Peter Senge, argues that organizations must become learning organizations or learning communities (Senge, 1990).

Fundamental and rapid changes in society related to the explosion in information, the rapid growth of technology and the information economy force us to reconsider our current views and images of organisations, including schools.

Our mental models of schools needs to change if we are to meet the challenges of the knowledge society currently in front of us.

Mental models are subconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs about how the world works.

The mental models held by individuals within an organisation are significant because they harbour and shape a great part of that organisation's knowledge.

Obviously, reflection and recognition are the first steps.

Taking action and developing models for learning communities is the next.

We can no longer afford to conceive of schools simply as "knowledge distribution centers".

The school must be much more than a place of instruction, it must also be a center of inquiry,

that is a producer as well as a transmitter of knowledge.

A school organized as a center of inquiry is an institution characterzed by a pervasive search for meaning and rationality in its work. (Kleine-Kracht 1993).

Central to any new mental model of a school as a learning community is the concept that

life long learning must become a core activity for both individuals and organizations as a whole.

Viewed as a learning community, a school responds creatively and adaptively to changes in education and society. All of the community's members are valued and share a common purpose in the pursuit and achievement of quality education. This demands of all members a committed, active involvement in inquiry and problem solving, rather than the passive transmission and reception of information from teachers to students.

The concept of schools as learning communities has the potential to build upon existing excellent practice in our schools, and to provide new insights and understandings to support schools and all sectors of the Department of School Education in our pursuit of quality education for students.