Community of learners

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Community of learners

• How to keep the concept viable for educational
  practice ?

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Attraction of a community of learners

• complexity of societal problems
• collaboration between professionals
• knowledge workers
• communication and social relationships
  are important for young people
• social character of learning

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However..
educational discourse (widespread) vs.
classroom practice (hardly present)

• Why?
• How can the concept be made more viable for
  educational practice?

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In this keynote

• 1. Theoretical roots what is essential?
• in socio-constructivist and sociocultural CoL
• 2. Does the concept CoL offer solutions for
  student disengagement?
• 3. A research agenda

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• Community of learners
• ?
• transmission of decontextualized knowledge

• Brown, Campione, Scardamalia, Bereiter, Rogoff,
  Wells, Wenger
• Socio-constructivist community of learners
• Sociocultural community of learners

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Back to the roots essential characteristics of a
socio-constructivist community of learners

• 1. Meaningful setting ? real problems
• related to subject matter
• engaging for students genuine issues / purpose
  is clear
• require research-like activities
• 2. Social setting collaboration
• Interaction ? activity
• Resources for learning
• Better solutions
• 3. Aim understanding of basic concepts / big
  ideas

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Why does a community of learners enhance learning?

• Socio-constructivist theories on learning
• enhancing learning developing deep level of
  subject understanding
• how knowledge emerges during a process of
  active construction and is promoted by
  interaction
• students are activated
• students construct knowledge around big ideas
• students remain engaged

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Back to the roots essential characteristics of a
sociocultural community of learners

• 1. Meaningful setting ? social practices
• historically and culturally evolved
  constellations of human activity
• personally meaningful
• (legitimate peripheral participation, not
  restricted to the role of researcher)
• 2. Social setting ? participation in activity
• not only group of students
• also activity itself (incl. knowledge, concepts)
• teacher scaffolding
• 3. Aim is enhancing the quality of participation
  in social practice with help of scientific
  concepts

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Why does a community of learners enhance learning?

• Sociocultural theories on learning
• enhancing learning improving the quality of
  students participation in social practices
• how fundamental intertwining of individual
  development and cultural context
• requirements of the activity drive students
  development support more capable other
• students actively negotiate the meaning of
  cultural tools (acquire transform tools)

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Communities of learners in educational practice?
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A community of learners is ..

• not just an instructional format
• but a pedagogical concept
• ? implies visions of the goals of education
• deeper levels of understanding
• improving the quality of students participation
  

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(Dis)engagement

• 1. Societal developments
• individualization
• multicultural society
• erosion of shared value system
• 2. Changes in the social worlds of youngsters
• normative autonomy
• flexible communities
• popular culture
• Can communities of learners provide an answer?

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Why is a community of learners motivating?

• Assumptions
• Knowledge as tool
• Personally meaningful learning
• Distributed cognition
• Horizontal interaction
• Prolepsis and scaffolding

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Empirical evidence?

• Most studies show ?
• goal of Fostering Communities of Learners to
  engage students in learning is realized
• Engle Conant (2002) ? productive disciplinary
  engagement through
• problematizing subject matter
• authority to address such problems
• accountable to others, sharing disciplinary
  norms
• necessary resources

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A community of learners for vocational education

• Design research project of the University of
  Amsterdam VU University in close co-operation
  with teachers
• Three studies during a period of two years, aimed
  at developing and evaluating a CoL for
• general academic subject (Dutch language)
  (Toorenaar Rijlaarsdam)
• vocation-oriented subject (Care Welfare)
  (Boersma, Volman, Wardekker Ten Dam)
• teachers themselves (Krol)

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Starting points

• Organizing a CoL for vocational education
• the FCL model with focus on disciplinary-based
  concepts (big ideas) of only limited use
• focus on participating in vocational practice,
  using a sociocultural approach (key problems or
  dilemmas)

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Design four parameters

• Shared learning (? working cooperatively as
  colleagues)

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Design four parameters

• Meaningful learning (? authentic vocational
  practices)

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Design four parameters

• Reflective learning (? working as a professional)

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Design four parameters

• Focus on transferable learning outcomes
• (? recontextualisation and identity development)

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Design

• Four parameters
• shared learning (? working cooperatively as
  colleagues)
• meaningful learning (? authentic vocational
  practices)
• reflective learning (? working as a professional)
• focus on transferable learning outcomes (?
  recontextualisation and identity development)

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Make A Difference Day-days

• Students were asked to choose a volunteer
  activity and prepare and participate in the
  activity
• Results motivation increases
• more effort
• more perspective
• more appreciation
• However, students respond differently

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How and why does motivation change?

• Fien and Laura
• effort Fien Laura
• appreciation Fien Laura
• perspective Fien Laura -
• Fien ? purpose and steps of the activity
• Laura ? legitimate member of the learning
  community

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A perspective on engagement

• Engagement as students personal motives for
  participating in a certain activity (cf. Rogoff
  et al., 2003)
• ?
• improving student engagement can be understood as
  changing the relation of an individual to a given
  activity

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A perspective on engagement

• Motivation and engagement related to individual
  preferences and students social positions
• an eye for differences between students
• making a connection in the mind of each student
  between school and cultural practices
• active role of students
• learning is achieving deeper level of
  understanding and feeling connected to the
  learning content and take responsibility

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Broadening the motives of students

• in the direction of societal participation
• in the direction of wanting to acquire the
  knowledge and skills needed
• thereby identity development
• At school students can look at the world in new
  ways, try new roles, etc., without the pervasive
  influence of daily routines, without being
  confronted with the direct consequences of their
  explorations

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Conclusion 1

• a community of learners can not only contribute
  to the pedagogical goals of achieving a deep
  level of subject understanding but also promotes
  a willingness and capacity to act in diverse
  social practices on the basis of such an
  understanding
• personal and societal relevance of school
  learning

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Conclusion 2

• A socio-constructivist CoL
• goal of learning (learning knowledge) easily
  recognizable
• instructional formats available
• A sociocultural CoL
• focus on activity harder to grasp
• less elaborated instructional formats available

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Conclusion 3

• Research agenda aimed at strengthening and
  deepening the theoretical and practical use of
  the concept of a community of learners
• develop and evaluate instructional formats
• investigate how to realize a growing sense of
  connectedness, shared goals and values
• conceptualise, develop and evaluate tools for
  thinking not necessarily derived from scientific
  disciplines
• investigate differences in engagement
• contribute to the emancipatory mission of
  education in modern society broaden the motives
  of students

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