Professional Documents
Culture Documents
COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
Kathie Tait-Rayner
COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
DEFINITION
PURPOSE
BENEFITS OF CoP
CYCLE OF A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
STARTING UP
ROLES WITH COMMUNITY
REFLECTION
KEEPING THE COMMUNITY GOING
DEFINITION
Communities of practice are groups of peoplewho
shareaconcernor a passion for somethingthey do
andlearnhowto doit better as they interact regularly
(Wenger-Trayner, 2015)
(Wenger-Trayner, 2015)
Benefits of CoP
Communities of Practice help people to be better at
what they do.
Widespread use in business, education, associations,
social sector, international development (WengerTrayner, 2015)
Research comparing teachers engaged in individual
professional development vs. collaborative learning
process showed that teachers who engaged in
collaboration with others had deep rooted changes in
their thinking and teaching (Butler, 2003)
Inquire
Design
Prototype
Launch
Grow
Sustain
STARTING UP A CoP
Preliminaries
Start-up
Behaviours &
Actions
Shut down
-establish a focal
point for the CoP
-select members
-get organized
-determine meeting
specific i.e. location,
date, time
-set agenda
-initial
communications
with COP members
-share
-discuss
-collaborate
-experiment
-learn
-evaluate
-goals established
Start up tips
A CoP should have an informal flavour, but still maintain
a focus. The focus should be established at the
beginning of the meeting, however the focus can change
throughout the meeting. The function of the CoP is to
come together to learn and share; every member has
their own purpose to achieve, but does so through
collaborating with the CoP members. In order to achieve
the above, a CoP should start small and gradually expand
and grow (Nickols, 2003)
Reflection
We do not learn from experience... we learn from
reflecting on experience.
John Dewey
References
Au, L., Reiner, D. and Urbanowksi, D. (n.d.) Communities of Practice. Retrieved from http://blogs.mtroyal.ca/ccwb/files/2014/06/pdf_ccwb_communities_of_practi.pdf
Curtis, Deb et al (2013) Reflecting in Communities of Practice. St. Paul: Redleaf Press.
Fleer, Marilyn (2003) Early Childhood Education as an Evolving Community of Practice or as Lived Social Reproduction: researching the taken-for-granted .Retrieved
from http://methodenpool.uni-koeln.de/communities/viewpdf.pdf
Noble, Karen (2014)Communities of Practice: Innovation in Early Childhood Education and Care Teacher and Practitioner Preparation. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242275065_Communities_of_Practice_Innovation_in_Early_Childhood_Education_and_Care_Teacher_and_Practitioner_Preparation
Wenger, Etienne, McDermott, Richard, and Snyder, William (2002) Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. Harvard Business School Press.
Wenger, Etienne & Wenger-Trayner, Beverly. (2015) Communities of Practice a brief introduction. Retrieved from
http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/
Padlet Information
https://padlet.com/ktaitrayner/3ahlme5fzu49