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WHAT'S NEW>Learning Communities - A Strategy for Knowledge Development and Technical Assistance | |||||||
The National Infant & Toddler Child Care Initiative (the Initiative) is introducing Learning Communities as a strategy for developing and sharing knowledge about specific elements of the early care and education system that support quality infant/toddler child care. The Learning Communities will address three of the strategies that States, Tribes, and Territories are using to improve the supply and quality of infant/toddler child care: Infant/Toddler Specialist Networks, Infant/Toddler Credentials, and Quality Rating Systems. What are Learning Communities? Learning Communities are groups of people with mutual goals who commit to working together regularly over extended periods of time. Participants share the goals of increasing their own skills and knowledge and generating new knowledge to inform policy and practice. Community members may collaborate in person or through an interactive electronic forum. Learning Communities recognize that learning is a social process that occurs in the context of relationships. Learning Communities are not created -- rather, they are convened and nurtured through opportunities for members to interact and build relationships. Engagement in Learning Communities is driven by shared needs and interests related to a particular focus area. Learning Communities’ work is self-directed. It emerges as a result of regular interactions among members and responds to their collective needs. Community members help each other devise solutions and generate new knowledge and insight. Communities thrive when their membership includes a range of knowledge and experience. The Learning Communities convened by the Initiative will support knowledge development in the context of real-world experience while strengthening the professional development and peer-to-peer learning of State, Tribe, and Territory staff involved in system improvement efforts related to infants and toddlers. Electronic communication tools will be leveraged to engage a national, geographically dispersed audience with shared interests and goals. When will each Learning Community be convened?
Who are the Learning Community Members? Each Learning Community will be comprised of teams from States, Tribes, and Territories, Initiative staff, and topical guest experts. All community members will develop and share knowledge in the context of reciprocal relationships as teachers and learners. Initiative staff will encourage inquiry and reflection within the Learning Communities. Optimally, the Learning Communities will be comprised of members representing diverse geographic locations and stages of development related to their efforts with the focus areas. The size of each community will allow for the flow of productive group discussions and the sharing of ideas, experiences and information. Community Members should be actively involved in planning, implementing, or evaluation and redesigning efforts related to the Learning Community focus areas. What is the time frame for each Learning Community? The Initiative staff will support each Learning Community for approximately 12 months. What activities will Learning Community members participate in? Learning Community members will have various opportunities to interact and work together on group-identified issues. Each Community will develop its own goals, plan the direction of its work, and implement work plans by interacting through:
Community members will have access to an online learning environment that will support electronic forms of communication, as well as the posting of documents created by the Community and electronic resource materials that may inform its work. The online environment will facilitate and support the work of the Community between the conference calls. The Learning Communities will be invited to feature their work at the 2007 National Infant & Toddler Child Care Institute. What are the benefits of participating in a Learning Community? Learning Communities can advance the work of States, Tribes and Territories to address the unique needs of babies, toddlers, their families, and the infant/toddler child care workforce. Community members in the initial stages of work related to the focus areas can benefit from the knowledge and experience of those who are further along in the process. Those with substantial knowledge and experience can benefit from access to experts in the field, an opportunity to raise the visibility of their work, and the ability to reflect on their work with others who may offer fresh perspectives. How will the Initiative share the information generated by the Learning Communities? The Initiative will collect and synthesize the information and knowledge developed by the Learning Communities and produce materials that will be shared with all States, Tribes, and Territories. The Initiative will also host audio-conferences to extend the knowledge generated in the Learning Communities to a national audience. For additional information: National Infant & Toddler Child Care Initiative Phone: 202-857-2673
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