A professional learning community: an italian exploratory study. The role of teachers as facilitators to develop school communities supported by the methos of cooperative learning

This research presents the results of a survey carried out in order to evaluate the impact of cooperative learning training delivered by CeSeDi (Centre of Didactic Services) across ten years. CeSeDi is a public institution operating in the Turin District in the field of in-service teacher education. Specifically, we collected data about the following dimensions: a) the impact of training on teachers’ educational competences (e.g. classroom management, improvement of pupils’ cognitive abilities, etc); b) the role of individual and organizational factors in the process of training transfer; c) the impact of a group of teachers playing the role of coaches for the implementation of cooperative learning methods in different schools; d) the role of school-networks in the improvement of teaching and learning quality; e) the nature and the dynamics of learning within a professional community composed by expert teachers. The data was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. We interviewed 293 teachers and 12 expert teachers. We collected the quantitative data through a web engine solution based on the Opinio platform. We had 293 respondents out of 542 subjects among those inserted on CESEDI database (54%). The results of both qualitative and quantitative data analysis seem to show that teachers who work in coached schools feel better about the work climate and their professional role.