Ensemble Learning: A Lens for Group Learning in Schools

Abstract

Organizational learning posits a relationship between individual learning and group learning. The various processes of organizational learning and the characteristics of learning organizations have been given much attention, and the notion of the operational unit of learning, the group, has been approached from a variety of perspectives. The most common nomenclature for this unit is that of team. Although the notion of team has been given much attention, the power of the term has been lost as some managers assume that groups or collections of individuals will necessarily become teams (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993). It is perhaps because of the universality of the term that the application of teams tends to be somewhat pallid. For this reason, it may be of value to illustrate the nature of teams through the lens of a specific type of team with which readers will have only a passing familiarity - the musical ensemble. This paper argues that the notion of the learning ensemble can provide valuable insights into cooperation and collaboration in schools.