Key Features of Learning Communities
Learning
The idea of the school as a learning community reflects "a total commitment to the value of learning for all members."
This concept assumes that
• learning is inherently enjoyable and exhilarating,
• that all members have the capacity to learn and
• that each person brings to the organization unique abilities which must be acknowledged and utilized.
In most educational organizations, the content of learning is king.
The school as a learning community model proposes that the learning process is king, where content and product are vital components, not the central task.
Learning how individuals, teams, and organizations learn, and critically reflecting on the processes of organisational improvement, become essential components of daily work practice.
Characteristics of a school as a learning community include:
• a shift in our mental model from some learn to all learn
• a re-evaluation of the effectiveness of some of our traditional teaching and learning practices
• a re-evaluation of our current understandings of learning, the learning process and learner, and
• the development of an understanding of and commitment to the concept of team learning.
In other words, building learning communities requires us to redefine our mental models of teacher, parent, principal, leader and student and the relationship between them.
Within the North American context Isaacson & Bamburg (1992) state that we are accustomed to defining learning as an individual phenomenon. Thus, most schools include neither time, structural arrangements, cultural norms nor language to promote team learning, and most staff development programs only support the learning of individuals.
In learning communities:
• students are empowered, self directed and committed learners
• teachers and administrators are themselves committed learners with well developed habits of continuous inquiry and reflection; they are life long learners who recognise the complexities of teaching and recognise that they need continually to deepen their knowledge of teaching and learning processes
• the principal is the leading learner, who models lifelong learning and facilitates the learning of all members of the community
• parents are learning partners
• there is a learning-focused work environment in which both formal learning activities and informal, workplace learning are valued.
Community
A learning community is inclusive. In our new mental model parents and community members are not external customers or clients, but full members of the learning community.
We need strategies that develop the skills and understandings of parents and teachers, separately and together.
We also need to think about organizational boundaries. If a sense of community is about interrelationships, connectedness and sharing, then we must look again at the boundaries within schools and between schools and the broader society.
We need to:
• build stronger partnerships with parents
• build a sense of community within the school by
o breaking down barriers between subjects
o building learning communities in the classroom
o breaking down barriers between people and
• build networks and partnerships between groups of professionals and across the community including schools and other educational sectors.
In building a community what matters most is what the community together believes in, and what the community together wants to accomplish. And this idea structure, this community of mind, becomes the primary source of authority for what people do community building must become the heart of any school improvement effort. (Sergiovanni 1994).
Leadership
Leadership in learning communities is subtle and important work. While the principal is the leading learner, leaders are present at all levels of a learning community.
In a learning community, leaders are:
• designers
• teachers
• stewards
These roles will require:
• the ability to build shared vision,
• to bring to the surface prevailing mental models and
• to foster more systemic patterns of thinking.
In short, leaders in learning communities are responsible for building organizations where people are continually expanding their capabilities to shape their future - that is, leaders are responsible for learning. (Senge 1990).
In a learning community, leadership, power and authority are generated by:
• the capacity to lead collaboratively
• the quality of contributions to the life of the school and
• knowledge, wisdom, understanding and judgement.
Authority derived in this manner is for more influential and durable than any authority derived from a position in the hierarchy.
If we want schools to be just, participative and productive communities rather than organizations where there is a lack of equity and much rests on the wisdom and confidence of a single person - the principal - empowerment becomes essential. Indeed, teacher empowerment is both efficacious and ethical. (Southworth 1993).
In a learning community, sharing power is essential.
Within that framework, the role of the principal is that of leading learner.
A Culture of Collaboration
Schools which are learning communities have a collaborative culture characterised by a commitment to:
• continuous improvement
• experimentation
• a search for better practices both inside and outside the school
• contributing to other people's practices by sharing ideas
• critical reflection in an open and trusting environment and
• discussing and challenging the purposes, values and practices of the school.
Systemwide collaboration is needed to create a learning community. (Martel 1993)
A culture of collaboration, in which all members of the community contribute to the achievement of shared goals, has the potential to lead to more effective decision making processes and improved outcomes. The principal, as leading learner, has the major role in the development of a collaborative culture. His or her genuine commitment to collaborate is a necessary if not sufficient condition for the establishment of a learning community.
Retrieved 17 January 2006 from http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/edu_leadership/prof_read/salc/key_features.php.
Ideas expressed are taken from Ken Boston
DIRECTOR GENERAL OF Education and Training
NSW Department of Education and Training March 1995
© NSW Department of School Education
ISBN No 0 7310 4574 2
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