(W3) Community of Practice Frameworks

 

    Community of Practice (CoP) has captured my attention this week. Its applications are popular in various disciplines, as a means of fostering both individual and group knowledge within a social learning system. According to Donald (2015), CoPs have three fundamental elements: a ‘domain’ of activity or knowledge that creates a sense of common identity, the ‘community’ who are the members who care about that domain, and the shared ‘practice’ developed by community.

    I am particularly interested in guideline of building and sustaining a CoP, which is applicable for my future design work and enhancing efficiency of current learning groups that I am facilitating. My post includes some helpful frameworks that I detected in related research and handbooks of the topic.

    This CoP Lifecycle is suggested by Adams et al. (2023) to guide the step-by-step design and facilitation of CoP with actionable strategies. Their guiding questions in each step are also thought-provoking in devising and evaluating relevant ideas.

     Another framework by Wenger et al. (2002) presents stages of community development with key activities and challenges.

    ShapingEDU (2022) also offers six best practices for building effective communities of practice, each with recommendations for institutions and organizations seeking to establish CoP opportunities:

Overall, there are various approaches to constructing and sustaining a CoP. I think the common theme is to connect community members in conducting practices that help them attain learning goals about their target domain, through a set of norms and activities for a sustained period of time.

Reference

    Rettler-Pagel, T. (2023). Communities of practice in the higher education landscape: A literature review. Every Learner Everywhere. https://www.everylearnereverywhere.org/resources/communities-of-practice-in-the-higher-education-landscape-a-literature-review.

    Adams, S., Tesene, M., Gay, K., Brokos, M., Swindell, A., McGuire, A., & Rettler-Pagel, T. (2023, Mar 7). Communities of Practice in Higher Education: A Playbook for Centering Equity, Digital Learning, and Continuous Improvement. Every Learner Everywhere. https://www.everylearnereverywhere.org/resources/ communities-of-practice-in-higher-education/.

    Wright. J.D (2015). International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.92051-8.

    Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge - Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice. Harvard Business School. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/cultivating-communities-of-practice-a-guide-to-managing-knowledgeseven-principles-for-cultivating-communities-of-practice

    


Comments

  1. Wile E. CoyoteJune 2, 2024 at 6:00 PM

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts! The formal term, "Community of Practice" is new-ish to me. When I joined the virtual CoP Gulf Coast ISPI last year, I was more of a lurker. Over time, I have started to participate more in the group. The interactions prove to be very meaningful in my professional development journey. You might want to check them out on Linkedin ◡̈

    https://www.linkedin.com/company/gulf-coast-ispi-vcop/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SM PinkJune 2, 2024 at 9:03 PM

      Thanks for sharing the resource. I will check it out.

      Delete

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