Schools as Learning Organizations

To ask whether a school is a learning organization might sound pointless. Besides, don't schools exist to impart knowledge?

Merriam Webster defines a school as an organization that provides instruction. Contrast this with the definition of a learning organization which is one that provides its members with the opportunity to learn.

While this seems to match the definition of a school, it doesn't account for the features that a learning organization possesses. The most important characteristics of a learning organization are its ability to allow its members to continually expand their thinking, challenge the status quo and allow for experimentation. Perhaps most significantly, is that the members of a learning organization are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.

In the critique of 8-4-4 as a curriculum, the proponents of CBC highlighted the emphasis on examination and academic performance as opposed to the acquisition of skills and knowledge. In that sense, we can say that schools that existed in that system were mostly operating just as schools, rather than learning organizations.

For schools to move from merely providing instruction to being involved in the development of competence among learners requires that the attitudes and systems applied in schools change. The shift from focusing on examinations and academic performance must translate to supporting critical thinking, knowledge acquisition among both teachers and learners.

A school cannot exist as a learning organization until it has developed a learning culture. It means providing room for learners and their teachers to explore areas that interest them, learn, question how things are done, and innovate ways of doing things better or more efficiently. Schools must be safe enough for teachers and learners to explore their interests, acquire knowledge, innovate, make mistakes and learn from their mistakes as well as successes.