The Value of a Community of Practice for Youth Development Professionals

Youth development professionals and parks and recreation professionals often are charged with providing services to youth. However, the approach of each can be quite different as recreation is a primary focus for recreation professionals and part of many services offered by youth development specialists. Despite the differences, these two groups of professionals can learn a great deal from each other. This article examines youth development and staff training with examples from the field and suggests how youth development professionals can learn from recreation professionals and vice versa. It suggests that parks and recreation professionals can strengthen degree programs, accreditation, certification, and continuing education by incorporating specific youth development competencies established by the National Collaboration for Youth. For their part, youth development professionals can learn from parks and recreation professionals how to enhance recreation programming as part of their services by gaining an understanding of program design, program and activity leadership, and administrative practices. With much debate over whether more education or more experience is a better path for those working with youth, the authors suggest that a combination of both will adhere to the quality of staff. Staff gain further knowledge and skill from academic preparation at the undergraduate and graduate levels, field-based training through jobs and internships, and continuing education courses specializing in youth development competencies and recreation-based competencies set within a youth development environment.

To Brunswick and Beyond: A Geography of Creative and Social Participation for Marginalised Youth

A study to determine what job responsibilities Extension 4-H youth development professionals (n=241) chose to spend their work time doing and how the workload related to their job satisfaction and burnout is discussed in this paper. Workload was determined using the 4-H Professional, Research, Knowledge, and Competencies (4-H PRKC). Professionals identified their level of job satisfaction and burnout. Based on the previous research on workload, burnout, and job satisfaction, 4-H youth development professionals are prime candidates for experiencing low job satisfaction and increased burnout, which may lead to professionals leaving the organization early. 4-H youth development professionals reported being satisfied with their job and felt very little burnout. Even with the positive job satisfaction and low burnout, there are strategies shared for each of the 4-H PRKC domains to help 4-H professionals continue to have a high level of job satisfaction and low burnout. Many of the strategies that are shared in this paper are applicable to not only 4-H youth development professionals but to any professional who works in the field of youth development.

This Innovative Practice Full Paper chronicles and reports on the innovative use of a Growth Mindset Faculty Community of Practice (GM-FCoP) to promote student success in a college of computing at a large private university in the northeast United States. Faculty communities of practice bring together faculty as a peer group to engage in learning about a specific topic. The experience is typically a structured approach where members with varying levels of knowledge and expertise about a topic provide encouragement and support to each other as they develop their knowledge and collaboratively generate shared resources. The community members in this GM-FCoP were experienced faculty specializing in computer programming, networking, web technologies, and computing career services, gathering to learn about embracing and developing a growth mindset to apply and promote in the courses they teach and in their interactions with computing students.Situated in theories of intelligence, growth mindset posits that intelligence is malleable and can be developed over time. A growth mindset views failures as a springboard for future success. This contrasts with a fixed mindset that views intelligence and talent as fixed, or in other words, if you are not good at something you will never be good at it. This encourages the notion that talent alone is responsible for success. While many faculty, including computing faculty, may innately and informally embrace and encourage growth mindset approaches in their classrooms and interactions with students, the integration of growth mindset approaches is not broadly recognized or mindfully applied in day-to-day computing education curriculum. As such, the GM-FCoP provided an innovative opportunity to develop faculty understandings of growth and fixed mindset with a goal of planning for more intentional growth mindset interactions with students. Using communities of practice as a framework for examination, this paper details the innovative practice of a semester-long GM-FCoP, including the planning of weekly meetings and activities. Lessons learned from initial evaluative reporting alongside faculty leadership reflections are examined with an eye toward presenting opportunities for faculty who may also be looking to instill a growth mindset in colleagues and students. This has potential implications for both faculty and student success in numerous domains.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess the perceived level of competence among 4-H Youth Development Agents from a Southern state in the United States. The findings will be used to identify gaps in and opportunities for professional training and development experiences in supporting the competence and growth of youth professionals. Based on the 4-H Professional Research, Knowledge, and Competency Model (Stone & Rennekamp, 2004), youth development professionals rated their youth development competence in nine youth development core competency areas. Utilizing a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1=no knowledge to 5=expert, youth development professionals rated their youth development competence ranging from 3.12 to 3.54. According to an interpretive scale, youth development professionals rated their competence as intermediate. Staff felt most competent in the areas of current youth issues, career opportunities for youth, and family structures/relationships. Staff felt least competent in the area of mental development of youth. No one identified themselves as an expert in the areas of psychological development, emotional development, and current youth issues.

This paper aims to illustrate how the services developed within the PALETTE project (Pedagogically sustained Adaptive LEarning Through the exploitation of Tacit and Explicit knowledge - 2006-2009) can answer specific needs of different CoPs. Through the analysis of two cases (ePrep CoP and CoP Did@cTIC), the reader will discover how the involvement of CoPs in the project has had an impact on support for learning within CoPs (pedagogical interests, organizational). The article shows also how the involvement of CoPs in the project, through the Participatory Design Methodology, helped to develop technical services that are relevant to communities of practice (CoP). The ePrep case describes some Participatory Design Methodology (PDM) events, involving, in term of Design in use, ePrep CoP members and PALETTE researchers. ePrep CoP members are, for the most of them, teachers in "Classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles" (CPGE), a first higher education cycle preparing students for the competitive entrance exams to the French "Grandes Ecoles". Arisen in 2006 under the guidance of PALETTE researchers, the ePrep CoP conducts pedagogical projects for French and French-speaking CPGEs and similar establishments, using PALETTE tools. According to the PDM, a lot of Design in use events have been organised between CoP members and PALETTE researchers in order to provide the CoP with the tools and services ideally suited to its needs. These events are first presented in a chronological way, then their outcomes are analysed, on a technological point of view, and on a pedagogical point of view. For the technological point of view, we will see how Design in use makes the tools evolve. For the pedagogical point of view, we will see the impact of this evolution on the ePrep CoP members' professional practices. We will conclude that Design in use is a fruitful way for developing tools and services for Communities of Practice, allowing both CoP members and technological researchers to increase their learning in their own filed. The « Centre de Didactique Universitaire » of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland offers continuous training in Higher Education and Technology. The aim of this training is to develop teaching and academic competences for the teaching profession. One part of this training is to give the possibility to the participants to solve problems of teaching practice through their participation in community of practices called CoP Did@cTIC. The Did@cTIC case highlights two main changes both to the CoPs practices and the PALETTE services infer from the PDM. The first one is the use of structured documents and the other one is the development of an effective information search.

The 4-H advisory process is crucial to program development in the 4-H youth development program in Louisiana. Parish 4-H advisory committees in each of the 64 parishes are involved in the addressing the needs of the clientele. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the 4-H Advisory Process as perceived by 4-H professionals in Louisiana and primary stakeholder groups of the LSU Agricultural Center’s 4-H Program. Data for the study were obtained through surveys completed by 104 4-H youth development professionals and 142 parish 4-H advisory committee members. Additionally, six parish advisory committee members were interviewed for the qualitative portion of the study. The data were analyzed to determine the two groups’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the parish 4-H advisory committee process. Also the two groups’ were compared to determine if their perceptions differed. The majority of the 4-H youth development professionals were white (90.5%). Their average age was 37.4 years of age and they served an average of 10.23 years as a 4-H youth development professional. The majority of the parish advisory committee members in the study were white (76.1%), female (75.4%), were/had been a 4-H member (76.1%), volunteered for 4-H activities in the past (75.9%), and had not received any training to perform their duties as a parish 4-H advisory committee members (79.4%). The findings indicated that both groups perceived that the parish advisory process was effective. The parish 4-H advisory committee members had a higher level of xii agreement on the effectiveness of the advisory process than the 4-H youth development professionals on all measured scales. The interviews conducted with advisory committee members confirmed the findings of the survey data from the parish 4-H advisory committee members. Based on the results of the study it was concluded that the main focus of some parish advisory committees was the planning and evaluating of 4-H events and activities. Additionally it was concluded that the membership on the parish 4-H advisory committee is not diverse in their representation.

Adolescents in the United States continue to face sexual health issues. While community-based organizations (CBOs) have a long history of addressing the sexual health needs of those they serve, little attention has been given to CBOs focused on adolescent populations and the role youth development professionals (YDPs) might play in the advancement of sexual health. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential of YDPs to provide sexuality information to youth by 1) determining the frequency and type of questions YDPs receive from youth on sexuality and 2) ascertaining the perceived comfort, confidence, skills, and knowledge of YDPs in answering questions from youth and characteristics that might be predictive of increased levels of perceived comfort, confidence, skills, and knowledge. Utilizing a community-based participatory research process that engaged the researchers with leaders, key stakeholders, and youth development professionals from community-based organizations throughout the state, data were collected from 169 YDP in Indiana. YDPs received questions from youth on a broad array of sexuality-related topics with personal skills and relationships being the most frequent topics. YDPs had high perceived levels of comfort, confidence, skills, and knowledge (CCSK) in addressing questions from youth about sexuality. Training, both formal classroom-type training and more informal practices such as advice-seeking from a professional, was the only factor predictive of higher levels of CCSK. Results indicate that YDPs might play an important role in providing sexuality information to youth. Communities interested in ameliorating disparities among youth might want to consider including CBOs and YDPs in an ecological approach to sexual health education.

<p><b>This thesis investigates the community of practice (CoP) as a model for professional development for EFL teachers in Vietnam as well as its influences on their professional identities and practices. In the context of Vietnam, although EFL teachers, English language teaching, and professional development (PD) for EFL teachers have been the focus of the national education reforms, and funds and effort are put into PD activities aiming at improving EFL teachers’ language proficiency and updating their teaching methodologies, there has been little evidence of positive changes in teachers' teaching practices and students' learning outcomes. Several collaborative models for teacher professional development which have recently been introduced, despite being helpful, still raise some issues regarding voluntary participation, distributed leadership, trust and collegiality, and the balance between top-down (PD provided and required by an institution or regulatory body) and bottom-up (PD directed and determined by individual and groups of teachers) approaches. The international literature also reveals that effective collaborative communities for teachers are rare and while collaborative models are common in primary and secondary schools, they are limited in higher education. In this thesis, a community of practice (CoP), defined as a group of people “who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger et al., 2002, p. 4), was introduced as a form of professional development in the context of university EFL teaching in Vietnam. </b></p> <p>This thesis draws on social constructionism and social constructivism as theoretical frameworks for understanding teacher professional identity and the professional learning process within the CoP. A qualitative case study as the research method and action research as the research process were adopted to investigate the complex situations and meanings of the CoP process and teacher professional identity. Eight EFL teachers (including me as the participant) were recruited to participate in the CoP over six months. Multiple instruments including pre-interviews, post- interviews, CoP recordings, reflective writing journals, and artefacts were used to collect data, and discourse analysis was adopted to analyse and interpret the data. </p> <p>Evidence from the data highlights that multiple discourses relating to teaching experience, English language proficiency, Confucian and constructivist teaching approaches, and institutional factors influenced Vietnamese EFL teachers’ professional identities and practices. Conflicting discourses led to tensions in the teachers’ professional identities and negatively influenced their teaching practices. The structure of the CoP, which was characterised by being voluntary, having clear ground rules, a shared repertoire, and no leaders’ involvement offered a safe place for the teachers to collaborate and mutually engage with each other through a variety of activities. The thesis demonstrates that when teachers feel safe, experience agency as well as distributed power in their own professional development, they are able to share their teaching problems honestly. With appropriate scaffolding from More Knowledgeable Others (MKOs), they are able to challenge taken-for-granted knowledge and reconcile conflicts in discourses, thereby transforming their professional identities and practices in a positive way. The CoP elements of mutual engagement, shared repertoire, and joint enterprise were evident in this research, embedded within three key features - Connection, Collaboration, and Reflection. These features made the CoP model used here different from other collaborative models in Vietnam and eliminated some issues of such models, such as a lack of trust, a lack of voluntary participation, and the balance between top-down and bottom-up approaches. The thesis makes significant contributions to knowledge about collaborative PD models for EFL teachers and teacher professional identities in Vietnam. Recommendations are made, which aim to strengthen the basis for collaborative PD amongst Vietnamese teachers and suggest a CoP model appropriate to the Vietnamese context and other similar contexts.</p>

This study examined the perceptions of youth development professionals (n=1007) across the United States about six critical staff training components using the Program Quality Competency Questionnaire (PQCQ), which was a valid, reliable research instrument. The critical staff training components that were analyzed included program theory, child youth development, social ecological theory, staff training development, program management engagement, and program management environment. These components formed a conceptual framework that may serve for skills refinement, curriculum development, job descriptions, training and professional development, and further discussions among researchers, practitioners, and other relevant parties around key competencies that are needed for youth quality programming since the study findings suggest that the components of the staff training model were critical to achieve quality programming in the field of positive youth development. The study findings also indicate that the perceptions of the participants varied greatly between gender. In addition, the study suggests that extension youth development professionals in the U.S were highly educated and were predominantly White/Caucasian women. The researcher suggests that administrators of youth development programs to consider adopting the framework and making the positive youth development field more attractive to the underrepresented population so the field can enjoy the benefits of diversity.

The objective of this study is to examine communities of practice (CoP) as a strategic tool for expanding methods of collective learning and knowledge creation and sharing. Through the case study, I analyze how CoP increase personnel capabilities to improve company performance and achieve strategic goals. In this study, qualitative methods have been used to answer the research question ‘How are communities of practice used as a strategic tool in the case company?’ The literature related to CoP for strategic advantage is reviewed. Then, in the empirical portion, I describe in detail participant observations, document analysis and semi-structured interviews with experts from the case company. Based on the literature review and empirical findings, I construct the model for virtual collaboration in the CoP. The model provides practical guidelines for effective competence creation. Five organizational development areas are identified: (1) the strategy of a firm; (2) motivation to work in CoP according to the strategy; (3) knowledge creation and sharing through CoP; (4) feedback and benefits; and (5) strategy improvements and best practices (business processes). CoP findings indicate that the case company should work on all five development areas simultaneously. In conclusion, top management should encourage personnel to improve personal skills and support an open learning atmosphere. The main suggestion for improving virtual collaboration in the CoP on an organizational level at the case company is the establishment of informal networks. The relationship between CoP and their stakeholders should be strengthened because, in the absence of these relations, the collaboration will never begin. In particular, the case company should improve its social networks and encourage personnel to join CoP. This study paves the way for further research into experiments on the practical implementation of CoP.

Sharing practice: problems and possibilities

ABSTRACTChild safeguarding has come to the forefront of public debate in the UK in the aftermath of a series of highly publicised incidents of child sexual exploitation and abuse. These have exposed the inadequacies and failings of inter-organisational relations between police and key partners. While the discourse of policing partnerships is now accepted wisdom, progress has been distinctly hesitant. This paper contributes to understanding both the challenges and opportunities presented through working across organisational boundaries in the context of safeguarding children. It draws on a study of relations within one of the largest Safeguarding Children partnerships in England, developing insights from Etienne Wenger regarding the potential of ‘communities of practice’ that innovate on the basis of everyday learning through ‘boundary work’. We demonstrate how such networked approaches expose the differential power relations and sites of conflict between organisations but also provide possibilities to challenge introspective cultures and foster organisational learning. We argue that crucial in cultivating effective ‘communities of practice’ are: shared commitment and purpose; relations of trust; balanced exchange of information and resources; mutual respect for difference; and an open and mature dialogue over possible conflicts. Boundary crossing can open opportunities to foster increased reflexivity among policing professionals, prompting critical self-reflection on values, ongoing reassessment of assumptions and questioning of terminology. Yet, there is an inherent tension in that the learning and innovative potential afforded by emergent ‘communities of practice’ derives from the coexistence and interplay between both the depth of knowledge within practices and active boundaries across practices.

ABSTRACTThe social psychology theory of fixed and growth mindsets offers one reason for observed underachievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), particularly for students who have previously excelled in these disciplines. Fixed mindset beliefs are linked to behaviours that can lead to avoiding challenges and reduced learning, such as concealing a lack of understanding to retain an image of being ‘smart’. The potential impact of a growth mindset on STEM achievement, particularly for minority and low-household-income students, resulted in calls to develop interventions that encourage growth mindsets and discourage fixed mindsets. However, education interventions are influenced by the educator's understanding of how learning occurs. A framework to show how activities based on different learning theories may encourage growth mindsets or (unintentionally) encourage fixed mindsets can guide the developers of growth mindset interventions. We present such a framework in six tables relating to key areas associated with growth and fixed mindsets: dealing with challenges, persistence, effort, praise, the success of others and learning goals. Each table gives examples of learning activities that may encourage growth or fixed mindsets, fitting with each of four key learning theories: behaviourism, constructivism, communities of practice and connectivism.

In the U.S. care arena, both privately and federally funded programs exist to provide targeted HIV care and services. The majority of these programs place emphasis on access to care, especially for programs serving diverse and traditionally vulnerable populations. Despite this programmatic availability, African-born, HIV-positive women living in the U.S. continue to experience care disparity. This study's significance derives from the need to redress the injustice of health disparity encountered by this population. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore and understand the role of a community of practice among African-born, HIV-positive women seeking and obtaining care in Philadelphia. The Promise Keepers are an existing community of practice that gathers regularly to deepen, share, and create a living repository of their knowledge of living as HIV-positive, African-born women. The participants of this study were purposely sampled by convenience from this existing practice community of seven African-born women, representative of five diverse African countries of origin. These seven participants included women ranging in age from 25 to 62 with a mean age of 44 years of age. They possessed diverse family composition in terms of marital and parental status, as well as attained educational levels. The methods of this study included one-on-one interviews, a group interview, and participant observation. Through thematic coding of the stories or "Way Makers" of the Promise Keepers, this study's three major themes emerged: (a) internal perception of self, (b) external perception of self, and (c) community. Apparent through analysis and framed theoretically by Rosenstock's Health Belief Model (HBM) was this study's finding of the relevance and positive effect of education in the restoration of self-efficacy among community of practice members. As voiced by the Promise Keepers, it was the group-mediated education, established trust, and created "safe space" that reduced members' perceived risk of isolation and enhanced their perceived benefit of seeking support to achieve wellness. Additionally, this study's adaptation of Rosenstock's HBM with the social cognitive construct of self-efficacy among HIV-positive, African-born women living in the U.S. presents a novel addition to the subject literature. Through the voiced, lived experiences of this practice community recommendations for expanded outreach, future research, and adaptation of the HBM, along with implications for practice and teaching, are presented. Key words: African born, women, HIV, access to care, disparity, injustice, community of practice, phenomenological, self-efficacy, Rosenstock's Health Belief Model, safe space, wellness.