Learning Communities, A Path Towards Collaborative Teaching
Currently, the Learning Communities project proposed by CREA (Center for Research and Practices to Supply Inequalities) is being developed in schools and institutes in the Basque Country, Aragon, Catalonia and Extremadura. It began in 1990 and has a proven scientific knowledge base of authors from different disciplines around the world.
What are the Learning Communities?
Said scientific studies and their conclusions are included in the INCLUD-ED Project, which has been ratified by the European Commission. Through this project, the best Educational Success Actions are identified that are then applied in schools to combat inequality and improve student results.
Learning Communities arise from the need, not only of teachers, but of the entire educational community, to fill in social and educational deficiencies. With the efforts of all those involved, student performance is improved through a series of successful educational actions and collaborative teaching, even if the educational context varies.
In this way, by involving each part of the educational community – family members, teachers, students, other workers of the center – the solidarity coexistence is harmonized in which, each part, contributes its experience and knowledge, thus improving the social environment of the school and the quality of teaching.
Philosophy of an Educational Project
His educational project is based on Dialogic Education, in which all opinions are taken into account equally. This egalitarian dialogue, together with a solidarity effort through volunteering, achieves excellent results when it comes to addressing diversity problems in the centers.
It is clear that the changes are progressive and the entire educational community must agree to make them. But the results, even if they wait, are so good that the effort will have been worth it. We must not lose sight of the fact that everything we propose we do to improve the quality of life of our children.
Said transformation or educational and social evolution of schools towards Learning Communities must follow a few steps:
- Sensitization. In this first step, the educational community must carry out a retro-inspection to identify the current situation of the center, where it wants to go and how it will be achieved.
- Decision making. Regardless of the decision made, it must be agreed with the entire educational community, since it will affect all those involved.
- Dreams What school do we want? It is important to keep in mind that no dream that leads to the transformation of a center is small.
- Priorities. However, it is necessary to evaluate which are the dreams that must be realized first and which ones to leave for later. And those that due to lack of resources cannot be carried out.
- Planning. An assembly made up of members representing the entire educational community must be constituted. And, through mixed commissions, assess the resources available and those necessary to achieve the greatest possible number of dreams.
What are the educational actions of success in the Learning Communities?
To achieve the transformation of the centers into Educational Communities and achieve the established objectives, education must be implemented with Successful Actions. These practices improve coexistence and solidarity actions in the centers.
The INCLUD-ED project is the framework that collects scientific studies from different disciplines such as economic, social and human sciences, and endorses the results of Successful Educational Actions.
- Interactive groups.
- Dialogical gatherings.
- Tutored library.
- Family training.
- Educational participation of the community.
- Dialogical model of conflict prevention and resolution.
- Dialogical pedagogical training.
How do you get it?
All these dreams and the transformation of schools is achieved thanks to Dialogical Learning. A basic concept of the Learning Communities supported by renowned professionals such as the child psychologist Lev Vygotsky, of whom we have already spoken on other occasions, or Jerome Bruner, among others.
Thanks to these solidarity and egalitarian interactions and respect for the ‘cultural intelligence’ of each person involved in the project, the transformation of the schools is achieved. We could say that the project gives meaning to the actions of the educational community, and more specifically to the role of the students.
