to teaching with the learning team? 1 2 3 4 5

8. Of the teachers on your learning team, how many do you think believe the learning team approach has significant 

potential to help teachers improve students’ motivation and performance? (give number)

9. Below is a list of activities that support teacher growth and development. Try to assess the activities in terms of whether 

they were practiced effectively at the school before starting the learning teams. Rate each item from 1 (not very effectively 

practiced) to 5 (very effectively practiced) before the start-up of the learning teams.

(Circle choice)

Teachers talked to each other about how they teach and the results they got. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers learned from each other by watching each other teach. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers designed lessons, assessments, or units together. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers critiqued lessons, assessments, or units for each other. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers reviewed the curriculum across grade levels in a particular subject. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers developed strategies to address different learning styles. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers shared articles and other professional resources and read 

and discussed books.

1 2 3 4 5

Teachers asked each other for advice and help with particular students or topics. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers visited other schools to examine instructional approaches in other settings. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers worked together to examine student classroom tests and other student work 

samples to better understand student strengths and weaknesses.

1 2 3 4 5

Teachers provided moral support and encouragement to each other in trying new ideas. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers helped each other implement ideas from workshops attended. 1 2 3 4 5

10. In your opinion, what percentage of the students whom you teach have benefited from your learning team participation?

 ❑ less than 25% ❑ 26−50% ❑ 51−75% ❑ 76%+

11. Based on your experiences so far with the learning team, rate the following item.

Rating scale: 1 (not at all) to 5 (a great deal)

I think my participation on the learning team will . . . (Circle choice)

Improve my overall teaching effectiveness. 1 2 3 4 5

Improve my skills in helping students learn. 1 2 3 4 5

Change my perceptions about some students’ learning abilities. 1 2 3 4 5

Increase my understanding of how to motivate students to work harder. 1 2 3 4 5

Professional Learning Team Survey (cont.) Tool 9.7
9-16 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 9.7 Professional Learning Team Survey (cont.)

I think my participation on the learning team will . . . (Circle choice)

Significantly change how I teach. 1 2 3 4 5

Significantly change how I work with other teachers. 1 2 3 4 5

12. Rate the extent you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.

Rating scale: 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)

(Circle choice)

I am enthusiastic about my participation on a learning team. 1 2 3 4 5

I feel a lot of stress during the workday. 1 2 3 4 5

I need more time for learning team participation. 1 2 3 4 5

I am satisfied with my work environment here. 1 2 3 4 5

I am excited by my students’ accomplishments this year. 1 2 3 4 5

Student achievement is a major problem here. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers here tend to do their own thing in the classroom with little coordination. 1 2 3 4 5

I often feel unsure of my teaching. 1 2 3 4 5

Teachers here get along well. 1 2 3 4 5

Survey prepared by Pam Finney at SERVE.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams

Step 10: Facilitation 101 ................................................10-1

Sustain the Teams

© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 10-1

STEP 10

Step 10: Facilitation 101

Entry 36: The project is in place and regular learning team meetings 

are underway. None of this guarantees the project will be successful. I 

thought about how to spur the growth process and decided to begin by 

improving communications among groups. So far, the following items 

adorn my to-do list. (1) Distribute a newsletter every week to spotlight 

learning team activities. (2) Put copies of teams’ weekly logs, along with 

feedback forms, in the teacher workroom. (3) Meet weekly, and briefly, 

with each learning team. (4) Contact teachers regularly through e-mail 

to keep them thinking about the process. (5) Arrange for some faculty 

meetings to be devoted to group sharing. (6) Arrange for occasional 

departmental meetings so subject area teachers can exchange ideas.

— Anne Jolly: An Action Research Diary

Background

The word facilitate means to make easy. Your job as a facilitator 

is to make the Professional Learning Team process as smooth and 

productive for teachers as possible. The teachers you are working with 

are already shouldering increasing responsibilities, workloads, and 

expectations. Assist them with logistics. Help them acquire resources. 

Be their advocate, and run interference. Protect their meeting times 

from outside interruptions. Foster the attitude throughout the school 

that student success may hinge on the learning and development 

process that goes on in these team meetings. Here are some tips for 

helping the process move smoothly. 

Be an encourager. Keep your attitude upbeat, friendly, 

and encouraging. Expect that daily distractions will make 

it difficult for even the most motivated teams to protect 

regular meeting times. Gently nudge teams who seem to 

be returning to their “old” ways of doing things. Provide 

frequent feedback, and show interest in what teams are 

accomplishing. Share success stories with the entire 

faculty to help them see that learning teams can make a 

difference for their students. 

Keep teams focused. Help the teams maintain 

a focus on teacher learning as the means to higher 

student achievement. In the normal course of events, 

teachers focus on student learning. However, successful 

classroom teaching unlocks the door to successful 

Facilitation 101

This section will 

help the facilitator:

 Learn some 

characteristics of good 

facilitators.

 Consider organization 

and presentation ideas.

 Gain ideas for ways to 

encourage and support 

teams.
10-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 10 Facilitation 101

student learning, and Professional Learning Teams 

provide a way for teachers to accomplish that. 

Be resilient and flexible. Keep a sense of humor 

during the ups and downs you will encounter and 

remain objective. Never take teacher frustrations with 

the learning team process personally. Rather, focus on 

ways to help teams deal with frustrations and bolster 

their morale. You and the team members are all learners 

together in this process. 

Stay informed. Throughout your role as a facilitator, 

read and reflect! Acquire a good working knowledge 

of the role professional learning communities can play 

in improving teacher expertise and student learning. 

Read current research and information on teacher 

collaboration. Look for information and evidence you can 

share with the faculty to confirm this effort will be worth 

their time. 

Gather evidence of results. As you facilitate the 

teams, regularly gather data (team logs, observed 

changes in classroom practices, surveys, etc.) to keep 

track of and document progress. Keep an eye out for 

results. What good things are happening as a result 

of this process? What evidence do you have? What is 

not happening that needs to? Share evidence and data 

regularly with teams and others who are interested. 

Some facilitators may also find themselves in a training role, helping 

team members learn how to become successful collaborators. In this 

guidebook, we’ve tried to distill some of the best current thinking 

about collaboration, but you will want to look beyond these pages. 

The “Resources” section points to books and articles that can deepen 

your thinking. 

As facilitator, your role may also include that of “public relations 

officer” for the learning team process. You may want to inform and 

involve people outside the school, including parents, central office 

administrators, local newspaper and television journalists, and other 

key players in the education community. 

Tool 10.1 can provide you with a checklist of ideas for encouraging, 

supporting, and smoothing the path for Professional Learning Teams.
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 10-3

Facilitation 101 STEP 10

Get Organized!

Your first order of business as a facilitator is to get organized. Keeping 

careful documentation and a history of each learning team’s progress 

is crucial. This information will help you replicate good results, 

eliminate faulty procedures and wasted efforts, and make a case for 

continuing the learning teams. Keep a copy, literally, of everything 

you prepare, send out, or hand out about the learning team process, 

and keep a record of everything that comes to you. 

You’ll have your own ideas about getting organized. Here’s one way to 

proceed, based on my own trials and errors and mid-course corrections: 

 Buy two or three 6-inch binders and several sets of tabs. 

As materials come in, hole-punch them and place them 

behind an appropriate tab in the first binder. As that 

binder fills up, move materials into the second binder 

and keep adding. The tab names may correspond to the 

steps in this book, or you may have a different way of 

organizing. The important thing is to keep everything 

organized from the first day. 

You’ll change the names of the tabs and shift items around from time 

to time, but you might start with a checklist like this:

❑ Teams: Names of team members on each team, 

information about each one (subject taught, special skills 

and training, etc.) and contact information. 

❑ Learning Team Communiqués: Keep a copy of all 

learning team communications—information you send 

to teams and information teams send to you and others. 

❑ Reports and Memos: When you make a report on 

the project’s progress or send memos to the principal or 

other stakeholders, file copies behind this tab. 

❑ Resources: Copies of materials (research articles, 

books, videos, etc.) you pull together to assist teachers 

in their task. Also keep a record of all resources provided 

to learning teams.

❑ School Data: This isn’t just your typical school data, 

but rather anything that can help you document the 

impact of the learning team process. For example, 
10-4 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 10 Facilitation 101

agendas from faculty meetings may change over the 

year as instructional issues gain higher priority. You 

may see changes in teacher classroom practices and in 

student engagement and success. Are there any signs 

that teacher collaboration across the school is increasing 

thanks to the work being done by learning teams? 

❑ Assessments and Evaluations: Include preassessments, mid-year evaluations, and end of the year 

evaluations, plus any other teacher input you get for 

formative purposes. 

❑ Tools and Tips: Add ideas you find for helping the 

Professional Learning Team process work in your school. 

Anytime you do something that works, document it! 

If it doesn’t work, keep a record of that as well. As 

the project progresses, this may become your most 

frequently used tab!

Keep a journal of your activities and reflections. Use one of those 

big spiral notebooks for this. Log in your activities and reflections 

each day. Soon you’ll have an understandable history of the project 

and a source of invaluable information for later use. This will seem 

like a nuisance at first, but it’s a great way to document the project’s 

evolution. Your daily reflections will also spur valuable personal 

insights and help you steer your future course. 

Get Off to a Good Start

At the beginning of the learning team process, let teachers know 

exactly what you will be doing with and for learning teams. The Step 

10 Facilitation Guide includes a sample of a handout for participants 

(Tool 10.2) explaining what you, as a facilitator, will do. You may use 

this one or prepare one tailored to your specific responsibilities. After 

teachers understand the purpose and procedures of learning teams, 

put agreed-upon decisions and responsibilities in writing. Distribute 

copies to learning teams to make these decisions more concrete. 

Fine-Tune Your Presentation Skills

When you are making a presentation on the learning team process 

to teachers, choose the time and place carefully. If you introduce this 

idea to teachers during an after-school faculty meeting, keep in mind 

the typical energy levels at the end of a school day. Put the learning 

“Remember... The brain 

can absorb what the seat 

can endure.”

— Karen Kalish, How to Give a 

Terrific Presentation, p. 121
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 10-5

Facilitation 101 STEP 10

team introduction first on the agenda, or better yet, make it the only 

thing on the agenda. 

 Keep your introduction short, up beat, and to the point. If 

you use an overhead projector, make your transparencies 

interesting by including graphics and using a large 

font that’s easy to read from the back of the room. 

Overheads can be confusing when they contain too much 

information. Use only keywords and phrases from the text. 

 During and after the presentation, give faculty members 

time to question, reflect, and discuss. Interact with 

participants as a mentor, friend, and guide, not as a lecturer. 

A great resource for being an effective presenter is How to Give a 

Terrific Presentation, a short, peppy book by Karen Kalish. Another is 

The Presenter’s Fieldbook: A Practical Guide by Robert Garmston. You’ll 

find both of these listed in the “Resources” section of this book.

Expect Resistance

Resistance to change seems to be a built-in characteristic of schools 

and school systems. Monica Janas (1998) describes resistance as 

“the sleeping dragon of the change process” that “thwarts goals, 

disrupts action plans, and undermines progress.” Don’t be surprised or 

disconcerted when this sleeping dragon rears its head. 

One of the most formidable opponents you will face is the status 

quo. Teachers are part of that status quo. When you feel discouraged, 

remember change of any kind is complex and difficult. Your decision 

to undertake this project may have been accompanied initially 

by a glow of rosy optimism. However, as in any change process, 

predictable conflicts and difficulties inevitably occur as the project 

progresses. Expect these, and deal with them objectively. Document 

the pitfalls as well as the successes, and learn from both. 

A word of advice: Do not try to persuade teachers to participate 

in learning teams by assuring them change will be easy. Principals 

and teachers should acknowledge from the outset that changing their 

teaching practice will be difficult, regardless of how carefully they plan 

and how skillfully they manage the process. 

When teachers become complacent or unenthusiastic, help them 

focus clearly on the purpose of their collaboration and the results it 

should produce. Try to reestablish a sense of purpose. Document the 
10-6 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

STEP 10 Facilitation 101

effectiveness of the learning team process. Create short-term wins for 

teachers by celebrating successes and benchmarks achieved. Above 

all, remember each learning team is unique and each school situation 

is unique. Groups mature at different rates, and some will perform 

better than others. 

You are undertaking a rewarding experience as you begin to help 

build a school culture that is seriously committed to high levels of 

learning for students and faculty members alike. As you go through 

the process of facilitating, you will experience “ahas” and insights, 

and you will create your own tools for assisting teams. Share your 

tools and your findings with others who are engaged in this same 

adventure. Your experiences with Professional Learning Teams can 

provide additional insights about effective teacher collaboration and 

add to the growing body of knowledge about ways to revolutionize 

teaching and learning. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 10-7

STEP 10

Step 10 Facilitation Guide

These tools are suitable for individuals in a variety of roles. You 

will find these tools useful whether you are a teacher, facilitator, 

school leader, principal, or a staff developer. If the suggestions for 

using each tool are not appropriate for your purposes, adapt the 

suggestions as needed. Select those tools that are most suited to 

your needs and purposes. You may also find additional tools and 

information for this step at the Professional Learning Teams support 

site at www.serve.org/EdQuality/ProfLearnCom/Tools.php.

10.1 Tips for Supporting Professional Learning Teams.

Use this list of ideas to motivate learning teams and create 

circumstances that can help them be successful. This can be used as a 

checklist and a plan of action for facilitators.

10.2 Learning Team Agreement.

This tool provides a model for drawing up an agreement between the 

facilitator and members of learning teams. Work with participating 

teachers to decide jointly on facilitator and team member 

responsibilities.

Facilitation 101
10-8 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

❑ Build good relationships with teams. Talk with the 

teachers in your school, listen to teachers, and look 

for opportunities to help individual teachers as well 

as teams. Look for areas of strength in the teams and 

teachers you work with, and focus on these as you help 

them learn and grow. 

❑ Spend time in team members’ individual 

classrooms. Gain insight into teaching styles and 

innovative strategies. Reference these in learning team 

meetings. Watch for growth and document it in your 

personal journal. 

❑ Use faculty meetings as a time for teams to share 

their best ideas and give others a sense of what 

they’re accomplishing. If you are the principal, you can 

obviously make this decision yourself. If you are not the 

principal, approach the principal about this idea. A word 

of caution: do not use this as an “add-on” that lengthens 

faculty meetings. Don’t make this valuable sharing time a 

punishment rather than a learning experience. Redesign 

faculty meetings so that they are used for professional 

growth and team building. 

❑ Develop a newsletter to publish good things teams 

do, including their “This Week’s Best Ideas.” 

Distribute this to the entire faculty, and include this in 

the school’s parent/community newsletter. This keeps the 

learning team process highly visible at all times. 

❑ Take pictures of teachers meeting together, of 

team members trying out new strategies in their 

classrooms, and of other learning team events. Make 

these available for school newsletters and local newspaper 

articles. Post these around the school in appropriate 

locations (office, team workroom, library, and so on). 

❑ Take pictures of each team member’s students. Give 

these to team members for the team notebook. When 

teachers become discouraged or lose sight of their goal, 

looking at pictures of their students can be a terrific 

motivator that keeps them on task. 

❑ Set up a location in the library where teachers can 

meet in learning teams. This location can be a central 

Tool 10.1 Tips for Supporting Professional Learning Teams 

Directions: Use these 

ideas to encourage 

and sustain successful 

learning teams. Add 

other ideas to this 

list throughout the 

year as you discover 

new ways to facilitate 

teams and maintain 

their motivation and 

momentum. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams 10-9

resource area for learning team articles and information 

and a center for sharing materials. A library location has 

an added advantage of making learning team meetings 

public so that students (and other faculty) can see 

teachers engaged in learning and planning. 

❑ Provide learning team materials and resources. Set 

aside an area in your library for learning team resources. 

Add research articles and materials to this section 

regularly, and begin building an archive of materials 

from which teachers can draw ideas, strategies, and 

information about good, field-tested practices. 

❑ Create surprise baskets for learning teams. From 

time to time, place a small container of “goodies” in the 

learning team meeting areas. These may include snacks 

and treats, as well as items such as colorful sticky notes, 

page flags, binder clips, and other items teams may need. 

❑ Establish online communication within and 

among learning team members. Set up an electronic 

folder for each team containing e-mail addresses for 

team members. Make these folders available to all 

teams, and invite idea sharing. If you’re an off-campus 

facilitator, invite teams to send you copies of their logs 

electronically and respond via e-mail.

❑ Engage team members in using online resources.

From time to time, send team members articles and 

information electronically. Connect them to good 

education websites, and involve them in exploring the 

world of resources that exists beyond the school site. 

❑ Arrange opportunities for team members to attend 

conferences and professional development events 

related to their learning team goals. Like their 

students, teachers learn and grow in many ways. Keep 

looking for opportunities to promote their growth! 

❑ Be an advocate for changes in school organization 

and culture that will promote and support teacher 

collaboration. Champion the idea that teachers should 

spend more time on instructional responsibilities and less 

time on clerical and managerial duties.

Tips for Supporting Professional Learning Teams (cont.) Tool 10.1
10-10 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

Tool 10.2 Learning Team Agreement

Learning team purpose

To prepare students to achieve at higher levels, teachers will work 

together weekly throughout the school year to increase their 

knowledge and teaching expertise. The school administration will 

actively encourage and support this process by providing resources, 

time, and support. 

With the agreement of the teachers and administration, the 

facilitator will 

1. Introduce teachers to the Professional Learning Team process. 

2. Collect data and information about the initiative during

the year.

3. Provide ongoing guidance for the learning team process and 

oversee the implementation of the process at the school. 

4. Monitor and assist the learning teams regularly and 

provide feedback.

5. Assist with spotlighting the work of the teams among the 

administration and the community.

6. Provide teams with resources for research and professional 

development.

Learning team members will 

1. Participate actively in the learning team process throughout 

the school year.

2. Keep a team log of activities, discussions, and reflections. 

3. Share information about learning team activities and practices.

4. Provide feedback and recommendations regarding the learning 

team process.

Directions: Use this 

as a model for an 

agreement that you 

draw up between 

yourself and your 

learning teams. Work 

with Professional 

Learning Team 

members to develop 

this agreement. 
© SERVE 2004 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams R-1

Resources
R-2 A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams © SERVE 2004

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A Facilitator’s Guide to

Professional Learning Teams

Creating on-the-job opportunities for teachers to learn and grow

Professional development research suggests that teachers learn best from and 

with each other in ongoing, job-embedded activities. A Facilitator’s Guide to 

Professional Learning Teams provides a way of engaging school faculties in 

sustained, onsite professional development that builds capacity and collegiality, 

improves teaching quality, and focuses on student achievement. This practical 

“how-to” guide will provide facilitators with field-tested tools and procedures for 

establishing and maintaining professional learning teams in schools. 

Among the suggestions and resources you will find are ideas and activities for 

organizing Professional Learning Teams, analyzing data, setting goals, guiding 

teams through successful meetings, sustaining team momentum, and monitoring 

team progress and effectiveness. 

I am impressed with the thoroughness and comprehensiveness of 

this guide. The steps are very clear, concrete, and extensive and 

provide a splendid, formalized method to create the building blocks 

of professional learning among communities of practitioners. I 

believe that this product is an excellent addition to what we have 

available, and I can see myself using it.

— Shirley M. Hord, Ph.D., Scholar Emerita

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Austin, Texas

FGPLT