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Brokering is the process that "introduces elements from one practice to another".
Good brokers are essential to the evolution of a CoP, though their position within the boundaries often mean they are unrecognized and undervalued. Given the importance of boundaries of CoPs with a social learning system, interactions at points of intersection should be nurtured. Wenger suggests three types of interactions to be encouraged. Boundary encounters immerse members of a CoP in the activities of another CoP allowing them to bring new knowledge from the interaction to their community. Boundary practices are specific practices that develop when the constant maintainance of a connection between two CoPs is required.
They can in turn establish their own boundaries.
Peripheries include services and activities that can be of use to newcomers and outsiders, to introduce them to the community without burdening it. Wenger finally suggests some design considerations that can help foster 'healthy' identities that are connected to their CoP, effectively participate within it and yet expand beyond it. The modern teacher development literature defines existence of teacher communities as a critical variable for the success of pedagogical reform. Here is a longer quotation from Schlager et al. Brown and Gray define workplace CoPs as small groups of people held together by a "common sense of purpose and a real need to know what each other knows.
Learning opportunities occur primarily through informal interaction among colleagues in the context of work. Newcomers gain access to the community's professional knowledge in authentic contexts through encounters with people, tools, tasks, and social norms. New practices and technologies are adopted by the CoP through the evolution of practice over time.
Thus, a CoP can be an effective hothouse in which new ideas germinate, new methods and tools are developed, and new communities are rooted. The CoP can help professionals gain access to, and facility with, ideas, methods, content, and colleagues; help novices learn about the profession through apprenticeship and peripheral participation; and enable journeymen to become valued resources and community leaders through informal mentoring and participation.
Focus on topics important to the business and community members.
Find a well-respected community member to coordinate the community. Communities of practice have always been there, of course. But having the concept makes the process discussable and then potentially more intentional.
Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice is a collection of classical and contemporary writing associated with learning and systemic change in. This essay argues that the success of organizations depends on their ability to design themselves as social learning systems and also to participate in broader.. .
In education, communities of practice are increasingly used for professional development, but they also offer a fresh perspective on learning and education more generally. This is starting to influence new thinking about the role of educational institutions and the design of learning opportunities. In international development, cultivating horizontal communities of practice among local practitioners presents an attractive alternative to the traditional view of the vertical transmission of knowledge from north to south. In healthcare, communities of practice offer the potential of new learning partnerships that are not hostage to professional silos.
The potential even extends to patients who are increasingly forming their own communities. New technologies, in particular the rise of social media, have triggered much interest in communities of practice. Indeed, these technologies are well aligned with the peer-to-peer learning processes typical of communities of practice. Critiques A common critique is that CoPs do not engage with issues of power.
However Wenger argues that CoPs are inherently about power in that accountability and identity in a CoP is a social process of negotiation, conflict, mutuality, constant alignment and non-alignment. Power and learning are always intertwined when learning is understood as a social process and requires participation. CoP theory has also been criticised for being anachronistic does not have chronological consistency however Wenger argues that it places history in the context of social practice therefore it is anchored in dynamic time.
However, to address this criticism, Barab et al. Cultivating Communities Of Practice: A Guide To Managing Knowledge. Theories and Current Thinking. Dr Etienne Wenger-Traynor discusses concepts of social theories of learning and how they relate to communities of practice and learning in the landscapes of practice.
Published on Feb 23, by Wenger and Traynor. Planning, implementing and evaluating social learning projects.
August 31st, at But the concept of community of practice is well aligned with the perspective of the systems tradition. A community of practice itself can be viewed as a simple social system.
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