Essential relevance of professional learning communities to teacher attitude to educational change and classroom effectiveness in Ghanaian Basic Schools

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) model of continuous professional development was introduced into Ghanaian basic schools in 2019 educational reforms to enhance professional competencies of teachers. However, empirical studies into the effectiveness of PLCs in schools is at teething stages worldwide. Therefore, this study sought to test the hypothesis that effective PLC affects teacher attitude towards educational change (TAC) which ultimately affects teacher classroom effectiveness (TCE). Kennedy’s (2005) community of practice theory guided the study. Working within the positivist’s philosophy, the study employed the quantitative research approach using the causal-comparative research design. The census and proportionate stratified random sampling techniques were used to select 87 headteachers and 339 teachers respectively for the study. Olivier et al.’s (2010) PLCA-R, Prakash et al.’s (2020) TCE, and Dunham et al.’s (1989) TAC questionnaires were used to collect data. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation and structural equation modelling (SEM) with the aid of SPSS and AMOS version 28. The findings established that PLCs had significant positive effect on TAC and TCE. The findings further discovered that TAC fully mediated the effect of PLCs on TCE. Therefore, the study confirmed the hypothesis that PLC affects TCE through TAC in Ghanaian basic schools. The study contributes to the field of educational leadership in understanding the networks through which PLCs impact classroom effectiveness of teachers. Hence, the study recommended that the Ghana Education Service should promote attitudinal change among teachers to enhance the effect of PLCs on TCE.