Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Chapter 2

A learning organization is defined as any business work team, big or small, that engages in ongoing, collaborative problem solving focused on making the business better. The most important thing is that individuals learn how to learn together. Therefore, this is the main focus on learning communities. New contexts for learning create new opportunities for teachers to work together. Also, change can happen when teachers take the initiative to try something new.

There are several benefits of learning communities. There is decreased teacher isolation, increased commitment to the mission, shared responsibility, more powerful learning, and a higher likelihood of fundamental, systematic change. I think that all of these benefits are important characteristics/techniques to learn. When you enter the workforce a lot of these characteristics/techniques you will need to acquire.

Learning Communities affects teachers because it creates a different way of collaborating with colleagues. I think it’s important to recognize that as teachers you should reflect on each other’s classroom interactions. Critical feedback is important because that’s how you improve as a teacher. Therefore, your colleagues are the best resource for improving your classroom and teaching skills.

Learning Communities affects students in beneficial ways. The learning is relevant and students learn to learn together. They develop skills that they will need to use in the “real world.” Some of these skills include: communication, problem solving, project management, motivation, and persistence.


I think the concepts in this chapter relate to my teams topic/project because a main component is collaboration. Without collaborating with your partner or team members there is no way to be successful. The other main component is problem solving. There are going to be problems that arise that team members will have to talk about and decide on. Therefore, decision making is another component. At some points my team member and I will have to be decisive and make decisions. At other points we will have to discuss and collaborate on certain things for our project.  

3 comments:

  1. I like what you said about learning communities being about people learning to learn together. I think it sums up the whole idea well because it implies the give and take, as well as the collaboration that has to occur for this system to be successful. I also agree that it is important to reflect on your own teaching and your colleagues teaching as a way to grow as a teacher. You summed it up well with how it relates to our project for this class, we will definitely have to rely on our teams and problem solve together.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like what you said about learning communities being about people learning to learn together. I think it sums up the whole idea well because it implies the give and take, as well as the collaboration that has to occur for this system to be successful. I also agree that it is important to reflect on your own teaching and your colleagues teaching as a way to grow as a teacher. You summed it up well with how it relates to our project for this class, we will definitely have to rely on our teams and problem solve together.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What you said sums up the chapter pretty well. I like the way you related the the concepts of the chapter to the project, and put in there that decision making is important along with collaboration. Both are very important skills teachers will benefit from having.

    ReplyDelete