Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) for English Teachers as an Effective Alternative Framework for Professional Development

The Professional Learning Community (PLC) has been adopted as an alternative model for professional development for English teachers in Israel since September 2016 and is supported by the English Inspectorate. This qualitative research, based on phenomenological methodology, evaluates how successful this model is for teachers in 2019/2020. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten lead teachers of PLCs and with six teacher participants, in addition to observations of both teacher PLCs and lead teacher sessions. The findings overwhelmingly support the PLC as an effective model of professional development for English teachers showing the need for and importance of a support system for teachers and a lead teacher from the field of English with specific qualities and ability to work with heterogeneous groups. Level of satisfaction was dependent on factors concerning the facilitating abilities of the lead teacher, the characteristics of the participants and their prior attitude to the PLC framework.