The purpose of restructuring schools as professional learning communities (PLCs) is to make instruction more effective and maximise student learning through administrators' and teachers' implementing better practices based on a support culture. In this respect, teachers identify student learning by focusing on analyses and assessments on students' performance. They make plans regarding what and how to teach, and try to enhance the quality of learning by preparing action plan for students who cannot learn at the desired rate and level. They attempt to reveal successful learning products, and organise activities for students who learn quickly and sufficiently. In schools that have an emphasis on the understanding of a professional learning community, the focus is on student learning that is the technical essence of the school, and instructing is emphasised less. This is because instructing is about making students comprehend certain pieces of information, while learning makes references to their individual, emotional, cognitive and behavioural characteristics. In other words, a student is regarded as special in learning. From this perspective, the practices of professional learning communities aim to have a school environment in which all students can learn and succeed, and includes activities of improvement and development. In this way, they ensure higher quality of education. In this study, positive contributions of the restructuring of schools as professional learning communities to student learning and the quality of education are found to increase the interest in this issue. Different characteristics of schools as professional learning communities are observed to be widely examined in the international literature. However, in the Turkish literature, studies on professional learning communities are quite new, and this phenomenon need to be examined from different aspects. Therefore, the present study focuses on the conceptual framework, basic assumptions, theoretical foundations, objectives, dimensions and samples of professional learning communities, and provides suggestions regarding its implementation in Turkish schools Professional learning communities improve student learning and teaching in schools (Hord, 1997). Schools monitor and assess student achievements with professional learning communities, make more detailed examinations (Johnson, 2012; Morrisey, 2000) and try to solve learning and teaching-related problems (Darling-Hammond and Sykes, 1999; DuFour and Eaker, 1998). On the other hand, various and model practices among different teachers are learned with the cooperation among colleagues (Mangrum, 2004), good practices in education become widespread in schools (Hiebert and Morris, 2012), the improvement of teachers that are not sufficient at the professional level is ensured, and thus, school capacities are increased (Wang, Wang, Li and Li, 2017). As can be understood from these statements, it can be said that the approach of professional learning communities plays a vital role in increasing the qualification of education in schools and increasing the quality of learning, the most basic duty of the school. Therefore, in this study, the structuring of schools as professional learning communities is examined. On the other hand, there is a limited number of studies on the subject in the national literature (Dervişoğulları, 2014; Kalkan, 2015; Kılınç and Özdemir, 2016; Kılınç and Öğdem, 2013; Öğdem, 2015). Thus, there is a need for new studies that explain the conceptual structure related to this subject and introduce the forms of practices of professional learning communities in schools. In this context, some proposals for the conceptual framework of professional learning communities, basic assumptions, theoretical foundations, objectives, dimensions, practice examples and application in the Turkish National Education system were included. Professional learning is an increase in the knowledge, skills, and experience of individuals in their professions. Within this process, a teacher constantly questions himself/herself, thinks about what and how a student learns and improves himself/herself (Timperley, Wilson, Barrar and Fung, 2007). It is observed that professional learning communities focus primarily on student learning and how students learn (Hord, 1997). With reference to the idea that the concept of the professional learning community can be learned in organizations, it is stated that it first emerged in the business sector (Thompson, Gregg, and Niska, 2004). Walker (2002) states that the origins of the concept of the learning community were influenced by Mary Follett’s constructive conflict, transformational leadership of Burns, Senge’s learning organization, Max Weber’s system theory, and Getzel and Guba’s social system theory. In this study, on the basis of developing professional learning communities in schools, the concept of the professional learning community, its theoretical substructure, dimensions, basic assumptions, basic questions for assessing student learning, studies on its functionality and development, and practical examples in school are emphasized, respectively. In this context, according to different research results in relation to professional learning communities, a discussion about the educational institutions in Turkey being developed as professional learning communities was made and some proposals were developed. According to this study, it is observed that practices of professional learning are performed on a school basis. It is stated that there are school and school-based professional development practices in the professional development of teachers and functionality of learning communities (Kılınç and Öğdem, 2013; McLaughlin and Talbert, 2006; Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Wallace and Thomas, 2006). These school-based practices refer to teaching activities for improving student learning and to the developing these teaching activities (McLaughlin and