A learning community is a group of people who share common academic goals and attitudes and meet semi-regularly to collaborate on classwork. Such communities have become the template for a cohort-based,
interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
approach to
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
. This may be based on an advanced kind of educational or 'pedagogical' design.
Community psychologists such as McMillan and Chavis (1986) state that four key factors defined a sense of community: "(1) ''membership'', (2) ''influence'', (3) ''fulfilment of individuals needs'' and (4) ''shared events and emotional connections''. So, the participants of learning community must feel some sense of loyalty and belonging to the group (''membership'') that drive their desire to keep working and helping others, also the things that the participants do must affect what happens in the community; that means, an active and not just a reactive performance (''influence''). Besides, a learning community must give a chance to the participants to meet particular needs (''fulfilment'') by expressing personal opinions, asking for help or specific information, and share stories of events with particular issue included (''emotional connections'') emotional experiences".
Learning communities are now fairly common to
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
colleges
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...
and
universities
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
, and are also found in Europe.
History
In a summary of the history of the concept of learning communities,
Wolff-Michael Roth
Wolff-Michael Roth (born June 28, 1953, Heidelberg) is a learning scientist at the University of Victoria conducting research on how people across the life span know and learn mathematics and science. He has contributed to numerous fields of resea ...
and
Lee Yew Jin suggest that until the early 1990s, and consistent with (until then) dominant
Piagetian
Jean William Fritz Piaget (, , ; 9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Switzerland, Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's Piaget's theory of cognitive development, theory of cognitive development and epistemol ...
constructivist and information processing paradigms in education, the individual was seen as the "unit of instruction" and the focus of research. Roth and Lee claim this as a watershed period when influenced by the work of
Jean Lave
Jean Lave is a social anthropologist who theorizes learning as changing participation in on-going changing practice. Her lifework challenges conventional theories of learning and education.
Education and career
Lave received a Bachelor's from S ...
, and Lave and
Etienne Wenger among others, researchers and practitioners switched to the idea that was knowing and knowledgeability are better thought of as cultural practices that are exhibited by practitioners belonging to various communities; which, following Lave and Wenger's early work, are often termed
communities of practice
A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educati ...
.
Roth and Lee claim that this led to forms of
praxis
Praxis may refer to:
Philosophy and religion
* Praxis (process), the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practised, embodied, or realised
* Praxis model, a way of doing theology
* Praxis (Byzantine Rite), the practice of fai ...
(learning and teaching designs implemented in the classroom, and influenced by these ideas) in which students were encouraged to share their ways of doing mathematics, history, science, etc. with each other. In other words, students take part in the construction of consensual domains and "participate in the negotiation and institutionalisation of ... meaning". In effect, they are participating in ''learning communities''. Roth and Lee go on to analyse the contradictions inherent in this as a theoretically informed practice in education.
Roth and Lee are concerned with the learning community as a theoretical and analytical category; they critique how some educators use the notion to design learning environments without considering the fundamental structures implied in the category. Their analysis does not consider the appearance of learning communities in the United States in the early 1980s. For example,
the Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a p ...
, which is widely considered a pioneer in this area, established an intercollegiate learning community in 1984. In 1985, this same college established the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, which focuses on collaborative education approaches, including learning communities as one of its centrepieces.
Learning communities began to gain popularity at other U.S. colleges and universities during the late 80s and throughout the 90s. The Washington Center's National Learning Commons Directory has over 250 learning community initiatives in colleges and universities throughout the nation.
Models
Learning communities can take many forms. According to Barbara Leigh Smith of the Evergreen State College,
The learning community approach fundamentally restructure the curriculum and the time and space of students. Many different curricular restructuring models are being used. Still, all of the learning community models intentionally link together courses or coursework to provide greater curricular coherence, more opportunities for active teaming, and interaction between students and faculty.
Experts frequently describe five basic nonresidential learning community models:
# Linked courses: Students take two connected courses, usually one disciplinary course such as history or biology and one skills course such as writing, speech, or information literacy.
# Learning clusters: Students take three or more connected courses, usually with a common interdisciplinary theme uniting them.
# Freshman interest groups: Similar to learning clusters, but the students share the same major, and they often receive academic advising as part of the learning community.
# Federated learning communities: Similar to a learning cluster, but with an additional seminar course taught by a "Master Learner", a faculty member who enrols in the other courses and takes them alongside the students. The Master Learner's course draws connections between the other courses.
# Coordinated studies: This model blurs the lines between individual courses. The learning community functions as a single, giant course where the students and faculty members work full-time for an entire semester or academic year.
Residential learning communities, or living-learning programs, range from theme-based halls on a
college dormitory to degree-granting residential colleges.
What residential and nonresidential learning communities share is an intentional integration of academic content with daily interactions among students, faculty, and staff living and working in these programs.
Micro-foundations are based on studies to understand how groups and teams increase their capabilities to work effectively together. If the organization is a puzzle, then the groups are pieces of the puzzle, putting them together makes it solid.
describe organizational learning as a dynamic process, where new ideas and actions move from individuals to the organization and same time organization return feedback as data what have been learned and experienced in the past. Feed-back from the organization comes to the individual through groups and vice versa. They divided organizational learning into three levels where individual learning is based on intuiting and interpreting while group learning is based on interpreting and integrating, and finally, the organization is about institutionalizing. When these theses are compared with other scholars' studies, there can be found many similar exposes also prove that groups are basic blocks which make a base for organizational learning. Although he claims that learning organizations work is based on several "lifelong programs of study and practice":
First, it is based on the individual. In his opinion, all starts with a group member and his/her capability to expose the deepest desire. By that, a person can encourage others and he/herself to move towards the goals. Second is mental models, where individuals have to constitute reflect on their own thought and feel how they see and feel the world against their actions and how they affect their actions. The third one is all about sharing our visions. Basically, it is about how we can create a commitment in a group. Fourth is about group learning and how members can develop their intelligence and ability. The last one describes system thinking.
When studying many other scholars, there can be a basic red line of all these theories about organizational learnings. It all starts with individual tacit knowledge. Socializing that to another person transforms through externalization to explicit where it can be shared with a team and by arguing, internalising, and turning it into practice. This is the ever-lasting spiral that brings the organization to the learning path.
The basic of learning comes from the individual, and after sharing and debate it with other individuals, it became too aware. These individuals make together a group and sharing knowledge with other groups it comes to learning at the organizational level.
Results
Universities are often drawn to learning communities because research has shown that participation can improve student retention rate.
Lisa Spanierman
Lisa Beth Spanierman is an American psychologist who is professor and faculty head of Counseling and Counseling Psychology in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on racial attitudes, mic ...
, Jason Soble, Jennifer Mayfield, Helen Neville, Mark Aber, Lydia Khuri & Belinda De La Rosa note in the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice that learning communities can have a much greater impact on students which including predicting greater academic interactions, and the development of a greater sense of community and belonging.
Retention rate
The term "retention rate" is used in a variety of fields, including marketing, investing, education, in the workplace and in clinical trials. Maintaining retention in each of these fields often results in a positive outcome for the overall organiz ...
Comparing students that live on-campus in learning communities, and those that live off campus shows that students that participate in learning communities are more likely to persist to
graduation
Graduation is the awarding of a diploma to a student by an educational institution. It may also refer to the ceremony that is associated with it. The date of the graduation ceremony is often called graduation day. The graduation ceremony is a ...
.
This is supported in supplementary scholarly literature through the work of
Vince Tinto
Vincent Tinto is a Distinguished University Professor of sociology at Syracuse University's School of Education. He is a noted theorist in the field of higher education, particularly concerning student retention and learning communities.
Educat ...
as he states "For example, social and academic systems that positively reinforce each other will increase student commitment such as when students are part of a peer group that also serves as a study group.
Sense of Community and Belonging
Learning Communities have been shown to contribute to a students sense of community and belonging. Sense of belonging is understood as "a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met”. The importance of the development of a sense of belonging is outlined by
Abraham Maslow
Abraham Harold Maslow (; April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, cul ...
as it is deemed a
universal human need, and an essential element to health.
Academic Performance
Research conducted by John Purdie, and Vicki Rosser concluded that students who participated in learning communities earned higher grades, even when controlling for entering characteristics, and environmental characteristics.
Universities are able to contribute to the increased academic performance of students what participate in a learning community because of its ability to predict greater peer academic experiences and an enriched learning environment. In a study conducted by Karen Inkelas of
Northern Arizona University
Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was founded in 1899 as the final public university established in the Arizona Territory, 13 years before Arizona was admitted as the 48th state.
...
students that participate in academic based learning communities self-reported an increase in meeting learning outcomes.
Approaches
*
Online learning community
An online learning community is a public or private destination on the Internet that addresses its members' learning needs by facilitating peer-to-peer learning. Through social networking and computer-mediated communication, or the use of datagogi ...
*
Intergenerational equity
Intergenerational equity in economic, psychological, and sociological contexts, is the idea of fairness or justice between generations. The concept can be applied to fairness in dynamics between children, youth, adults, and seniors. It can al ...
*
Youth/adult partnership
Youth-adult partnership is a conscious relationship that establishes and sustains intergenerational equity between young people and adults. Youth-adult partnerships often display a high degree of youth rights and autonomy, and is often synonymo ...
s
See also
*
Collaborative learning
Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together.Dillenbourg, P. (1999). Collaborative Learning: Cognitive and Computational Approaches. Advances in Learning and Instruction Series. New ...
*
Community of practice
A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educat ...
*
Learning organization
In business management, a learning organization is a company that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself.Pedler, M., Burgogyne, J. and Boydell, T. 1997. ''The Learning Company: A strategy for sustainable develop ...
*
Online learning community
An online learning community is a public or private destination on the Internet that addresses its members' learning needs by facilitating peer-to-peer learning. Through social networking and computer-mediated communication, or the use of datagogi ...
*
Professional learning community
References
*
*
*
Notes
{{reflist, refs=
[Bonk, C. J, Wisher, R & Nigrelli, M. (2004) Chapter 12. Learning Communities, Communities of practices: principles, technologies and examples in Littlton, Karen, Learning to Collaborate. Nova. USA.]
[Bos-Ciussi. M, Augier. M, and Rosner, G. (2008)]
Learning Communities Are Not Mushrooms - or - How to Cultivate Learning Communities in Higher Education
''in'' Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators, C. Kimble, P. Hildreth and I. Bourdon (Eds), Information Age Publishing. Vol 2, Ch 14, pp. 287-308..
[Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989) Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), pp32–42.]
[Brower, A.M. & Dettinger, K. (1998) What is a learning community? Towards a comprehensive model. About Campus, (Nov/Dec), 15-21.]
[National Learning Communities Directory Search](_blank)
/ref>
[Kellog, K. (1999) Learning Communities. ERIC Digest. Washington, D.C.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education. (ED430512). Retrieved on September 21, 2009 from ERIC database: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/recordDetail?accno=ED430512]
[Goodyear, P., De Laat, M., and Lally, V. (2006) Using Pattern Languages to Mediate Theory-Praxis Conversations in Designs for Networked Learning. ALT-J, Research in Learning Technology, 14,(3), pp211-223.]
[Habhab. S. (2008)]
''in'' Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators, C. Kimble, P. Hildreth and I. Bourdon (Eds), Information Age Publishing. Vol 1, Ch 11, pp. 213-232.
[Lave, J. (1988) Cognition in practice: Mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.]
[Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.]
[The Cognition and Technology Group (1994). From visual word problems to learning communities: Changing conceptions of cognitive research. In K. McGilly (Ed.), Classroom lessons: Integrating cognitive theory and classroom practice (pp. 157–200). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.]
[Roth, W-M. and Lee, Y-J. (2006) Contradictions in theorising and implementing communities in education. Educational Research Review, 1, (1), pp27-40.]
[Roth, W.-M., & Bowen, G. M. (1995) Knowing and interacting: A study of culture, practices, and resources in a grade 8 open-inquiry science classroom guided by a cognitive apprenticeship metaphor. Cognition and Instruction, 13, 73–128.]
[Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3, pp265–283.]
[Smith, B. L. (1993). Creating Learning Communities. Liberal Education, 79(4), 32-39.]
[Smith, B.L. (2001, Fall). Challenge of Learning Communities as a Growing National Movement. Peer Review, 4(1). Retrieved September 22, 2009, from http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-fa01/pr-fa01feature1.cfm.]
[Tinto, V. (2003). Learning Better Together: The Impact of Learning Communities on Student Success. In Promoting Student Success in College, Higher Education Monograph Series (pp. 1-8). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University. Retrieved September 22, 2009, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237333638_Learning_Better_Together_The_Impact_of_Learning_Communities_on_Student_Success.]
Learning methods
Types of communities
Philosophy of education
Collaboration
he:קהילה לומדת וירטואלית