Learning communities: how do these sustain learning?

The concept of learning community was emerged from the time of Plato and later by Dewey. In learning community there is a shift in learning from that on focusing to individual to community.

With the advancement of technology, ICT made it possible for the advance of learning community in the form of online learning community. Learning community facilitate learning in that it does not only enhance the sharing of knowledge but also in creating new one which can be used for the benefit to the community and to the individual members (Kilpatric, Barrett & Jones, n.d.)

Gabelnick, MacGregor, Matthews and Smith (1990) as cited in Kilpatrick et al. (n.d.) defined learning community in an educational perspective as:

A learning community is any one of a variety of curricular structures that link together several existing courses—or actually restructure the curricular material entirely—so that students have opportunities for deeper understanding of and integration of the material they are learning, and more interaction with one another and their teachers as fellow participants in the learning enterprise.

Among the benefits of learning community mentioned in this paper Kilpatrick et al. (n.d.) there are the benefit of professional development, sharing of knowledge, sense of inquiry and communication. But as mentioned, in order to achieve the full benefit, it is important to have a level of trust and characteristics of a good team amongst the members of the learning community.

Reference:
Kilpatrick, S., Barrett, M., & Jones, T. (n.d.). Defining Learning Communities. Retrieved October 17, 2010 from http://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/jon03441.pdf