Learning Communities Guide

Learning communities

It is a project to transform educational centers and implement high quality education in problematic neighborhoods. That means: overcome school failure, promote integration, combat inequalities, finish with conflicts and improve marginal situations as well as promote integration, reduce unemployment rates and face the needs of the present and future society. 

All this aims are reached thanks to dialogic learning which implies an active learning for students with the help of the community through meetings, assemblies and thinking tanks.

In a learning community everybody with links to the school is involved in the learning process. which means that:

• The center and teachers are more autonomous to take their decisions and implement them
• Students are more implicated in their learning
• Families are active participants in the education of their children and the center life
• Associations settled in the neighborhood cooperate with the activities

The pedagogical approach is the possibility of favoring social change and reducing inequalities - learning is understood as dialogic and transformative of the school and its environment.

Pedagogical principles (shared with all the participants):

• Self organization
• The school is a learning center for all the members of the community, not only the pupils
• Teaching has clear goals expressed and shared with the community
• Self-esteem is developed through rigorous work and its recognition.
• Continuous assessment through different boards
• Equal voice of students, families and community
• Shared leadership 
• Equal rights and opportunities to all the community, adults included, to join any learning processes.

In all the places where learning communities have been established, the outcomes exceed all the expectations, learning achievement is above the average and decreases scholar failure.

Dialogic learning:

The main author of it is Paulo Freire – and the basis is that social reality, and learning is one of its parts, is build by social interactions so he recommend including all the community in learning experience because all are part of the children’s environment and have influence in their learning. 

Basic principles of dialogic learning:

• Egalitarian dialogues: the different contributions of contents and opinions are considered according to their validity not their provenance.
• Cultural Intelligences: There are multiple intelligences and all are important in different social situations.
• Social transformation: Education and learning should focus to change the life of the people according to their needs and interests.
• Instrumental dimension: Learning focus on the use of tools and technologies of XXI Century as well as in dialogue.
• Meaning creation: All students find meaning and a porpouse in the subjects they studied.
• Solidarity

Stages of learning community

To develop a learning community some stages are needed:

1. Pre-stages:
1. Awarness: Meetings with teachers, families and social agents to discuss about where the school is and the goals to achieve.
2. Decision making: To decide whether go ahead or not, it depends if 90 per cent of the teachers want it and the families support the decision and the changes that will come.

1. Main Stages:
1. Dream phase: All the people involve discuss what they want to build, the needs of the centre, the goals to achieve and their wishes about education. This should be done every year.
2. Priority selection: Los grupos implicados deben elegir de forma dialógica los goals to achieve and the way to do it.
3. Planning and commissions: Regular meetings should be done to check if everything is improving in a good way and decided to change something if it doesn’t work.

Bibliography:

Basic information as a start:

1. To know the main aspects and development of a learning community: https://www.innova.uned.es/webpages/educalia/las_comunidades_de_aprendizaje_una_apuesta_por_la_igualdad_educativa.pdf 
2. To learn more about dialogic learning and the main role of the community in this way of learning: http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/274/27417306.pdf

About CEIP “La Paz” (Albacete), the school we took as example:

1. Web page of the centre with information, videos, pictures and examples of their everyday life: http://comunidadaprendizajelapazdealbacete.blogspot.com.es 
2. Some videos to introduce yourselves to this learning community:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT_xcy9oVOg
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yow_MmRPQAo
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfNaRsLvi8M

To be an expert about Learning Communities:

1. Web page build to help Learning Communities with materials, examples, theories and papers, also it has a helpful Internet discussion forum: http://utopiadream.info/ca/