My Personal View on learning Communities
First and foremost we define learning communities. What is really meant by learning communities? Philosophers, researchers, educators, and authors wrote a lot about the definitions of learning communities. The faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania “points out that learning communities are made up of people who share a common purpose. They collaborate to draw on individual strengths, respect a variety of perspectives, and actively promote learning opportunities.” A lot actually confused about the learning communities, me myself was confused about the topic too, but I defined this topic as a place where the learner learns, a community where the individual involved their selves to study. Learning communities are developed where groups of people linked geographically or by shared interest, collaborate and work in partnership to address their members' learning needs. Learning communities facilitated through adult and community education are a powerful tool for social cohesion, community capacity building and social, cultural and economic development. (Department of Education, 2003, p. 12).
Learning Communities began at Kingsborough Community College in 1995 with the Intensive ESL Program, a program which annually serves approximately 10 cohorts of up to 25 first-semester ESL students who take five linked courses: ESL, Speech, two Student Development courses, and a General Education course such as Psychology, History, or Sociology. The Opening Doors Program grew out of a Perkins Grant project which started in 2001 with 4 learning communities. Currently, Opening Doors Learning Communities, offers 30 learning communities each semester and serves over 1,200 incoming freshmen annually. In this program, three courses - English, Student Development, and a General Education course - are linked. By 2010, Kingsborough hopes to expand freshman learning communities to 40 cohorts, in order to serve 80% of incoming freshmen. In addition, Kingsborough is currently piloting Career Focused Learning Communities, for students who are not incoming freshmen. These learning communities are designed for career oriented students who are pursuing A.A.S. degrees in programs such as Business or Early Childhood Education. Second Semester learning communities link two required courses in a particular major with an Integrative Seminar. It is the duty of a teacher to facilitate his/her students so that the students will learn better. The teacher should also emphasized and understand the development of that certain learner for her to have a good approach to her students. The teacher should also be open minded that her students came from different environment. The environment or the community has a big factor to the learner, especially if the child lives in a slum areas, and they differ from a child who live in a rural areas. Piaget ( the Origins of Intelligence in Children, 1952) “points out that the importance of heredity in all development, both biological and intellectual. He asserts that to some degree inherited neurological structures impede or facilitate intellectual functioning, but that they cannot account for intellectual functioning by themselves (Ibid., pp.1-3). Inherited neurological structures influence cognitive development, but the structure alone cannot explain the development. Piaget “asserts that properties other than neurological structures are inherited that affect cognitive development, in part account for individual differences, and make intellectual progress possible”. The broadest and most inclusive use of learning communities is to describe situations where an array of groups and situations have united forces to promote systematic societal change and share ( or jointly own) the “risk, responsibilities, resources and rewards” (Himmelmann, 1994, p. 28). In geographically-bond examples, the partners typically include educational situations, government bodies’ industry partners and community groups. This phenomenon of partnership between public, private and non-profit organizations that increases community capacity to share and manage its own future.( Himmelmann, 1994, p. 27) states that it is said to be “collaborative empowerment”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_community defined learning community as a group of people who share common values and beliefs, are actively engaged in learning together from each other. Such communities have become the template for a cohort-based, interdisciplinary approach to higher education. This is based on an advanced kind of educational or 'pedagogical' design. Community psychologists such as McMillan and Chavis (1986) states “that there are four key factors that defined a sense of community: “(1) membership, (2) influence, (3) fulfillment of individuals’ needs and (4) shared events and emotional connections. So, the participants of learning community must feel some sense of loyalty and beyond to the group (membership) that drive their desire to keep working and helping others, also the things that the participant do in must affect what happened in the community, that means, an active and not just a reactive performance (influence). Besides a learning community must give the chance to the participants to meet particular needs (fulfillment) 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 colleges and universities, and are also found in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Who leads learning communities?
The most robust and sustainable learning community initiatives are led by collaborative leadership teams. Learning community initiatives that rely on one heroic individual are often vulnerable, especially when the workload and leadership are not widely shared. Successful learning community implementation requires extensive cross-unit coordination among: faculty members, vice president for student affairs and staff, academic advisors, admissions and orientation staff members, the registrar's office, individuals who develop the institution's course
catalog and those who schedule classroom space, senior academic leaders, and individuals involved with assessment.
Conclusion:
Learning communities are of big help to the students, not only to the students but also for the school staffs, administrators as well as teacher for them to be guided. It is also important to enhance and motivate the learner.
References:
The Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania
Department of Education , 2003, p. 12
Himmelmann, 1994, p.28
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/learning_communities
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive development ( An Introduction for student of Psychology and Education ( copyright 1971 by David Mckay Company, INC.
Piaget’s ( the Origins of Intelligence in Children, 1952)
McMillan and Chavis (1986)
Kingsborough, 2010
