Introduction

Abstract

This is a monograph on a particular approach to learning in professional education at the college level. We call this approach learning-in-community. To describe its most basic assumption in the simplest of terms, we believe that learners learn best when they take classroom learning out into the local community and apply it to real problems faced by real (organizational) clients; we term this active learning. Learners learn in many ways when they engage in such an experience. They learn by subjecting theories and principles to the real world. They learn through interaction with other learners like themselves who are engaged in the experience with them. They learn about the community they live in by working on its problems. Learning-in-community is not a new method, nor is it unique. However, looking back over the more than ten years that we have used it in our teaching, we can say that it changes both what is learned and how it is learned. It fundamentally changes the instructor’s role. In this sense, it can be revolutionary in professional education.