A Learning College for the 21st Century: A Community of Learners

Sunday, August 8, 2010

A Community of Learners

The Core Knowledge Design:

"We must create an environment in which students can succeed and in which they develop, along with a healthy self-interest, an understanding of the sociological and cultural necessities for preserving the community" (p. 140).

A Community of Learners for Students: the learning community is centered around student interests and aspirations.

A Community of Learners for Faculty: using the development model will help target areas for improvement and utilize professional development as the mechanism by which the targeted areas are changed for the better.

A Community of Learners for Departments: identifying responsibilities of operations and sharing information and knowledge obtained by those operations.

A Community of Learners for Cross-Functional Teams: look at the broader picture. Operational learning of working on a routine process gave way to a level of conceptual learning or reframing the problem.

A Community of Learners for Planning Boards: developing patterns of interacting.

A Community of Learners for the Board of Trustees: setting limitations and accepting actions within limitations. Shifting learning and teaching to teaching and learning.

A Community of Learners for Jackson County and Beyond: inform citizens in the design of the community's desired future and to implement that design for continuous improvement.

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Quotes

When Describing Educational Reform - "All of these solutions work toward trimming the branches, when attacking the root is the only viable source of action" (p. 7).

"The reform movement of the past decade has been trimming the branches of a dying tree" (p. 7).

"Putting learning at the heart of the academic enterprise will mean overhauling the conceptual, procedural, curricular, and other architecture of postsecondary education on most campuses" (p.9)

"The student has always been the first priority in the community college, and the current interest in learning is the next evolutionary step in the continuing quest for quality education" (p. 28).

"The purpose of teaching is to help students make passionate connections to learning" (p. 28).

"Technology is like a Swiss army knife, in adept hands, it has many uses including that of opening a 'can of worms'" (p. 70).

"For technology to 'work' in the classroom, there has to be a convincing pedagogy and rationale behind it" (p. 82).

"The world is not won by those who are right. It is won by those who can convince other they are right" (p. 130).

"The community college as an institution is one of the most important innovations in the history of higher education" (p. 232).

About Author - Terry O'Banion

Terry O'Banion, Ph.D., is president and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College, an international consortium of leading community colleges in the United States and Canada dedicated to experimentation and innovation. He is the author of 12 books, including Teaching and Learning in the Community College, Innovation in the Community College, and Teachers for Tomorrow: Staff Development in the Community Junior College. During a 36-year tenure in community college education, he served as dean of students at two Florida community colleges and as professor of community college education at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Dr. O'Banion has written more than 100 articles on community college issues and has been a consultant to over 500 community colleges and universities in 45 states and Canada. He earned a doctorate in administration in higher education from Florida State University and holds a master's degree in guidance and counseling from the University of Florida.