Learning Communities
Learning communities share common visions, values and objectives. They work collaboratively to enhance the curriculum, teaching strategies and assessment. Learning communities are comprised of individuals with diverse expertise and knowledge. This diversity is valued, and through collaboration, drawn out, shared and used to solve school-based problems. Learning communities foster openness, dialogue, inquiry, risk-taking and trust. In this environment, teachers feel they can make informed and responsible decisions about innovative teaching strategies.
Forming answers to the following questions may help to identify what a learning community means to your school:
- How effectively does our school utilise the diverse expertise and knowledge of the teaching staff to assist student learning?
- To what extent is collaborative learning fostered among the staff?
- To what extent has the school encouraged staff or leadership groups to engage in professional interchange, collaboration or networking with other schools, or in other professional development activities in relation to student learning?
- How effectively has the school collaborated with other schools, other education institutions, industry, business, or the wider community in building and delivering programs to assist or support student learning?
- How has the professional development activities undertaken by staff contributed to student learning outcomes? What other factors affect the link between professional development activities and student learning outcomes?
- To what extent does the school encourage parents to be actively engaged in their child's learning?
Links to Blueprint Strategies/Initiatives
The development of learning communities is supported through:
Flagship Strategy 1
In making learning communities more effective, the Curriculum Planning Guidelines promote a whole-school approach to curriculum planning designed to support schools adopt consistent and strategic approaches. The Guidelines provide teachers with ways to engage in curriculum decision making in a collegiate environment, based on professional learning teams.
The Guidelines additionally encourage schools to consider a range of partnerships to support and enhance learning communities. The Guidelines list current partnerships between DE&T and organisations such as the Strategic Partnerships Program, Leading Schools Fund and Schools for Innovation and Excellence.
The Victorian Essential Learning Standards are underpinned by a clear set of educational principles which reflect the community's expectations for schooling in Victoria. Schools will use the Standards to construct curriculum contexts which not only ensure the essential components are achieved, but also develop students' engagement and capacities in innovative, exciting ways that reflect the resources and expertise available, and the particular needs and interests of the school community.
Sustaining good professional learning in busy schools requires careful planning and an ongoing commitment to its importance. There are a number of considerations for schools and teachers planning to use the Principles of Learning and Teaching P-12 to promote effective professional learning. These considerations are addressed in the structured (PoLT) program offered to schools.
Teachers cannot be expected to create a vigorous community of learners among students if they have no parallel community to nourish themselves. Group support and stimulation are critical for professional learning. A good professional learning team provides time and space for the cycle of reflective practice; it promotes the social construction of new knowledge as existing ideas are shared and new ones emerge from within the group. It also stimulates and supports innovation and risk taking.
Effective schools ensure regular communication of student Assessment and Reporting information between teachers to assist with the development of a deeper understanding of a student's development over time. This supports teachers in developing plans for students' future learning, in the context of whole school planning. Regular communication of student assessment information forms the basis for involving parents in the school's reporting processes.
Increasingly learning communities are being recognised as an effective and innovative way to support and improve learning-for both student and educator. Learning communities can be geographic, electronic (virtual), discipline-based, or sharing any number of other common attributes. Knowledge Bank, an online learning community, contains excellent examples of partnerships that show how schools and communities are working together to develop shared learning.
Flagship Strategy 3
The Mentoring for First Time Principals initiative aims to develop the expertise of school leaders and to build a collaborative network to support school improvement. The program is designed to maximise networking and the sharing of resources. Creating a learning organisation and managing change will be a major part of the program.
Coaching to Enhance the Capabilities of Experienced Principals will assist principals to reflect on their school's vision, values and objectives. The coaching sessions will support the principal to plan ways to implement strategies for distributive leadership and to encourage collaborative learning communities.
Flagship Strategy 4
A Performance and Development Culture in schools sustains learning communities by ensuring: all new teachers participate in an effective mentoring program, all new teachers have a customised development plan, research is used to guide the development of new practice and professional learning programs are linked to school priorities.
Flagship Strategy 6
The Effective Schools Model provides a lens through which schools can think about their performance, plans and priorities. Blueprint Flagship Strategy 6 (School Improvement) provides a range of tools, processes and opportunities for schools to improve their planning, reviewing, evaluation and decision-making when they examine their school through the model.
Staff, Student and Parent Surveys
Professional Reading
The following readings can be located on the web or in hard copy through the appropriate journals or educational texts. These readings have been influential in the thinking behind current educational reform in Victoria.
Cotter, R. (2003), "Schools as learning communities - The challenges of community and personal development", Occasional Paper (IARTV), March 2003, No. 79
The Victorian Education Channel (resources for students, teachers, schools and communities)