A learning community is a group of people who share common academic goals and attitudes and meet semi-regularly to collaborate on classwork.
In a summary of the history of the concept of learning communities, Wolff-Michael Roth and Lee Yew Jin suggest that until the early 1990s, and consistent with (until then) dominant Piagetian constructivist and information processing paradigms in education, the individual was seen as the "unit of instruction" and the focus of research.
[10][11] Roth and Lee claim that this led to forms of praxis (learning and teaching designs implemented in the classroom, and influenced by these ideas) in which students were encouraged to share their ways of doing mathematics, history, science, etc.
For example, the Evergreen State College, which is widely considered a pioneer in this area,[12] established an intercollegiate learning community in 1984.
According to Barbara Leigh Smith of the Evergreen State College,[14] The learning community approach fundamentally restructure the curriculum and the time and space of students.
Still, all of the learning community models intentionally link together courses or coursework to provide greater curricular coherence, more opportunities for active teaming, and interaction between students and faculty.
Experts frequently describe five basic nonresidential learning community models:[15][12] Micro-foundations are based on studies to understand how groups and teams increase their capabilities to work effectively together.
Socializing that to another person transforms through externalization to explicit where it can be shared with a team and by arguing, internalising, and turning it into practice.
[24] What residential and nonresidential learning communities share is an intentional integration of academic content with daily interactions among students, faculty, and staff living and working in these programs.
[25] Students who participate in LLCs tend to have higher GPAs, increased retention rates, and greater academic engagement compared to their peers living in traditional, non-themed residence halls.
[26] Universities are often drawn to learning communities because research has shown that participation can improve student retention rate.
[32] The importance of the development of a sense of belonging is outlined by Abraham Maslow as it is deemed a universal human need, and an essential element to health.