Learn How to Set Up a Learning Community
Your invitation to a live webinar on Wednesday 6th September
Have you ever been inspired to set up your own learning community outside of what you've seen in mainstream schools?
This is the third in our webinar series that gives you a chance to ask an expert who’s been there and done it!
Come and meet Dr Ian Cunningham who is the founder of the Self Managed Learning College (SMLC) and the author of several books including Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm.
SMLC is a self-directed, democratic, freedom-orientated learning community for home educated young people aged 9-17yrs, based near Brighton on the south coast of England.
Dr Cunningham says:
“There’s a lot we know about how children and young people learn, for instance they are all different. Yet school assumes that children and young people will learn the same things, in the same way, at the same time, through a fixed curriculum.
The essence of the Self Managed Learning approach is that we provide a structure within which young people can plan, organise and carry out learning activities. We treat each young person as an individual, so we don’t have classrooms or an imposed curriculum. Each student is able to work out for themselves what and how they want to learn.”
40 Years of Research
Self Managed Learning (SML) is a research-based approach developed in the late 1970s. Since 1980 Dr Cunningham has applied and rigorously evaluated the method in a wide variety of contexts. He has run SML programmes with many organisations, such as the Bank of England, the BBC, Sainsbury’s, British Airways and the NHS.
The Centre for Self Managed Learning was created in 1994 by Ian Cunningham and colleagues to develop the use of the approach for young people.
Person-Centred Learning
The Self Managing learner determines what, where, when, how and why they will learn. Learning is structured and supported but there is no predefined syllabus or curriculum. SML research has shown that this is the most effective way for people to learn. Taking responsibility for one’s own learning, and learning to learn, are vital skills in a fast-changing world. SMLC prepares young people for the test of life, not a life of tests!
Join the Webinar
If you feel inspired to set up a learning community like this, please join us for this live webinar. The session will be an open Q&A with a chance to create some next steps if you want to take your learning community idea further. It will be facilitated by Limitless podcast host, Alex O’Neill.
Hope to see you there!
Future Webinars
This is the last webinar in the series for start-up part-time learning communities for home educated young people. Our next series will focus on full-time registered schools, launching on 4th October with Lucy Stephens, the founder of The New School, an independent, non fee-paying democratic school in London.
You can keep informed about the next series in the Progressive Education Group on Facebook. It will also be announced in the News section of the Progressive Education website.