What exactly is a learning community? And how does it catalyze activities? A learning community is one in which the members are constantly expanding their capacity to understand complex situations and create the results that they strive for. In learning communities, the collective aspirations of the group is articulated, new and expansive patterns of thinking are encouraged, and members of the community are continually learning how to learn and make progress together. Most people, at one time or another, have been part of a great team - a group of people who functioned together in an extraordinary way - who trusted each other, complemented each others strengths and compensated for each others limitations, who had common goals that were larger than individual goals, and who produced extraordinary results. Examples of this sort of profound teamwork abound in the performance arts, sports, and business. Teams that achieve greatness don’t start out great; they learn to be great together. Members of successful learning communities are often able to spread the concept (usually unknowingly) and establish new learning communities over time.

It is all too easy to dismiss the concept of a learning community as a fancy label for teamwork, but it is more than that - it is the combination of shared vision, personal growth, and collective impact.  Learning scientists have articulated the concept of a learning community in a variety of ways (Senge 1994). There is a large body of literature on this subject (e.g. Senge, 1994; Radinsky, et al., 2001; Shear, et al., 2004), almost none of which has entered mainstream earth sciences-probably because our culture historically rewards the successes of the individual scientist at the expense of the community of scientists.

Developing learning communities takes significant effort and a sustained approach. Research on cognitive development and learning communities shows that learning communities outside of formal educational settings can be specifically created to address explicit needs, and that the learning space can create community wisdom where knowledge is gained and applied to daily life (Stein and Imel, 2002). Educational design partnerships composed of interdisciplinary teams-of natural scientists, learning scientists, educators, and technologists-have been shown to make unique progress on complex educational problems through sustained, collaborative activity around shared goals (Senge, 1994; Radinsky, et al., 2001; Shear, et al., 2004). The process experienced by the Learning Community during a structured series of learning activities is referred to as a catalytic cycle of change. Learning communities can be a powerful means for creating learning that is “…cooperative, purposeful, and designed to strengthen a group’s ability to learn from and apply wisdom to everyday life situations…where [participants]…gain new knowledge, access community resources…and take action as a result of their learning…” (Stein and Imel, 2002). The learning community promotes change because the learners seek to improve the situation and achieve the goals of the learning community. This often takes the form of a tangible product (e.g. victory in a tournament, improvement in a technology, new educational methods and curricula). The change is catalytic and cyclic because each member of the learning community is constantly returning to their original population (e.g. ocean researchers, businesspersons, educators, students, etc.) and bringing their new understanding of the whole system to their peers, catalyzing change within their original population.