MY PERSONAL VIEW OF LEARNING COMMUNITY
As an individual, what is learning community to you? Well, learning community is a broad term. It has different or broad definitions that has been defined by different sociologists, constructivist, psychologists, and etc. It also has variation of uses and common themes that links the definition and uses of learning community. To define a sense of community, it is important to know the key factor that defines it. In order to understand further about learning community, it is necessary to give specific example which is the online learning community. All of these topics will be discuss and explain as we go further and it will help us to identify and determine the significance of studying the learning community as an individual, citizen, student, professional or a non-professional individual. And the last thing we will learn is that, we will be able to determine the results of it to a certain individual.
The beginning of the twenty-first century heralds a shift in emphasis from learning with the focus on the individual to learning as part of a community. The concept of "learning communities' is currently one that is to the fore of much educational and organizational literature and discussion. The term "learning communities" in the literature is being defined and used in diverse and flexible ways. Feldman (2000) point out that "The twentieth century has been described as the century of the individual"(p.9). In the contrary, the theory of social constructivism points to move away from an individualistic s focus, to one that recognizes the contribution of others to every individual (Vygotsky, 1978). Alternatively, "The Age of the Individual to the Era of Community"(Feldman, 2000,p.13).Feldman(2000) stresses out that "Learning communities are are a manifestation of this movement and aim: to strike a balance between individuality and social connectedness....as we begin to see the essential role that relationship, participation, reciprocity, membership, and collaboration must play in any theory of human development that aspires to guide us(p.13).Consequently, "By the end of the twentieth century, although learning communities were neither well understood, nor well defined, they were among the most often discussed concepts in higher education".(Kezar,1999,p.9). In addition, learning community is a group of people who share common values, beliefs, are actively engaged in learning together from each other (www.google.com, paragraph1). Definition of learning communities continuing to evolve in response to the diverse needs of learners and the communities in which they work. It also offers rich possibilities for dealing with some of the risk and dilemmas that education faces in the twentieth century.
The term learning communities is used variously within the literature. There are two major uses that can be discerned. The first one focuses on the human element of communities, and the profits that accrue from building on the synergies of individuals in common locations or with common interests as they work towards sharing understandings, skills and knowledge for shared purposes. The second once focuses on curricular structures (i.e. an inanimate structure) as the means to developing deeper learning of (implied) pre-determined curricular content.
The broadest and most inclusive use of learning communities is to describe situation where an array of groups and institutions have united forces to promote systematic societal change and Share. Himmelman(1994) point out that "risk, responsibilities, resources and rewards"(p.28).Himmelman(1994) stated also, that through collaboration between public, private and nonprofit organizations, there's a big possibility that the capacity of a community to shape and manage its own future will increase. Alternatively, “Learning communities explicitly use learning as a way of promoting social cohesion, regeneration and economic development which involves all parts of the community" (Yarnet, 2000, p.11). A learning community addresses the learning needs of its locality through partnership and it uses the strengths of social and institutional relationships to bring about cultural shifts in perceptions of the value of learning.
Department of Education (2003) points out that, “Learning communities facilitated through adult and community education are a powerful tool for social cohesion, community capacity building and social, cultural, and economic development (p.12)". Kearns, McDonald, Candy, Knights and Papadopoulus (1999) point out also that, "Learning is a way in promoting social cohesion, regeneration and economic development"(p.61-62).
Regardless of the model investigated, there are common themes that link the definitions and uses. These include bold;"common or shared purpose/interests or geography; collaboration, partnership, and learning; and respecting diversity. For the common or shared purpose/interests or geography, both definitional "schools' hold that members of a learning community share a stake or interest in a particular outcome).Such end results extent from the community economic development (Longworth, 2002) to the education achievement of children(Peterson,2002). Lave&Wenger (1991/1998) stresses out that the observation of the shared interest in theoretical bodies of work is diverging to the shared interest in fixed outcomes. References to communities of practice tend to be found in the organizational studies and management literature; however application of the term to educational, cross-institutional and geographic community settings is increasing.
Collaboration, cooperation, and/or partnerships are the things operationalised learning communities. Consequently, “Learning helps people to create and manage knowledge that builds a system's intellectual"(Watkins&Marsick, 1999, p.81). This means that the shared goals are achieved through working together and potentially building or creating new knowledge. Schrage(1996) describes that "The act of collaboration as an act of shared creation and/or shared discovery"(p.6).However, the true collaboration requires every participant to have a high level of cognitive involvement as well as the preparation to the contribution of the shared understanding to the said creation(Schrage,1990).
Another theme that enhances the learning capacity of a community is the respect for diversity. This is apparent from the literature that links learning communities and community development. Flora&Wade(1996) points out that the indicator of willingness to diverse new ideas and accept change for the development of the community is the diversity acceptance. Another thing about respecting diversity, it fosters learning by building a climate of trust and encouraging risk-taking: Before teachers will collaborate on student learning in an authentic way, they must trust their principal and one another.Alternatively,"Collaborative teamwork is too risky to happen without a culture of trust. They must believe that it will be OK if they make a mistake or try something new and it doesn't work out"(Taylor, 2002, p.43).
Another thing to learn about learning community is the key factors that define it. In order to define a sense of community, it is necessary and important to know the key factor that defines it. In order to define a sense of community, we have to consider four factors, namely, membership, influence, individual fulfillment, shared events and emotional connections(Mcmillan&Chavis,1986).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 thins 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.
There is one specific example of learning community, and that is online learning community. What is online learning community? It is a common place on the internet that addresses the learning needs of its members through proactive and collaborative partnerships. Through social networking and computer-mediated communication, people work as a community to achieve a shared learning objective. There are types of online learning communities and that includes e-learning communities (groups interact and connect solely via technology) and blended learning communities (groups utilize face-to-face meetings as well as online meetings). Riel&Pollin (2004) stated that intentional online learning communities maybe categorized as knowledge-based, practice- based and task- based. Online learning communities may focus on personal aspects, process, or technology. They may use technology and tools in many categories: synchronous (such as instant messaging), asynchronous (such as message boards), content management (such as Moodle & lecture share), collaborative (such as wikis), social networking (such as del.icio.us and Flickr), learning object repositories, and blogs.
Therefore I conclude that, through the study of learning community, the individual may be able to know the significance and the true essence of it. Through this, student retention are being improved because of its great impact to students. It also has a powerful effect on student learning and achievement. It helps the students to stay in school longer, it offers curricular coherence, integrative high-quality learning, collaborative knowledge-construction and sklls, and knowledge relevant to living n a complex, messy, diverse world.
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Aigner,S.,Flora,C.&Hernandez,J.(1999)
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Bowles,M.(2002.
Forming a community of practice in North/Noth East Tasmania on Responsive and flexible VET.Launcestone,Tasmania:TAFE.
Brown,J.S..,Collins,A.&Duguid,P.(1989).
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Learning Community/Online Learning Community.http://www.google.com/paragraph 1
