Three-Tiered Communities of Practice and Professional Development Model

Abstract

Many global studies indicate academicians in higher education institutions are alone in their development journey. When the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia had set in motion Higher Education 4.0, focus was on academicians’ Professional Development (PD), to adapt Learning and Teaching 4.0. This is a qualitative case study on a Malaysian private higher educational institution that fostered PD by creating organizational Communities of Practice (CoP). Focus group discussions with fourteen experienced academicians who were actively involved in many CoPs, revealed in-depth knowledge on the workings of CoPs. The results were further reviewed by two subject matter experts in CoP, a Malaysian professor from an esteemed national university and an international consultant on group mentoring for organizational development. The study found CoPs benefitted the academicians to improve and sustain technologically advanced pedagogical methods and other academic duties towards Education 4.0. Additionally, organizational development was evident because of the CoPs, as these academicians’ won awards at exhibitions, produced more publications, improved the overall standards of teaching and classroom management. This study revealed organizational CoPs have three levels of workings to be nurtured for its efficiency and sustainability, the individual CoP members, the CoP and the organization where its embedded, thus the development of the Three-Tiered CoP and PD model.