Comparing Communities

Comparing Learning Circles to Similar Terms for Community Organization and Learning

Learning circles are a structure for designing time-bounded learning communities. In the Learning Circle model described here, they are generally a product-based learning community but some of the other linked Learning Circle models defined knowledge or practice-based outcomes. This is brief set of definitions providing a context and contrast of learning circles from other collaborative structures.


Professional Organizations or Professional Communities a structure of membership for members who are part of a sector of society that provides a highly regarded and specialized service (for example, doctors, lawyers, economists, scientists). Professional communities and organizations are structures used to govern or supervise the process of creating and valuing knowledge, as well as setting up the basic requirements for membership. Membership is controlled and often requires some level of educational attainment and testing which then leads to membership credentials. The community or organization often creates boards that oversee appropriate practices, licensing, and sanctioning procedures (for example the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association). Professional organizations control themselves and therefore rarely have a need for labor unions. In the sixties and seventies there was extensive debate about how to characterize professional organizations (Bucher & Stelling, 1969); and more specifically if teaching, which has some properties of professional organizations but also some properties of non-professional service occupations, should teaching be considered a profession (Darling-Hammond & Mclaughlin, (1995)?

A community of practice is a multi-generation group of people who come together to engage in building shared knowledge, refining a set of activities, preserving shared values, and developing skills that make up an occupation or avocation. This structure sidesteps the issue of who defines which sectors as professions. The practice is identifiable (e.g. nursing, tailoring, or skiing) and the community is defined by organizational structures of membership. It might be the people who subscribe to a journal, attend a conference, pay dues, or are participants in organized activities either in person or online. The term was used by Lave and Wenger who sought to describe how people move from "legitimate peripheral participation" on the borders of a community of practice to full membership and perhaps leadership in the organizational structure over time.

Learning Communities are neither professional communities nor communities of practice. A learning community is a group of people who share a common interest in a topic or area, and intentionally engage tools and sense-making approaches for building collaborative knowledge, and valued practices and products. They are often smaller units that either of these community organizations are sometimes used to achieve specified outcomes. Learning communities often form around specific goals and can have definite or indefinite timelines. Riel and Polin (2004) describe three types of learning communities, product-based, practice-based and knowledge-based depending on the focus of the intentional learning of the group.


References

Bucher, R. & Stelling J. (1969) Characteristics of Professional Organizations. (American Sociological Association http://www.jstor.org/stable/2948501) Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Mar., 1969), pp. 3-15.

Darling-Hammond, L. & Mclaughlin, M. (1995) Policies That Support Professional Development in an Era of Reform Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 76, 1995

Greenwook, R. Suddaby, R. & Hinnings, C. (2002) Theorizing Change: The Role of Professional Associations in the Transformation of Institutionalized Fields, Academy of Management Journal. 45(1):58-80.

Riel, M., and Polin, L (2004). Learning Communities: Common Ground and Critical Differences in Designing Technical Support. In S. Barab, R. Kling, & J. Gray (Eds.). Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.