The Learning College
The Learning College
The American Council on Education and the American Association of Community Colleges jointly published a book by Terry O’Banion titled, A Learning College for the 21st Century. A learning college is described as a place where learning comes first and educational experiences are provided for learners anyway, anyplace, and anytime. The concept of a learning college is one that fits well within the philosophy of Process Education. In fact, the Principles of Process Education match up well and support the six principles on which the learning college is based.
If institutions of higher education decide to place learning first as a priority, a new model must replace the current educational system—the model of the Learning College. Building upon a set of six principles as its framework, colleges and universities need to adapt these principles to their own experience and within the limitations of their resources.
Colleges
initiating reform efforts to become more learning-centered will begin at
various points. Regardless of the point of departure, it will be
beneficial to have a framework to build upon. This frame of reference
(the learning college) is a set of principles which serve as a catalyst
for institutions to develop their own guidelines towards becoming more
learning-centered.
The learning college is based upon six key principles:
The learning college creates substantive change in individual learners.
The learning college engages learners in the learning process as full partners, assuming primary responsibility for their own choices.
The learning college creates and offers as many options for learning as possible.
The learning college assists learners to form and participate in collaborative learning activities.
The learning college defines the roles of learning facilitators by the needs of the learners.
The learning college and its learning facilitators succeed only when improved and expanded learning can be documented for its learners.