New-Paradigm Collaborative and Diverse Learning Community
“We learn from the company we keep.”
Frank Smith
Over the last decade, there has been the beginning of a shift into school environments that emphasize collaborative and diverse learning communities. The research surrounding the benefits of this framework and approach goes well beyond the individual and into communities and our world. We are beginning to understand the power of learning as a “social and cultural enterprise” where collective knowledge is central, rather than just as a cognitive perspective where knowledge resides in people’s minds. (1) When individuals gain new knowledge, and they share it among each other, it expands the collective knowledge. When we advance collective knowledge, individual learning increases in empowering ways. (2)
At the core of collaborative and diverse learning communities in education is the vast amount of research on learning organizations, ‘where people continually expand their capacity to create results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.’ (p.3). (3)
In the new paradigm of education, it is important that leaders adapt this research using its principles and create schools as types of learning organizations where the connections between students personal and interpersonal learning, and how the classroom (and school) learns collectively, are integrated and prioritized as one of the keys to transformation and success. We use the term collaborative and diverse learning communities (CDLC) to depict classrooms functioning as a type of learning organization within the larger learning organization of the school, and then of the school district.
CDLC’s can be integrated into the school structures and processes to enable students (and their teachers) to learn and grow as individual trusted knowledge sources, and at the same time operate genuine communities that draw on a shared vision and goals, and the collective capacity of everyone to contribute to learning. (4) Both the content learned and the processes of learning from outside resources are shared and become a part of the collective understanding. Members of the group and the collective knowledge and skills of the group are considered important resources. Co-construction and negotiation of ideas, common language, projects, content and goals are made from the community members. CDLC’s provide a framework to exchange ideas and move to mastery from each individual student’s needs, desires and perspective.
CDLC’s naturally promote educational equity for all students, cultural content integration, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy/inclusive practices, and an empowered school culture and social structure. They allow students to direct their own learning, communicate and work with people from diverse backgrounds and views, and learn to reason through complex issues and challenges. Learning goals can begin from each student, and then expand as the community comes together to discuss their goals further. The collective goals are emergent. In CDLC’s students and teachers learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses in respectful, accepting ways.
CDLC’s have their foundation in collaborative learning. There are numerous benefits of collaborative learning. They typically result in higher achievement and greater productivity, more caring, supportive, and committed relationships; and greater psychological health, social competence, and self esteem. More specifically, collaborative learning has been shown to have the following benefits.5
Social benefits
helps to develop a social support system for learners; training students in the social skills needed to work cooperatively
builds diversity understanding among students and staff
establishes a positive atmosphere for modeling and practicing cooperation
reduces violence in any setting by understanding differences and learning how to resolve social problems
develops learning communities that last outside of class and beyond school
Psychological benefits
student-centered instruction increases students’ self esteem
cooperation reduces anxiety
develops positive attitudes towards teachers
reduces classroom anxiety created by new and unfamiliar situations faced by students
Academic benefits
promotes higher level thinking skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and decision-making
develops students’ oral communication skills
involves students participating actively in the learning process, developing curriculum, learning processes and class/school procedures
increases self-management and self-discipline
The Shift
For 200 years, billions of students globally have been through a system of education whose primary goal was to transmit knowledge from a “teacher and textbooks” into the heads of the students. Information gathering, studying and projects are primarily accomplished in silos, with learning tested by regurgitation of information. Talking is inhibited, and the sharing of knowledge and working on projects together is sparse. This approach to learning is narrow minded, boring, controlling, and exhausting, -all characteristics that are in stark opposite of a positive and inspiring learning environment. We wonder why young people are so physically and emotionally challenged.
In addition, this old approach doesn’t take into consideration the diverse backgrounds and needs of students and their teachers, as it continues to play a role in reproducing inequality among student learning. In many countries, with a deepening ethnic texture, interracial tension and conflict, and an increasing percentage of students who speak a first language other than English, making multicultural education imperative. It is estimated that by 2042, ethnic minorities in the US education system will reach 50%.(6)
It is very important that educators understand how to integrate the principles of CDLC’s into their classrooms and schools. At the same time, they must learn how to model, facilitate and coach social and emotional skills so students learn to trust each other to be able to openly express and share what they are learning. A diverse student body has arrived, so creating an atmosphere where students respect each other’s differences needs to develop. Empowerment Coaching and the WAVE Process® inherently do all of this and more. Becoming a coach promotes connected relationships through mainly a trauma-informed coaching approach. This allows both the teachers and students to be sensitive to the needs, beliefs and feelings of each other.
Empowerment Coaching allows educators to interact with increasingly diverse students, all who possess multiple social identities, so they can all learn at high levels.
Coaching allows the teacher to better orchestrate student-directed activities and confidently facilitate individual and group communication, helping students to gather resources to support the ideas and needs of their projects. Students who are coached, learn to coach each other, and themselves. Which positively enhances learning communities. Coaching students supports them to learn how to use their time to make a difference, build a positive identity, and build more confidence in mastering skills even when they “fail”.
As educators learn to become Empowerment Educators and become life and learning coaches, they are well-equipped to facilitate a learning communities approach, where students take on different roles and pursue individual interest toward common goals. Educators, as Student Empowerment Coaches, understand how to support students in bringing out their individual expertise and identities without ever “telling” them to do anything. They coach their students individually and in groups to collaboratively set up processes to learn and share knowledge. With every project, the students’ roles change, so everyone gets a central role at some point. This allows them to learn to lead from the front, the back and the side. (Coactive Leadership, 2010)
With a new brilliant and diverse Alpha generation beginning to enter school, shifting into collaborative and diverse learning communities will cater to many different types of learning styles. But no matter their learning style, this new generation will highly benefit from experiential, immersed, interactive and social learning, multi-tasking frameworks, a little structure built into an emergent curriculum, and learning through technology, which can all be integrated through CDLC’s.
1Learning Communities in Classrooms: A Reconceptualization of Educational Practice
2Emerging approaches for supporting easy, engaged and effective collaborative learning
3http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.475.9451&rep=rep1&type=pdf
5Benefits of collaborative learning
6The Light in Their Eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities
