Learning Communities and Tertiary Education¹

Type learning community into Google and within much less than a second this internet search engine produces several hundred thousand sources of information. Your search will reveal references to learning communities as part of local housing and health initiatives, the work of a wide range of voluntary organizations, as well as projects and developments in schools, colleges and universities.

Though the search will reveal some references to the practical application of this concept in the United Kingdom, as well as Australia and Africa, the majority refer to literature and initiatives in the United States. The proportion of these, which describe learning community developments in education, suggests that if you asked a school, college or university teacher in the United States about this term they would probably know something about it. Certainly, some would have experienced courses explicitly described as ‘learning communities’ when they were a student (most probably as a ‘fresher’) or during teacher training. Some would be part of ‘learning communities’ in their current university or college teaching. Ask a UK college or university teacher the same question and, except for specialists in the theory and practice of learning or in an organizational theory and behaviour, you would probably be met by a blank stare. In contrast in the United States, the concept round its way out of these specialisms and into the more general discourse of tertiary education policy and practice some time ago.