How is learning enhanced by a sense of community?
Learning is enhanced by a sense of community because: 1. People feel more comfortable asking each other questions, and when they do ask questions, they tend to ask more direct questions, rather than dancing around the issue with politeness, or being too shy to ask altogether. 2. People are, on the other hand, less apt to give in to the temptations of anonymity; this is the idea of “self-policing”, that if you are in a community you have a certain investment in that community, and can be rewarded or shamed by your status. This helps learning because it keeps discussions somewhat more focused then they would be, at least in theory, and the infamous signal/noise ratio is heightened. 3. In a community, the knowledge base is accessed more efficiently because members know each other and know who to ask about specific topics. They also know where to go to ask questions, and what the acceptable method of asking those questions is. 4. Things like cooperation, encouragement, sympathy, et cetera
If you have a community of people involved in the learning process, then everyone becomes part of the learning process, it’s not just the normal pedagogy of teacher vs student. In this case, you have people of different abilities, with different communicative and teaching styles who can help get points across. This, in turn, means that people who learn differently have a better chance of having someone in their community who can explain or demonstrate a certain idea in a way that assists them personally. Additionally, communities that are focussed on learning as an outcome, get more cooperative and less competitive, which means focussing on the goal of actually LEARNING instead of focussing on the tangetial goal of actually WINNING that competition can encourage..
