Understanding How Professional Learning Communities Function: Motheo Lesson Study

This report explores how professional learning communities (PLCs) function as a form of continuous professional development within the context of a lesson-study approach in the Motheo District in the Free State Province of South Africa from February to October 2017. 

It documents data from five PLCs (3 foundation phase, 2 intermediate phase), examining characteristics such as trust, regularity, leadership, inclusivity and relevance of their collaborative practices. 

The audience includes educational practitioners and policy-makers interested in how PLCs support inclusive teaching and professional growth. The key insight is that PLCs structured around lesson-study activities can foster more responsive and practice-embedded teacher development, yet they require supportive conditions (time, trust, leadership, facilitation) to function effectively. 

The document is relevant because it offers empirical observations on how PLCs evolve in low-resource school settings, pointing to both facilitators and barriers to sustainable collaborative professional learning.