Why learning communities for PROSPER Team Leaders?
The PLC is an opportunity for PROSPER Team Leaders to reflect on their team’s functioning, discuss issues that their teams face, share struggles and successes with colleagues, learn from colleagues how to manage issues in team leadership and community development, and gain further information on implementing high-quality, evidence-based prevention programs. The PLC is also attended by prevention coordinators and university-based researchers who may provide some guidance and act as facilitators. The PLC is a professional development experience that provides Team Leaders with a structure for reflection about their experiences. Dall’Alba and Sandberg (2006) note that it is the understanding of practice that forms the basis for professional skill development. More specifically, professionals’ use of new knowledge and skills depends on “their embodied understanding of the practice in question” (p. 390). The learning community environment supports this shift from transfer of knowledge and sk
