THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY MODEL TO IMPROVE ELEMENTARY SHOOL TEACHERS’ INSTRUCTIONAL MINDSET

Abstract

The purposes of this study were (1) to develop a professional learning community model to improve elementary school teachers’ instructional mind set; and (2) to compare elementary school teachers’ instructional mindsets before and after using the professional learning community model. The research population comprised 1,152 elementary school teachers who participated in the Project for Development of Mechanism for Supporting Professional Learning Community for Learner Development. The research sample consisted of 21 elementary school teachers from one school in Nakhon Ratchasima province, obtained by cluster random sampling. The research process consisted of 2 stages: (1) the development stage, and (2) the experiment and improvement stage. The research instruments comprised (1) a handbook/guidelines for creating the professional learning community, and (2) a teacher’s instructional mindset assessment scale. Statistical procedure for data analysis was the t-test for dependent samples. Research results revealed that (1) the developed professional learning community model to improve elementary school teachers’ instructional mind set was composed of 4 elements: the principle, the objectives, the main processes and important roles, and the supporting factors for using the model; and (2) the post-experiment elementary school teachers’ instructional mindsets were higher than their pre-experiment counterpart mindsets at the .01 level of significance.