The Notion of a Learning Community - Essay Example

Question: What do you understand by the notion of a “learning community”? Critically examine how learning communities facilitate effective learning. Contents- Page 1. Introduction 3 2. Literature Review 4 3. Uses 5 4. Personal experience 8 5. Future prospects 9 6. Conclusion 10 7. Bibliography 1. Introduction- Instructional Design (ID) and Dynamic Community Learning (DLC) are two different approaches to the same problem; learning a particular skill or subject of interest. While Instructional Design is a more conventional method and has been established for its advantages, Dynamic Community Learning is an evolving method and is yet to gain popularity as a tool for effective learning for all, apart from being a method that is found to vary across the different communities with no set approach. Hence, the dynamic method of learning is being explored to understand its advantages and effectiveness for being implemented as a tool for learning among the various institutions and workplace communities. In this essay, the various views and their effectiveness is also explored with relation to Dynamic Community Learning and different views from various studies relating to psychology, cognitive learning and teaching by different authors. It is observed that community learning as a tool for learning is gaining popularity and the various advantages in a complex and innovative environments at both the educational institutions and the modern workplace can gain immensely from this approach. While Instructional Design focuses on the learning, the Dynamic Community Learning approach focuses on the self-paced learner needs. 2. Literature Review - Different books and journals have been studied to understand the use and effectiveness of dynamic learning communities in educational institutions as well as corporate workplaces. To learn a particular skill or research a particular topic of interest, the concept of learning communities has enabled an understanding of the complex process of contextual and situational learning. As against the traditional learning method of instructional design learning where learning is dependant on the effectiveness of teaching by the instructor, dynamic learning offers a range advantages that are found to be more in favour of the complex contexts that learning has to be based to arrive at unique and innovative solutions. The positive and negative aspects of dynamic learning communities and their approaches towards effective learning are observed by studying the various observations by Psychologists, Educators and other authors. According to Carnell and Lodge, it is observed that in community learning the various multi-dimensional needs of the learners are considered and catered to, for effectiveness in the learning outcome. Learning itself is dependant on the problem context, and the problem, approach and the outcome change within a given context. And hence, the learners are required to understand the importance of the problem context and change their approach accordingly for effective solutions (2002). According to Watkins, et. al., there are two building blocks for dynamic community learning, and they are the collaboration of the members of the group to contribute to the understanding of the topic and the reconciliation of the different multiple perspectives of each member through a dialogue by way of interaction and feedback. They have stressed on the importance of the two building blocks of community learning along with observing the components of learning process which are promoting of interaction, designing of tasks and gaol setting and finally building the actual structure using the blocks (2007). Ryder and Wilson have observed a wide range of uses as well as disadvantages of community learning. They have observed that while the group enjoys control over design of tasks, interact heavily, become adaptable to suggestions and inputs from peers thus appreciating diversity and multiple perspectives and become more flexible, there are certain disadvantages that may limit the use of this approach to learning. The disadvantages that they have noted are that the learning communities suffer from short term inefficiency as it is a continuously evolving process and there is a lesser degree of predictability of the outcome. Also, although the feedback is available from the peers like in internet communities, they are not always validated and authentic as not all are experts in the community. 3. Uses- Learning communities formed to interact and innovate; methods of learning are increasing among the different sections of the experienced and novice learners. Dynamic learning communities can exist in any place of learning and can take any form or method based on the context of learning and the composition of learners. The learning in these communities is observed to be highly situational as against the prescriptive and fixed method of Instructional Design. Dynamic Community Learning groups use a method of learning that offers several advantages over conventional or traditional method of Instructional Design. While Dynamic Community Learning can involve teacher and pupil interaction or peer-to-peer interaction for the learning process, there is high level of interaction among all the participants and learning tends to be dynamic in terms of identifying the needs and goals of learning as the there can be no fixed outcome right in the beginning of the task initiation and goals are also not clearly laid. Hence, it becomes an exploratory process and the process needs to be evolved. It is also observed that all the participants are in control of this process of identifying the needs of the study along with goal setting (Askew and Askew, 2000: 98). And the same set of problem identified can have different set of solutions which can be unique, thus giving the advantage of multiple solutions for a single problem. However, there can be different approaches to arrive at the solutions to the problem and thus innovation takes place in the process. In the process of identifying the problem and the outcome of the research or study through interaction in the community, there is an increased exchange of ideas and further these ideas and thoughts expressed by each active member of the community are validated by their peers and in classrooms, by the teachers. This process of validation of ideas can be made possible by the active and greater involvement of each of the participants and the higher the participant’s preparation and understanding, the greater is the quality of the discussion and the outcome. This is also enabled by the feedback on the ideas and thoughts expressed after an amount of study and understanding by the participants (Askew and Askew, 2000: 99). Hence, feedback in the learning process of the community is another factor that is of advantage in the Dynamic Community Learning groups. And since there is constant need for feedback and exchange of ideas, there is bound to be a high level of interaction among the members of the group. This is also known to foster competition among the same community and the different communities to bring an effective and unique outcome to the interaction. And as there is interaction, there is collaboration between the different participants and each of them has a certain amount of control on the process and the outcome. With flexibility and negotiations within the community, the members are able to share knowledge and bring out a wide range of insights into the particular topic of interests, thus enabling innovation to the specific skill that can be applied to solve the problem effectively and efficiently. As different participants are actively involved in learning and sharing of ideas, there is an increased contribution to the outcome in terms of creativity as the thinking skills are utilized freely without the constraints of the conventional learning method. Further, the needs of the user in learning a particular skill or topic are complex and varied (Carnell, Lodge, 2002: 98). As the learning communities have the freedom and flexibility to choose their pace of learning as well as the outcome they need to arrive at, the process of learning is found to be dynamic as the more study and interaction, the members have, the more clear they are able to recognise the problem and the likely solution to it that they need to arrive at. Also, the approach to reach the solution also becomes dynamic as there is increased flexibility and the possible outcome and the problem statement itself changes over time until the group freezes it to a certain extent for clarity and timeliness. Once the goal is identified collaboratively, the inputs of each of the members are put together to form an effective solution to the problem and in the process, the solution also changes based on the understanding of the problem context (Carnell, Lodge, 2002: 98). It is observed that the possible outcomes to a particular problem can be varied and depend upon the context in which it is being studied and the probable approach and outcome. However, there are a range of factors that the learners take into consideration before identifying and consolidation of the problem, the approach to solve the same and the possible outcomes or solutions to the same. Most importantly, the different needs of learning environments by different learners is taken into consideration in this kind of learning and opens up a platform for catering to the specific needs of learning by using aspects of psychology, cognitive and other learning dimensions (Schaps, 2003). Finally, the dynamic learning community actually learns to learn in the process they evolve over time to find unique and innovative solutions and explanations for a particular topic of interest towards which they work collaboratively with motivation to effectively control and contribute to the process. 4. Personal Experience – When I first became a Teaching Assistant, I had to attend a few courses. I had to be updated with certain courses such as Makaton, which is sign language and special needs behaviour support which is for special behavioural children that have problems. Before attending the course, I was really nervous as I thought I may not understand certain terminologies or I may not be that knowledgeable in the education sector as I am new to it. When we were put into groups, I was still nervous as I thought if I had said something wrong, others would laugh, but after a few minutes I was ok. I had made friends on my table, they had kindly explained what I did not understand and I got to reconsider certain views and I start to question a lot. So by now I felt as ease, I was comfortable because the people around me had been kind and friendly. My table had respect for each other and everyone had shared resources, ideas and experience. What was making me feel more confident was the mutual agreement once I had said certain ideas and opinions, some of the people on my table agreed with me. I had developed more competencies. I think scaffolding is such a great process, you find learning communities everywhere nowadays, for example, business, educational institutions and organizations. However, on another table, I had observed a person being overtly dominant and seemingly controlling the discussion and other members tending to show less interest in contributing to the interaction. I thought this was terrible and off putting, I would have lost out on the precious opportunity to express, study, validate and contribute to the learning of the community and be part of a solution has I been that group and doubt I would have lost on the opportunity to build confidence and competencies. Accordingly one can see that learning communities do certainly facilitate learning and even though there is lots of investigation up till now to be done. 5. Future Prospects- Dynamic learning communities can be realised by educating the teachers as well as the learners in educational institutions and the peer groups in workplaces to be aware of the different contexts of learning needs and also the various advantages of learning communities as a tool. As Carnell and Lodge observe, “learners are required to learn the art of learning to find effective solutions to problems under the rapidly changing circumstances. They are needed to develop capabilities to make sense of their experiences in different contexts and different purposes” (2002). Also, there is a need to understand the relationship between the learner and teaching communities and the need for increased two way interaction and problem solving approaches. 6. Conclusion- It is observed that learning communities have a range of advantages and some limitations as well and the effectiveness of learning in educational institutions as well as workplaces can be effectively increased by the increased awareness of the existence of the different contexts of a problem and the need for changing approaches towards solving the same. It is found that there are more advantages than disadvantages of using dynamic learning communities as a concept for learning. Bibliography- 1. Askew, Sue, Askew, Susan (2000). Feedback for Learning. Routledge publishers. 98-99. 2. Carnell, Eileen, Lodge, Caroline (2002). Supporting Effective Learning. SAGE publishers. 98. 3. Schaps, Eric (2003). Creating Caring Schools - Creating a School Community. ASCD, Volume 60, Number 6 < http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/study_guides/mar03/vol60/num06.aspx>. 4. Watkins, Chris, Carnell, Eileen, lodge, Caroline (2007). Effective Learning in Classrooms. SAGE Publications. 5. Ryder, Martin, Wilson, Brent (1996). Dynamic Learning Communities: An Alternative to Designed Instructional Systems. Proceedings of Selected Research and Development. IR 017 960. Read More