Session Information
SES C 05, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
The research problem is set in the context of Latvia as a post-Soviet country that finds expression in a contradiction between the educational demands of a student within democratic society and the teacher’s professional competence developed within an authoritarian educational system. The study explores different aspects of organizational learning in school as an opportunity to expand the students’ learning experience consistent with the educational needs in democracy by outlining the importance of a social learning aspect in educational practice, and distinguishing it from the idea of collective employed by Soviet ideology in schools and also from the radical individualism derived from the new economics (after re-independence of Latvia in 1991) that made competitiveness a major educational goal.
A learning organization, generally defined as an ideal, and organizational learning as a process by which organizations are going for this ideal, in schools are usually considered as a means for school improvement, teacher professional development or leadership strategies, but rarely from the classroom perspective, probably because the aims of learning within a classroom are strongly individual, unlike in most of organizations that employ organizational learning for their institutional development. Nevertheless the concepts of organizational learning and learning organization have a deep value in classroom settings – overcoming the idea of collaboration as a merely teaching/learning strategy, organizational learning strives to create a learning culture in the classroom that manifests itself as an ability of students to perceive views and support of others as a resource for their learning and to contribute to overall learning and development by embedding interdependent learning habits in their everyday learning experience.
The aim of this part of the study is to explore a narrative of one particular class in a secondary school, which has been indicated as a successful case of becoming a kind of a learning organization. The research questions are focused on finding how students see their classmates and the class as a resource for their learning; what are stimulating and restricting factors for students in relation to organizational learning, and what is the role of teachers and a school in stimulating mutual learning culture in a classroom.
The framework of the study is based on (1) the conceptual perspective of organizational learning and learning organization (Collinson & Cook, Lave & Wenger, Elkjaer); (2) the idea of organizational learning in school as progressing from externally organized through self-determined to self-organizing learning; (3) the interpretation of the concept of learning organization at the classroom level.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
1. Bruner, J.S. (2006) In Search of Pedagogy, vol. 1 and 2. London and New York: Routhledge. 2. Collinson, V., Cook, T.F. (2007) Organizational Learning: Improving learning, teaching, and leading in school sistems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 3. Dewey, J., Experience and Education. – New York: Collier Books, 1938 (1974). 4. Elkjaer, B. (1999) In Search of a Social Learning Theory// in Easterby-Smith, M. et all (Ed), Organizational Learning and Learning Organization: Developments in theory and practice. London: Sage Publications, p. 75-91. 5. Illeris, K. (2007) How We Learn: learning and non-learning in school and beyond. USA, Canada: Routledge. 6. Jensen, K., Walker, S. (2008) Education, Democracy and Discourse. London: Continuum International Publishing group. 7. Lave J. and Wenger E. (1991) Situated learning. New York: Cambridge University Press. 8. Rubene Z., Geikina, L., Svece, A. (2009) Implications of Totalitarian Values in the Post-Soviet Educational Space: Results in Latvia. ATEE Spring University. Changing Education in a Changing Society. Klaipeda: Klaipedos universitetas. 9. Uljens, M. (1997) School Didactics and Learning. UK: Psychology Press. 10. Wenger E. (1998) Communities in Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. USA: Cambridge University Press.
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