Chapter 4: Creating a Quantitative Snapshot of a Learning Community Using Dynamics

A great deal of time and energy are invested in melding the K–12 and higher education cultures in a Professional Development School (PDS). Researchers, teachers, and administrators all want to know how this systemic approach improves student learning, but it is challenging to try to isolate the effects due to PDS activity from those that would have taken place without PDS activity. In a concerted effort to answer this question, we focused on a distinguishing characteristic between a PDS and a regular school, namely, the constituents of the learning community. This chapter provides a research design to answer the following question: As the learning community develops (using “dynamics” as the criteria), does student achievement similarly increase? With a “snapshot” of the learning community on a radar chart we can analyze the data to generate a number that represents the learning community’s development relative to that of an “ideal” learning community.