Design Principles for Sustained Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)

Dipeshwor Shrestha’s research looks at what it takes to build professional learning communities that truly support teachers over time. Drawing on a multi-year design-based research process in Nepal, the study responds to common challenges in teacher professional development, including short-term training, limited collaboration, conventional classroom practices, and the gap between imported educational frameworks and local classroom realities.

The research shows that when teachers are part of a sustained and reflective learning community, they are better able to experiment, collaborate, and grow in ways that feel relevant to their own contexts. Across five iterations, the study identifies four key design principles: grounded learning opportunities, multidimensional reflection, sustained collaborative communities, and curricular iterations.

Together, these findings offer a more practical and context-rooted way to think about teacher professional learning, not as a one-time event, but as an ongoing process shaped by relationships, reflection, and classroom practice.