Creating Learning Communities

"Creating Learning Communities is a guide to the essentials of this rewarding new program area, including how to design, fund, staff, manage, and integrate learning communities into different campuses. Drawing from their own experience, as well as from experiences of campuses around the country, Nancy S. Shapiro and Jodi H. Levine provide both a sound theoretical rationale and nuts-and-bolts advice on the logistical, administrative, financial, and turf-related issues of creating an effective learning community. And perhaps most important, they show how to ensure that such communities embody and fulfill the objectives for which they were established."--BOOK JACKET.

"Teaching and learning communities are communities of practice in which a group of faculty and staff from across disciplines regularly meet to discuss topics of common interest and to learn together how to enhance teaching and learning. Since these teaching and learning communities can bring together members who might not have otherwise interacted, new ideas, practices, and synergies can arise. The role of librarians in teaching and learning has been reexamined and reinvigorated by the introduction of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, which offers a conceptual approach and theoretical foundations that are new and challenging. Building Teaching and Learning Communities: Creating Shared Meaning and Purpose goes beyond the library profession for inspiration and insights from leading experts in higher education pedagogy and educational development across North America to open a window on the wider world of teaching and learning, and includes discussion of pedagogical theories and practices including threshold concepts and stuck places; the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL); disciplinary approaches to pedagogy; the role of signature pedagogies; inclusion of student voices; metaliteracy; reflective practice; affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects of learning; liminal spaces; and faculty as learners. This unique collection asks each of the authors to address this question: What do we as educators need to learn (or unlearn) and experience so we can create teaching and learning communities across disciplines and learning levels based on shared meaning and purpose? Six fascinating chapters explore this question in different ways ... Building Teaching and Learning Communities is an entry into some of the most interesting conversations in higher education and offers ways for librarians to socialize in learning theory and begin 'thinking together' with faculty. It proposes questions, challenges assumptions, provides examples to be used and adapted, and can help you better prepare as teachers and pursue the essential role of conversation and collaboration with faculty and students."--

Most would agree that a learning community of practice cultivates social and intellectual development in educational settings but what are the other benefits and what does a learning community actually look like in practice? This book explores such questions as: “Are learning communities essential in education?” “How are they designed and developed?” “What difference do they make in learning?” The book contains contributions of educators who share their research and practice in designing and implementing learning communities in school, university, and professional network settings. It presents their experiences, and the “how to” of these educators who are passionate about building and sustaining learning communities to make a real difference for students, teachers, faculty, and communities. Combining scholarly and practitioner research, the book offers practical information to teachers, school and university administrators, teacher educators, and community educators.

This book presents the practice and vision of classrooms that operate as learning communities.

Building Online Learning Communities further explores the development of virtual classroom environments that foster a sense of community and empower students to take charge of their learning to successfully achieve learning outcomes. This is the second edition of the groundbreaking book by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt and has been completely updated and expanded to include the most current information on effective online course development and delivery. A practical, hands-on guide, this resource is filled with illustrative case studies, vignettes, and examples from a wide variety of successful online courses. The authors offer proven strategies for handling challenges that include: Engaging students in the formation of an online learning community. Establishing a sense of presence online. Maximizing participation. Developing effective courses that include collaboration and reflection. Assessing student performance. Written for faculty in any distance learning environment, this revised edition is based on the authors many years of work in faculty development for online teaching as well as their extensive personal experience as faculty in online distance education. Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt share insights designed to guide readers through the steps of online course design and delivery.

Reaching All by Creating Tribes Learning Communities blends the fields of group process and cooperative learning; prevention and resiliency; learning theory and school change into a comprehensive, meaningful whole. This readable, useable, wonderful book is not just a set of activities to build community. Jeanne Gibbs and her colleagues incorporate the latest research on teaching and learning. They illustrate specifically how the Tribes process applies to a variety of school and organizational needs. Most importantly, they help the reader to feel hopeful and proud to be working and learning together with children and with each other.

Build a collaborative coaching culture that ensures all adults learn through activities that keep the team focused on student learning. This practical resource provides activities designed to meet a wide variety of needs so you can choose the ones that fit your leadership style, the learning styles of team members, and the particular needs of the school.

As schools struggle to teach all students, the multi-age teaching and learning framework has emerged as one of today’s most effective ways to structure schools. Multi-age Learning Community (MAC) Program is a professional development program in action. It presents a framework that can transform schools from a graded system to a multi-age learning environment. This multi-age school targets students’ individual and personal needs and allows students to excel and succeed. The school reform climate today focuses on schools of choice and building effective school environments. This multi-age program creates a unique school niche that is marketable to families. Parents have the option of sending their children to schools that concentrate on achievement that best meets the needs of the learner without disrupting the mandates of the curricula. This book is intended to assist educators at all levels of all school organizations, as well as give policymakers, educators and parents the information on an effective school program. This book gives information on how to transform schools into multi-age classrooms. This book is divided into four parts that explain both the theory and the practice of effective strategies for the multi-age school program: Organizational Practice, Building Culture, Learning Processes, and Assessment and Systemic Improvement. There are specific basic principles and practices that are integrated into a quality and effective framework discussed in the chapters of this book. Each chapter begins with a vignette based on my experiences in multiage schools and concludes with an educator’s reflection to recap the concepts in the chapter. Each chapter also integrates snapshots that are short real-to-life passages that bring to life concepts discussed in the chapter. Although this book discusses multi-age schools, these ideas may be applied to all school environments. To accommodate all school programs, at the end of each chapter, a section titled Application for All Schools is a framework that discusses just how to apply chapter concepts in any school or classroom program. It is recommended that the reader review the book one time in sequence and then reread each chapter as needed, to give meaning to the reader’s purpose.