Suchergebnisse

Most would agree that a learning community of practice cultivates social and intellectual development in educational settings but what are the other benefits and what does a learning community actually look like in practice? This book explores such questions as: "Are learning communities essential in education?" "How are they designed and developed?" "What difference do they make in learning?" The book contains contributions of educators who share their research and practice in designing and implementing learning communities in school, university, and professional network settings. It presents their experiences, and the "how to" of these educators who are passionate about building and sustaining learning communities to make a real difference for students, teachers, faculty, and communities. Combining scholarly and practitioner research, the book offers practical information to teachers, school and university administrators, teacher educators, and community educators.

This paper proposes the building of Indigenous learning communities as an avenue to address the limited engagement of Indigenous Australians with education. Against the backdrop of current discussions of social capital and community capacity building, the paper explores educational policy and program options for linking families, schools and communities (including business and government) to identify and address local needs through drawing upon local resources. Five program models, from both Australia and overseas, are sketched to illustrate a range of approaches to encouraging and fostering positive engagement of families, schools and communities. Although the programs differ in focus, schools and community education are central to each, and all involve degrees of capacity building and the development of social capital. The experience derived from these programs suggests there is value in attempting to position the school at the centre of Indigenous communities. Further, in extending the traditional role of the school to incorporate other initiatives such as adult education and the coordination and integration of various child and family services, these programs necessarily bring more members of the wider community into contact with the school. Many of these programs also deliver increased parental and student participation and retention, and community involvement in the school. Indeed, the underlying philosophies of these approaches foster parental and community ownership of, and involvement in, not only the school, but also the education process in general. This is the foundation for building learning communities, where education is a life-long affair, where families and schools are strong and healthy, and where individuals in communities feel empowered to identify their most pressing needs and develop mechanisms to build capacity and secure resources to address those needs. The paper suggests a cluster of key features derived from the models that could be used in the formulation of a policy and program framework that addresses the needs of Indigenous families, schools and communities through a federally funded initiative to build Indigenous learning communities. Specific recommendations related to funding, evaluation and essential program components are provided.

To build learningcommunities, teachers must become colearners. Everyone must be a teacher; all must be learners. One mechanism for developinga learningcommunity is for us to be more purposefully reflective about what we do and to use learningjournals for ourselves, not just for students. This article describes the learningderived from the author's writingand sharingjournal entries in a graduate course on learningorganiza tions. Excerpts from student feedback on the author's journals further illustrate the benefits of keepinga journal.

Now, as throughout human history, the world is undergoing transformation, and business organizations are caught in the turbulence of a change they are not able to control. The fundamental assumptions of our Western orthodox worldview, on which our business institutions were founded, has proved inadequate to regulate either our society or our business institutions. New business structures—communities—are emerging based on a transpersonal worldview, one that embraces spirituality, psychology, and science in an integrated perspective on human experience. Transpersonal learning communities combine an emphasis on the development of human consciousness and business performance by adopting triple-loop learning practices. While they do business, transpersonal learning communities will simultaneously transform themselves and society as a competitive advantage.

Networking Learning Communities for Development Presented at: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Valletta, Malta, 23 November 2005, Report to the Foreign Ministers Committee by: Dr. Lewis Perinbam, O.C. Chairman of the Board Commonwealth of Learning // On behalf of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) I wish to thank you for the privilege of making this presentation. I want to begin by expressing our gratitude to Commonwealth governments for their support, especially those who are contributing financially to COL. // Our six major donors notably Canada, the UK, India, Nigeria, New Zealand (which plans to double its contribution over the next two years), and now South Africa are COL's financial backbone. During the current three-year plan Sierra Leone and Tuvalu became new contributors and Bangladesh, Ghana, St. Lucia, and Tanzania became supporters once again. We thank them all. Their financial support manifests the value they attach to COL. // The past biennium marked a change in COL's Presidency. Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan (Malaysia) who served COL with distinction for nine years and led it ably during a critical period in its history was succeeded by Sir John Daniel (United Kingdom) who is bringing new ideas and vitality to the organisation. I am delighted that he is here with me today. // COL will celebrate its 20th birthday at the next CHOGM. Commonwealth Heads of Government created COL when they met in Vancouver in 1987. They believed that Governments could only bring education and training to all their people by using media and technology. Twenty years ago the focus was on the mass media. Since then an effervescence of information and communications technologies has created an even richer environment for learning. // These contemporary methods of communication have sparked the revolution in open and distance learning that defines COL's mission. Our task is to enable Governments to harness this revolution to national aspirations. We help them to develop policies for using communications in education, to create distance learning systems and to apply learning technologies for many purposes. // The Millennium Development Goals provide the framework for describing our work. Let me give you a few examples of how we are helping countries towards these goals

Building professional learning communities (PLC) has become a widely recognized strategy for school development and for student achievement. Four Finnish comprehensive schools were identified as being ready to be PLCs in a previous quantitative study, and the purpose of this study was to investigate practices of PLCs in these schools. In this paper, we used data from qualitative multiple-case study, which investigated practices of leadership, culture, teacher collaboration, professional learning, and development. The results showed that the principals had played the main role in the progression of schools as PLCs. Principals were described as visionary leaders who had started positive progression, shared the leadership, and created commitment to common goals. The results indicated also that a change of leaders can have a positive effect. Decision-making processes were participative, inclusive, democratic, and collaborative, aiming for a satisfactory level of consensus. Relationships among staff were reported as being based on mutual trust and openness, and members were encouraged to express their opinions. Common responsibility of students, peer support, encouragement, and co-teaching were practiced. Co-teaching practices were identified as an effective form of collaborative work-embedded professional learning which is related to the core principles of professional learning communities. Structural conditions were reported as barriers to schools' development as PLCs. ; Peer reviewed

Analyzes effectiveness of small study groups affiliated with large lecture courses, designed to promote learning among college students; data from political science courses at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, 1994.

This article examines the use of Internet-and World Wide Web-based learning systems in the context of business education. I propose the concept of "online learning communities" as an organizing frame for developing online learning systems. I describe some examples of online learning communities in business and academic institutions. I discuss the learning skills needed for and implementation issues in creating online learning communities.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the role of employee resource groups (ERGs) in a multi-national, for-profit corporation. The paper focuses on how ERGs facilitate learning.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study approach was used to examine six social identity based ERGs in one multi-national for-profit organization headquartered in the USA.FindingsThe study found that ERGs facilitate learning and development activities in order to support their membership. ERGs, operating as communities of practice, also engaged in informal learning opportunities that were designed to shift perspectives of non-members and executive-level leaders in the organization.Originality/valueThere is a growing body of literature on ERGs across organizations and higher education that examine how these groups engage in activism, advocacy, recruitment, retention and education. This study examines the processes by which these groups facilitate learning and development activities and the benefits perceived by the membership. The paper provides value to human resources professionals and others who are interested in how ERGs function as learning communities and outcomes the membership perceive as most important.

Educational practices are constituted through the junction of cultural artifacts, beliefs, values, and normative routines known as activity systems. Classroom activity is a particularly important nexus for understanding cultural processes in that thinking and doing are linked in social practice. An activity-based, problem-oriented approach to understand development in school contexts focuses analysis on the cultural practices of learning environments. Studying classrooms and other learning contexts as cultural activity reveals how different microcultures for teaching and learning emerge, and it links forms of participation to the kinds of cognitive forms individuals construct to accomplish cognitive and social functions. Ongoing studies of the literacy practices of formal and nonformal learning environments serve as the context for examining culture in educational activity.

Use of the web today, particularly amongst young people, is now more social and participative. Collectively known as Web 2.0, freely available tools have emerged that facilitate communication, user-generated content and social connectivity. Facebook and MySpace have become the most popular forms of this kind of online activity and networks are formed around all kind of interest and issues whether they are political, educational, professional or hobbies. In a recent survey of 500 students, 80% claimed that they regularly use social networking tools to communicate with peers (JISC, 2008). This pervasive use of Web 2.0 technology for everyday interaction has yet to see its potential fully recognised and integrated into Higher Education pedagogy. Despite 73% of students using such tools to 'discuss coursework' and 75% of these students recognising their value for enhancing learning, only 25% were encouraged to use such social software by academic staff (JISC, 2008). This raises the question as to whether Web 2.0 technology can promote social learning within educational contexts and how this might be realised in practice. In a bid to harness this creativity, energy and sociability, the Academic Skills Tutors (ASTs) at the University of Huddersfield have been exploring Web 2.0 technologies to investigate how such tools might enhance teaching and learning. This paper introduces practical examples of social software tools; how these are currently used to foster learning communities and promote academic development. Three distinct social software tools are discussed (del.icio.us, PBwiki - now PBworks - and Ning), illustrating current use of these with students and their initial evaluation