Communities of Practice

CoPs

          www.theconsultants-e.com

          

          Communities of Practice

overview

slide 1

Introduction to CoPs – some definitions...

Theory: what are CoPs?

Reflection: setting up a CoP

Application: learning in CoPs

Resources

“A distributed community of practice (CoP) consists of a group of people who communicate with each other synchronously and/or asynchronously, concerning a topic of common interest.”

Jones, C. 2002

          

          introduction

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“A CoP is a group of people who share an interest in something, and come together to develop knowledge around this topic, in order to use it in practice.”

Wenger, E. 1991

virtual

physical

Communities of Practice

          

          

introduction

slide 3

from vertical to horizontal...

“The goal of the community (CoP) is to advance the collective knowledge of the group about the subject area at the same time that the individual's knowledge is increasing. Thus, all participants have a genuine need to learn from each other.”

Jones, C. 2002

Communities of Practice

          

          

theory

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community knowledge

explicit & implicit knowledge

Communities of Practice

          

          theory

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voluntarynegotiated goals

roles: assigned - - - - emergent

Communities of Practice

          

          

theory

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reflection social scaffolding

negotiated meaning

artefacts

Communities of Practice

          

          

application

slide 7

scaffolding

creative practice

competencies

constructivist

Communities of Practice

          

          

reflection

slide 8

Setting up an informal network or CoP?

Consider: 

-         Are they online or f2f?-         Are they focused on implicit/explicit knowledge?-         What are the main roles and who holds them?-         Is your participation voluntary or imposed?-         What are the goals (if any)? How are they arrived at?-         Does your network produce any ‘artefacts’?-         Do negotiation and reflection have a role?

 

Communities of Practice

          

          

resources

http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm

www.learningalliances.net/CP_bib/

groups.yahoo.com/group/com-prac/

CoPs quiz: www.theconsultants-e.com/quiz/quiz.html

slide 9

Online skills sharing is breaching staffroom 'wall of silence' http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,5500,1048661,00.html

Communities of Practice