New Learning Chapter 9: Learning communities at work

This chapter of New Learning explores learning communities. The chapter examines the different ways learning communities are organized. The authors make a distinction between education and informal learning. Education is “consciously designed, formally organized and explicit knowledge acquisition for learners” (284). Informal learning “is an incidental and inevitable aspect of lifeworld experience” (284). Education is defined by the outside (informal learning of the lifeworld) and inside (knowledge created within educational institution). The authors present that this distinction between inside/outside is changing because education no longer has to take place within a specific time, space , or place. The authors present that education or formal learning is organized in three distinct ways, which are identified as education communities. Education communities are communities that “establish carefully planned and monitored relationships between people and knowledge” (286). The educational communities identified are bureaucratic organization, self-managing organization, and collaborative learning organization.

Bureaucratic organization refers to organizations where “members are confined to rule-bound roles” (287). This learning community is hierarchical. The teachers and learners have “assisted competence” and teaching and learning relies on sources of authority. With assisted learning, “the learner learns to know because there are lots of prompts and explicit directions around them—information provided in the textbook and the direct orders of the teacher” (288). The teachers are also “assisted” because they “rely on the explicit instructions handed own to them by principals, syllabi, textbooks, and tests” (288). The curriculum planning and evaluation in this community is standardized. In addition, the evaluation of teachers is based on their learners’ results. These results are measured by tests. Within the bureaucratic education system, there is a division of labor. For example, a teacher proficient in math only teachers math. There is a division between teaching and administration. Management consisted of “formal line management or hierarchical relationship” (289).

In self-managing education teachers and students have more independence. There is “autonomous” competence rather than assisted. In this system, the “teacher is in control of their own classroom,” and students focus “more of their classroom time figuring things out for themselves” (290). In regards to curriculum planning and evaluation, the self-managing community places responsibility of curriculum planning on teachers. This organization model also consists of a variety of approaches to assessment. Assessment can be school based instead of standardized. There is also hybrid assessment that combines internal curriculum and external assessment. Educational leadership and management within this community turn towards self-governance and a sense of community. Members of the community works towards a shared vision. The members of the community—teachers and administrators—are expected to be “multi-skilled and work cooperatively in teams” (291). There is a rhetoric of empowerment. On the other hand, the “common culture of learning” approach can discount diversity.

Collaborative education refers to a class centered on “collaborative” competence. In this classroom the learners are self-managing, autonomous, and help one another. This type of classroom encourages active engagement. Teachers in these classrooms work towards craving environments that encourage this engagement. Teachers also have space to be researches and scholars. This environment “fosters collaborative learning at many levels, from the classroom to professional collaborations” (294). There is a push towards the teachers and learners adding their own knowledge and experience to the learning experience. In regards to curriculum planning and evaluation, there is a move towards a “multifaceted and holistic” evaluation. There is also a recognition of life experience and prior learning. There is an push towards embracing inside/outside learning and identifying the connections between the two. Evaluation within this community is lead by “energetic horizontal communities of knowledge production and peer review” (296). Leadership and management within this learning community focus on encouraging and identifying diversity. For evaluation, “learner outcomes are measured not according to fixed standards but through the comparability of their effects in terms of level of access to material resources, social participation and personal fulfillment” (297).



Reflection:

My favorite part of this chapter was the collaborative learning section. This quote specifically grabbed my attention: “Where learners and teachers can attain ‘collaborative’ competence, learning by contributing from their own lifeworld experience, constructing knowledge with their peers, and connecting their new knowledge back into a variety of lifeworld applications” (298). Prior to teaching, I never thought of how rigid and bureaucratic my previous  educational experiences were. I am glad that they did not have as much impact on my educational experience as my college years. However, I can see how they impacted my early teaching years. I taught how I was taught, which is something that many beginners do. It took a few classes before I realized that I did not want to teach that way because that is not how I want to learn. The changes I made in my teaching over the first few years helped me to see my pedagogy, classroom management, etc as something that continues to grow and expand. I don’t want to get in a space where my teaching philosophy and pedagogy are set in stone. So much changes in education, so I worry that I will not be open to the changes politically, socially, and culturally.

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