Guiding Questions for Starting a Professional Learning Network

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Start Your Network with a Clear Purpose and Solid Direction

When forming a professional learning network, how do you ensure your efforts are meaningful and sustainable? Based on our experiences, we developed this list of guiding questions and design elements to consider.

Organized into eight areas ranging from shared vision and goals to evaluation and data use, this document provides sample questions to help you get your network off the ground, including:

  • What will be different when we are successful as a network?
  • What is the desired unit of membership (districts, schools, teams within schools, individuals)?
  • What virtual forms of collaborative activities do we want to engage in? How many and how often?
  • What types of in-person opportunities for collaboration do we have? How many and how often?
  • How will decisions be made on behalf of the network?
  • And more

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