robbie jane gomez

MY PERSONAL VIEW ON LEARNING COMMUNITIES


It takes a village to raise a child (African Proverb). The proverb is simply stressing that no one can be a better daughter or the best son without a good family and a home. The character shaped when a child grows up, reflects on how his family raised him. That is why it takes a village to raise a child in order for the child to be a better person when he grows up. Just like in learning, I strongly believed that a person can learn better if there are powerful forces that will equip him with much knowledge, good values, and deep understanding. Truly, it is hard to teach a person solitarily, and expect that person to acquire the best learning, and it is even harder for a person to learn all by his self alone. Better that there is an existence of Learning Community that caters people who starved for a better learning.
Learning Community addresses the learning needs of its locality through partnership. It uses the strengths of social and institutional relationships to bring about cultural shifts in perceptions to the value of learning. Learning Communities explicitly use learning as a way of promoting social cohesion, regeneration and economic development which involves all parts of the community. (Yarnit, 2000, p.1). The school and the community are the mainsprings of effective and powerful forces that can create a wholesome climate for mutual gains and betterment. They can forge a kind of partnership where both are willing to share information as well as responsibilities to the best interest of students while in school, likewise when dealing with members of the community. Ensuring strong alliance is guaranteed to foster sound academic practices in the school, civic-mindedness, and public accountability in the community. A positive affiliation is an overwhelming bond that all stakeholders are willing to be part of. (The Teaching Profession book, 2006, p.80). Purita P. Bilbao, Ed.D. “the school, the community, as well as the students are members of the Learning Community.”


The Students as the Center of Learning Communities

In a variety of institutional settings, and in a number of forms, learning communities have been shown to increase student retention and academic achievement, increase student involvement and motivation, improve student’s time to degree completion and enhance intellectual development. Students involved in learning communities become more intellectually mature and responsible for their own learning and the capacity to care about the learning of their peers. They delightfully experienced sharing their perspectives to their classmates, and even other students in the parts of country and the world. These students are imparting their knowledge, ideas and understanding to their peers and classmates for the purpose of learning and sharing. “The learning community that the students have now has further instilled both discipline and perseverance in them. Discipline – to abide their self- imposed schedule to read and study. Perseverance – to accomplish what they originally intended to do when they come back to school” . (April Cabello, UP Diliman). Learning Communities don’t just provide a better learning in academic terms, but it also teaches students to be responsible and disciplined.

Learning Communities through Linkages, Networking and Collaborations

The school and its community, in collaboration with public and private institutions, and organizations are indeed inseparable if they are to create an impact of the lives of the students and members of the community they are committed to serve. Various groups from both are very willing to join forces in pursuing mutually beneficial and productive programs and projects for the good interest of all. All that is needed are well-defined plans and creative efforts aimed at establishing close affiliations between and among them. Such interrelationships will be characterized by reciprocity and genuine sharing of responsibilities, thus ensuring valuable aims and attainment of educational objective. Harnessing the tremendous influence and expertise both of groups will be able to extend definitely a laudable step towards promoting the desired proficiency of the teaching force in the school as well as the efficiency in the services of some associated organizations. The school can enjoy linkages and networking activities with international, national and local organizations in the community for mutual benefits and assistance needed. (The Teaching Profession Book, 2006, p.87)
Through linkages, networking and collaborations, teachers and faculty members of the school and the community can offer the right education and learning that the students deserve to have.

Faculty Members and Institutions in Learning Communities

Faculty members involved in Learning Communities that facilitate cross-faculty collaboration are expanding their repertoire of teaching approaches, continually revising their course content, acquiring new scholarly interests. Learning Community faculty members are also building mentoring relationships with each other and are more frequently engaging with beginning students and general education offerings. Institutions use learning communities as sites for testing out new curricular approaches and strategies for strengthening teaching and learning. These programs offer more coherent opportunities for the teaching of literacy skills, such as reading, writing, and speaking, and more coherent pathways to engage in the general education curriculum. They also offer a robust way to address interdisciplinary ideas and offer a more coordinate platform for study in the major.

The Role of Technology in Supporting Learning Communities

Contrary to the belief that online learning can be impersonal –and detached- most of the students and teachers made leaps and bounds in making learning community better. Both group of persons fostered higher communication through electronic means. Students chatted in incessantly online to share different perspectives. They kept in touch through emails, instant messages and text messages. Students and adult learners, benefit from participating in communities of practice. Community facilitates interaction within Learning Communities. Online mentoring, distance education and state supported electronic networks open up the isolation of classrooms and offer teachers access to one another for ongoing support and professional development and sharing. The use of technologies such as interactive lesson plan templates, multimedia, data bases, streamed video, web conferencing, and e-mail can help teachers access to other teachers for ongoing professional collaboration. (Phi Delta Kappan, 82 (7), 518-5230).
Generally, in education circles, the term learning community has become common place. It is being used to mean any numbers of things, such as extending classroom practices into the community; bringing community personnel into the school to enhance the curriculum and learning tasks of the students; or engaging students, teachers and administrators simultaneously in learning. (ISSUES ABOUT CHANGE, VOL. 6 NO.1) Learning community is a group of people who share common values and beliefs, are actively engaged in learning together from each other. (Wikipedia) the main purpose of these groups of people involved on Learning Communities is to share knowledge and perspectives and of course, the goal of achieving that very important thing – LEARNING.

CONCLUSION:

As I have worked on my essay, I believed that “we cannot live for ourselves alone, our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results. “ (Human Melville) In connection to learning, we cannot learn all by ourselves alone, we need our teachers to instill us knowledge and understanding, we need our peers to give us their perspectives, the institution that we are in needs the collaboration of some educational organizations to promote and offer things to create a positive impact in our lives as a student, and most importantly, we need the use of technologies to advance our training, to make educative process more possible.
As what the famous saying goes, “no man is an island” no one is powerful enough to stand and live for his self alone… in life, we need our parents to nurture us, we need our friends to care for us, in love, we need someone to grow old with us, and in education we need our teachers, our peers, our classmates to equip us with the right knowledge and values for us to acquire the best learning that we deserve to have. These people, in return will also need us, and we will also do the same right thing that they did to us. WE NEED EACH OTHER, really.




REFERENCES:
• THE TEACHING PROFESSION BOOK(P.80-87)
Copyright, 2006 by:
PURITA P. BILBAO, Ed.D.
BRENDA B. CORPUZ, Ph.D.
AVELINA T. LLAGAS, Ed.D.
GLORIA G. SALANDAHAN, Ph.D.
And LORIMAR PUBLISHING CO., INC.
• ISSUES ABOUT CHANGE

VOL. 6, NO.1

• Reil, M, & Fulton, K.(2001,March), The Role of Technology in Supporting Learning Communities, Phi Delta Kappan, 82 (7), 518-523
• Wikipedia
• YARNIT, 2000, p.1
• The Valedictory speech of April Cabello ,May 19, 2009, UP DILIMAN