Characteristics of Effective Learning Communities

1. Characteristics of Effective Learning Communities PowerUp Orientation

2. Four Major Areas • Common Purpose • Collective Inquiry • Collaborative Teams • Continuous Improvement

3. Common Purpose • Shared mission, vision, and values • Collective commitment to guiding principles • Healthy learning communities • determine collective expectations • agree on a process for assessing group and individual progress toward accomplishing the expectation.

4. Collective Inquiry • Provides for improvement, growth, and renewal by questioning the status quo. • Individuals work together to seek new methods, test those methods, and then reflect on the results. • Show an acute sense of curiosity and openness to new possibilities, • Process of searching for answers is more important than having an answer • Enables team members to develop new skills and capabilities, which in turn lead to new experiences and awareness • Individuals construct knowledge by making their own meaning and sharing their understanding with others.

5. Collective Inquiry Process • Public Reflection—members of the team talk about their assumptions and beliefs, and challenge each other gently but relentlessly. • Shared Meaning—the team arrives at common ground, shared insights. • Joint Planning—the team designs action steps, an initiative to test their shared insights. • Coordinated Action—the team carries out the action plan. This action need not be joint action but can be carried out independently by the members of the team.

6. Collaborative Teams • Learn from one another, creating momentum to fuel continued improvement. • Team building creates courteous protocols, improving communication, building stronger relationships, or enhancing the group’s ability to perform routine tasks together. • Building the community is essential for a healthy learning community. • Community rituals are developed that promote a sense of belonging and of being responsible to the group. • Supporting learners helps community maintain their passion over the long term.

7. Collaborative Learning Stages • Define • Explore • Experiment • Reflect • Share

8. Continuous Improvement • Innovation and experimentation are not tasks to accomplish or projects to complete, but a process • Aspirations into action and vision into reality • Recognize that learning occurs in a context of engagement and experience • Includes the development, testing, and evaluation of new theories. • Think about how the culture of their classrooms and students could be changed by their individual or collective efforts. • Assesses progress on the basis of results rather than intentions. • Document reflection in the form of journals, reflection papers, and dialogues to provide evidence

9. Continuous improvement asks: • What is our fundamental purpose? • What do we hope to achieve? • What are our strategies for becoming better? • What criteria will we use to assess our improvement efforts?

10. This announcement brought to you by • Standards for Teaching • INTASC—Interstate New Teacher and • NBPTS—National Board for Professional Teaching Standards • Charlotte Danielson—Enhancing Professional Practice • ISTE/NETS