Introduction
Learning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow curves. Human learning may occur as part of education, personal development, or training. It may be goal-oriented and may be aided by motivation.
While community, in biological terms, is a group of interacting species sharing an environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness.
Body
In a summary of the history of the concept of learning communities, Wolff-Michael Roth and Lee Yew Jin suggest that until the early 1990s, and consistent with (until then) dominant Piagetian constructivist and information processing paradigms in education, the individual was seen as the "unit of instruction" and the focus of research[3]. Roth and Lee claim this as watershed period when, influenced by the work of Jean Lave[4], and Lave and Etienne Wenger[5] among others, researchers and practitioners switched to the idea that knowing and knowledgeability are better thought of as cultural practices that are exhibited by practitioners belonging to various communities[6][7][8][9] which, following Lave and Wenger's early work[5], are often termed Communities of practice[10][11].
Roth and Lee claim that this led to forms of praxis (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, that 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.
Of all the information that I have gathered, learning community is 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.[1]Community psychologists such as McMillan and Chavis (1986) state 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,
What are learning communities? In higher education, curricular learning communities are classes that are linked or clustered during an academic term, often around an interdisciplinary theme, and enroll a common cohort of students. A variety of approaches are used to build these learning communities, with all intended to restructure the students time, credit, and learning experiences to build community among students, between students and their teachers, and among faculty members and disciplines. The benefits of learning communities are enhanced if there is a professional learning culture that values professional development (Peterson, 2002), and a climate of openness that promotes sharing of knowledge, dialogue, inquiry and risk-taking, and gives constructive feedback to people at all levels (Taylor, 2002; Watkins & Marsick, 1999).
The concept of learning communities draws on a wide body of theory related to learning and sociology. Learning communities have much to recommend them in an increasingly complex world where we cannot expect any one person to have sufficient knowledge and skills to confront the complexities of institutions, our society and individuals and the tasks these face. They are consistent with a constructivist approach to learning that recognizes the key importance of interactions with others, and the role of social interactions in the construction of values and identity. Learning communities can minimize risks for individuals in the increasingly complex world of the twenty-first century.
Conclusion:
As what I have understood, learning communities can be deliberately fostered. The benefits of learning communities are enhanced if there are a professional learning culture that values professional development and a climate of openness that promotes sharing of knowledge, dialogue, inquiry and risk-taking, and gives constructive feedback to people at all levels.
Learning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information, while community is a group of interacting species sharing an environment. So sum it all, learning community is a group of people who share common values and beliefs, are actively engaged in learning together from each other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_community
http://books.google.fr/books?id=cCefAAAAMAAJ
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?accno=ED448646
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