The Development of Global Learning and Teaching Communities: Citizen Action and Engagement in Research

• Published in: The international journal of adult, community, and professional learning Vol. 19; no. 2; p. 1
• Main Author: Langlo, Tatzia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Champaign Common Ground Research Networks 01.01.2013
• Subjects: Collaborative learning; Communities of Practice; Community Relations; Cooperative Learning; Higher education; National Norms; Service Learning; Social Change; Teaching
• ISSN: 2328-6318; 2328-6296
• DOI: 10.18848/2328-6318/CGP/v19i02/48252

Collaborative learning skills are increasingly necessary in the global world today. Teamwork and group projects are becoming a national norm and are diversely integrated into academic curriculum. Although educators and students may welcome and positively commend learning and working as interdependent collaborators, there are many obstacles and high levels of hesitation involved in assigning group projects and accomplishing group tasks, particularly in higher education. This will address the obstacles involved in collaborative learning and why these problems are exacerbated in higher education from the perspective of educators and students. The methodology employed for this study follows a service learning structure, in which the process of discovery made through inquiry is useful to the participants and subjects of the studies examined. Teaching and learning communities will continue to be the needed social transformation, comprised of citizens able and empowered to recognize themselves and others as both learners and teachers in and out of classrooms. The research process reveals its relationship and usefulness in fulfilling the interests and needs of its direct and indirect learning community, transforming knowledge into the application of skills useful into the growth and production of life in everyday communities. The research practices described and employed exemplify the concept of it not being enough to know when communicative, cultural, and contextual competence is lacking within learning and teaching relationships and interactions.