Learning In Communities Of Practice Research Articles

Effectiveness of an Online Community of Practice for Learning to Teach Elementary Science

The purpose of this study was to understand how teachers participate in and benefit from an online community of practice (NETwork) for learning to teach. Dependent-samples t-tests were employed to examine the significant differences of members' perceptions of their social experience, while content analysis was utilized to identify members' perceptions of their growth in learning to teach from participation in NETwork. The results show significant positive changes in members' perceptions of social navigation, perceived ease of use and usefulness of the NETwork tools, and satisfaction with NETwork experiences. Also, members reported they found NETwork to be effective in supporting their current/future teaching and that their interactions in NETwork led to a sense of community.

The SNAP Platform: social networking for academic purposes

PurposeThis paper aims to introduce an enterprise‐wide Web 2.0 learning support platform – SNAP, developed at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia.Design/methodology/approachPointing to the evolution of the social web, the paper discusses the potential for the development of e‐learning platforms that employ constructivist, connectivist, and participatory pedagogies and actively engage the student population. Social networking behaviours and peer‐learning strategies, along with knowledge management through guided folksonomies, provide the back‐bone of a social systems approach to learning support.FindingsThe development of a cloud‐based read‐write enterprise platform can extend the responsiveness of the learning institution to its students and to future e‐learning innovations.Originality/valueThe full potential of e‐learning platforms for the development of learning communities of practice can now be increasingly realised. The SNAP Platform is a step in this direction.

Using Evidence Based Practice in LIS Education: Results of a Test of a Communities of Practice Model

Objective - This study investigated the use of a communities of practice (CoP) model for blended learning in library and information science (LIS) graduate courses. The purposes were to: (1) test the model’s efficacy in supporting student growth related to core LIS concepts, practices, professional identity, and leadership skills, and (2) develop methods for formative and summative assessment using the model.
 
 Methods - Using design-based research principles to guide the formative and summative assessments, pre-, mid-, and post-course questionnaires were constructed to test the model and administered to students in three LIS courses taught by the author. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. A total of 34 students completed the three courses; response rate for the questionnaires ranged from 47% to 95%. The pre-course questionnaire addressed attitudes toward technology and the use of technology for learning. The mid-course questionnaire addressed strengths and weaknesses of the course and suggestions for improvement. The post-course questionnaire addressed what students valued about their learning and any changes in attitude toward technology for learning. Data were analyzed on three levels. Micro-level analysis addressed technological factors related to usability and participant skills and attitudes. Meso-level analysis addressed social and pedagogical factors influencing community learning. Macro-level analysis addressed CoP learning outcomes, namely, knowledge of core concepts and practices, and the development of professional identity and leadership skills. 
 
 Results - The students can be characterized as adult learners who were neither early nor late adopters of technology. At the micro-level, responses indicate that the online tools met high standards of usability and effectively supported online communication and learning. Moreover, the increase in positive attitudes toward the use of technology for learning at the end of the course may indicate that an effective balance between face-to-face and online media was achieved. At the meso-level, students valued learning in community for developing mutual respect, confidence building, risk taking, deeper and more varied learning, learning with and from their peers, and greater enjoyment in the classes. Students found that the online environments were useful for organizing the class objectives and subject matter, “staying connected” between classes, sharing ideas, keeping track of their work, and preparing them for future work in blended environments. At the macro-level, the findings of the effects on student growth related to core LIS concepts, practices, professional identity and leadership skills were inconclusive. However, students’ expressed a high regard for the value of collaboration, and there were indications that the model supported differentiated learning of professional knowledge and skills.
 
 Conclusion - The findings strongly suggest that the use of the CoP model had positive effects on the learning process. Students’ high regard for the value of collaboration appears to be a clear effect of using the CoP model. The assessment methods were sufficient for testing the efficacy of most aspects of the model under the limited conditions of this study. Student responses led to refinements in both the model and methods. This study contributes to social constructivist learning approaches and LIS curricular development by presenting an innovative model for supporting professional growth among adult learners, as well as a conceptual framework to guide evidence -based practice. Further testing and refinement of the model in other contexts and by other educators are needed to ensure that the model is robust and broadly applicable.

A Culturally Relevant Agricultural and Environmental Course for K–12 Teachers in Hawaii

A Hawaiian cultural‐based agricultural and environmental science professional development course was transformed based on the precepts of situated learning in communities of practice, and offered to K–12 teachers. In this article we describe the format and content of the transformed course based on lessons learned from previous years offered to K–12 teachers. We also describe the teachers’ responses to the course and students’ response to curricula implemented by teachers. Hawaiian ways of learning are experience‐based, embedded in real‐life purpose and context, highly interpersonal, and location specific. Our goal in transforming this course was to help teachers to incorporate important topics related to the environmental and agriculture science fields into their curricula, and to make that content relevant to their students’ lives and backgrounds, especially those of native Hawaiian decent. Based on observations, written and oral evaluations from teachers, student assessments, and student involvement in community projects, we feel that we have attained that goal. Some of the important factors for effective learning and implementation of this new culture–science curriculum by teachers are: (1) culturally relevant course format that provides meaningful, effective social interactions among instructors and teachers/students; (2) development of a “community of practice”; (3) a team of instructors, each knowledgeable in different areas, such as science, agriculture, Hawaiian culture, all experienced in problem‐based teaching; (4) excellent models of problem‐based and culturally based projects/curricula; and (5) continued support from peers and instructional team throughout the academic year.

Relationship between participation in communities of practice and organizational socialization in the early careers of South Korean IT employees

This paper focuses on the relationship between participation in communities of practice (CoP) and organizational socialization of informational technology employees in their early careers. In this paper, the authors limited their research to CoP, which were recognized and supported by the organization. Results showed that participation in CoP was more strongly related to adjustment (job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intention to remain) than to learning (sense of belonging to the organization and role comprehension) when the characteristics of CoP and the degree of participation were controlled. The intensity of participation in CoP was significantly related to the socialization outcomes while there were no relationships between the length of participation and the socialization outcomes. Recommendations for future research include the use of objective rather than self-reported data, longitudinal research, the identification of other variables related to learning in CoP, and consideration of variations in national and organizational culture.

When the patient falls out of bed, who pays?

Patient safety advocate Sue Sheridan learned about hospital errors the hard way. She recalls how, in 1995, her newborn son suffered severe brain damage when the hospital failed to run a 'ten dollar' blood test, which would have revealed neonatal jaundice. In 2002, her husband died after the hospital failed to notify him of a diagnosis of cancer. were simple Sheridan, now based in Boise, Idaho in the USA, says: They happened not because anyone was in a hurry or because this was so complex. In other words they were mistakes that should never have happened. Beginning in October 2008, Medicare, the US-government-administered social insurance programme providing health coverage to people aged 65 and over, stopped reimbursing hospitals for specific instances of this kind of error. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) drew up a list of 'reasonably preventable' mistakes, termed 'never-events', based on consultation with a variety of stakeholders and the recommendations of the National Quality Forum, a non-profit organization in the USA mandated by law to bring together people from across the health-care spectrum on measurement issues. In quantitative terms it is unclear what 'reasonably preventable' means exactly, and there is no clear guidance in the statute on which CMS policy is based. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The list features major blunders such as operating on the wrong body-part or leaving surgical instruments inside the patient's body, it also includes complications, such as severe bedsores, and certain injuries caused by patients' falls. Dr Edward Kelley, head of strategic programmes at the World Health Organization (WHO) Patient Safety Programme, notes that the 'never-events' concept has been enthusiastically supported by the business community in the USA and has also been picked up by several European countries active in WHO's Patient Safety Reporting and Learning Community of Practice. For Sheridan, the initiative makes sense in so far as it improves patients' safety, her approval is nuanced. As a widow and the mother of a boy disabled due to medical error, it is hard to understand hospitals being paid for such blatant disregard of guidelines and communication procedures. On the other hand, I understand the possible long-term negative effects of non-payment for a 'never-event'. So this has to be looked at very thoughtfully. Dr Robert Wachter, chief of medical service at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, also believes the concept needs careful examination particularly the issue of reasonable preventability. Originally, the 'never-events', which came out of National Quality Forum deliberations, referred to things like cutting off the wrong leg or leaving a sponge in someone's belly, he says. That those things should never happen is self-evident. But the list of 'never-events' has expanded to now cover things like bad bedsores. But do we really know how to prevent bedsores 100% of the time? No, we don't. Professor Peter Pronovost, a critical care specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, concurs: Certain complications, like an object being left inside a patient after surgery are clear-cut, he says, but there are conditions such as air embolism and pressure ulcers (bedsores), that are not so straightforward. This being the case, one might think that impartial adjudication to separate preventable from non-preventable would be a key part of the policy. It isn't. On the patient's admission to hospital, a form is filled out noting the presence or absence of certain conditions, including pressure ulcers. These forms are coded. There is no opportunity to offer nuance (e.g. the patient is 98-years-old, the patient is morbidly obese) for the simple reason that assessment is not done on a case-by-case basis. CMS has made efforts to improve the coding, allowing the examining doctor the option of replying 'don't know' for example, the coded forms remain a necessarily blunt instrument. …

Distance learning students in -communities of practice-

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of the distance learning programme on learning processes in nursing education. It was the purpose to highlight the differences and similarities in the traditional nursing programme vs. the distance learning programme. Empirically, the article builds on a comparative study of two Danish nursing schools and three different nursing classes, including one based on the distance learning programme. The three different nursing classes cover the ways of studying in nursing education in Denmark. Observations were conducted with the classes as a whole. Interviews were conducted with 7 students from the distance learning programme, 6 from the traditional programme and 5 from the credit transfer class. The interpretative approach was selected to form the background of this study. The observation, as well as the interview guide was formed on the basis of Etienne Wengers theory: “Learning in communities of practice”. The analysis was based on concepts from the same theoretical background, as the observations and interviews. Findings from the study show that the distance-learning students have a selective and targeted way of engaging in communities of practice. Findings in relation to age, to being well prepared and feeling responsible for own learning, in relation to doing a self study and to knowledge forms, seem to have precise relevance for the differences between the ways of studying in nursing education.

Exploring Individual and Collaborative Dimensions of Knowledge Building in an Online Learning Community of Practice

An exploratory study of students' engagement in online learning and knowledge building is presented in this paper. Learning in an online community, composed of students (pre-service teachers) and experts (experienced in-service schoolteachers and academics), is the study's primary focus. Students' interaction and knowledge discourse structures, arising from individual readings of academic papers and asynchronous collaboration with peers and experts, are investigated using social network and content analysis techniques. Additionally, several new measures for exploring structural-qualitative aspects of knowledge discourse are introduced. Analysis revealed several important trends. First, students' interaction was more intensive in forums where experienced teachers participated, rather than students only. Second, students' individual discourse structures in their postings were quite deep, knowledge-focussed and elaborated; while students' replies were short, usually focussed on specific idea and contained a substantial amount of non-cognitive information. Overall, it is argued that students were engaged with the individual and collaborative knowledge building in the online learning community. Practical implications of the study results for development of courses are discussed.

Learning as dwelling

Drawing on insights offered by anthropologist Tim Ingold, this article argues that the phrase ‘learning as dwelling’ (a phrase indebted to Martin Heidegger) is a particularly powerful way of characterising human learning processes. Rather than positing humans as isolated subjects who can conceive of the world prior to acting upon it, the dwelling perspective suggests that, from the outset, humans are inextricably entwined in the processes of reality. Learning for dwellers is not a process of incorporating external knowledge into their minds. Rather, learning is best conceived as a process through which learners forever weave themselves into the fabric of their natural, social and cultural worlds. The article suggests that thinking of learning as dwelling not only provides a basis for escaping the strictures of dominant cognitivist and individualistic notions of learning but also enables us to avoid the relativism and abeyant liberalism of postmodernism. Learning as dwelling accords strongly with the emergent and naturalistic ontology of critical realism. As such, it provides a particularly productive basis from which to critique a range of other perspectives on learning (such as self-directed learning, transformative learning, and learning in communities of practice) promoted in the adult education literature.

Creating Hybrid Spaces for Engaging School Science Among Urban Middle School Girls

The middle grades are a crucial time for girls in making decisions about how or if they want to follow science trajectories. In this article, the authors report on how urban middle school girls enact meaningful strategies of engagement in science class in their efforts to merge their social worlds with the worlds of school science and on the unsanctioned resources and identities they take up to do so. The authors argue that such merging science practices are generative both in terms of how they develop over time and in how they impact the science learning community of practice. They discuss the implications these findings have for current policy and practice surrounding gender equity in science education.

Navigating Contradictory Communities of Practice in Learning to Teach for Social Justice

In this article, I explore the contradictions that four new teachers experienced as their commitments to social justice collide with urban school culture. Framed within Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger's (1999) theory of situated learning and development concepts of identity, practice, and relationships illustrate how teachers' ideals are challenged as socializing features of two communities of practice—the universities and schools—intersect in new teachers' development. This research contributes empirical evidence of the application of critical multicultural teacher preparation into practice, a cultural representation of how educational inequities are reproduced or disrupted in the situated contexts of urban schools, an application of Lave and Wenger's theory of Legitimate Peripheral Participation that incorporates formal and informal education across multiple activity settings, and a call for collaborative communities of practice that support teachers' situated learning in creating transformative practices.

Subject knowledge development by science student teachers: the role of university tutors and school‐based subject mentors

Following the introduction of a National Curriculum for Science, all secondary science teachers in England need to be prepared to teach all aspects of a broad and balanced science curriculum. This is the second paper in which we explore science student teachers’ subject knowledge development during a one‐year postgraduate teacher preparation course. In this qualitative study we explore the role of university tutors and school‐based subject mentors in science student teachers’ subject knowledge development as perceived by student teachers, school‐based subject mentors and university tutors. The findings reveal that student teachers are reluctant to use university tutors and school mentors for subject knowledge development because they are aware of their assessment roles. The role of the university tutor in subject knowledge development is perceived as one of facilitation and of developing student teachers’ sense of professionalism. School mentors perceive that they do provide support for subject knowledge development and they are largely unaware of any potential conflict arising from their assessment role. The findings of the study are discussed in terms of the nature of student teachers’ professional learning in communities of practice. The implications for mentor training programmes are considered.

Peer assistance for personal assistance: analysis of online discussions about personal assistance from a Swedish web forum for disabled people

This paper describes and analyses a community of disabled people in Sweden that use an online forum to discuss personal assistance issues. The forum is a community of practice (CoP) that has its roots in everyday living with personal assistance. The contributions to the forum were studied over a 4½ year period, including a total of 2755 postings from 146 persons. The levels of the CoP learning system were analysed using the FACE tool, which examines function based on attitude, control and enabling. The results indicate that a learning system was established within the CoP that made it possible for disabled people to complement, confront and counterbalance the influences of existing learning systems, theories and methods of professionals in the area of personal assistance.

Situated Learning in Communities of Practice

A common model for learning from evaluation assumes that learning occurs when evaluators transmit findings and conclusions to programme participants and stakeholders. Learning is then understood as a cognitive act, happening in the mind of an individual and separated from the rest of our activities. In recent years, this common model has been challenged by scholars who argue for ‘situated learning’ in ‘communities of practice’. This alternative conception emphasizes the context-bound nature of learning (versus learning from material abstracted from context) in relationships between people and implies an intimate connection between knowledge and action. Using as an example an evaluation of a coercion project in Dutch psychiatry, this article illustrates and highlights some of the implications of this conception in terms of the learning that occurs and the roles of the evaluator in developing communities of practice.

Becoming a tertiary teacher: learning in communities of practice

This paper discusses issues arising from three case studies of the ways people have become tertiary teachers in a polytechnic, a wananga (Maori tertiary institution) and a university in New Zealand. Despite institutional differences, the teachers gained most of their teaching knowledge and skills on the job, learning informally and experientially, and much less through engaging with formal courses or centrally organized educational development activities. Tertiary teachers belong to groupings such as their institution, discipline, department or teaching team that can be seen as communities of practice, and it is in those contexts that their working knowledge and identities as teachers develop. A communities of practice framework in three parts is proposed for supporting and strengthening tertiary teachers’ workplace learning and educational development.

Inuit vernacular design as a community of practice for learning

The concept of vernacular design allows for the understanding and the appreciation of designs created without recourse to institutional qualifications in the field of design. A study was undertaken of how North Alaska Inuit (Eskimo) women learn design—based on observations, interviews with seamstresses, and authorial participation in designing and sewing in conformity with North Alaska Inuit tradition, everything filmed on digital video. This has been the empirical basis for an interpretation inspired by the social learning theory of Wenger in his ‘Communities of Practice’, an approach that promises to be of particular relevance to future research into the learning of design because it stresses the social aspect of learning, important in investigations of the social process of designing. A main conclusion of this research is the importance of learning-by-watching, which will be of great importance in further research of the learning process of professional or academic design.

Student Learning Community of Practice: Making Meaning of the Student Learning Imperative and Principles of Good Practice in Student Affairs

This ethnomethodological case study analysis explored and described how The Student Learning Imperative (American College Personnel Association, 1994), Principles of Good Practice for Student Affairs (American College Personnel Association & National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, 1996), and Good Practice in Student Affairs (Blimling & Whitt, 1999) are understood and utilized as guides to design and implement practice in a student affairs division. The Senior Student Affairs Officer (SSAO) provided leadership and direction to shape and cultivate a student learning approach to practice. Staff members developed an organizational ethos that is aligned with several of the guiding principles. Patterns and processes of congruence and incongruence that emerged from the ethos were compared with the principles espoused by the guiding documents. Incongruence demonstrated that three communities of practices were at work in this division of student affairs that includes a learning, services, or consumer mission. A focus on learning was not the primary mission for each functional area. Most functional areas with either services or consumerism as their primary mission did develop a secondary learning mission.

What can the literature on communities of practice tell us about educational research? Reflections on some recent proposals1

Several writers have appealed to the literature on communities of practice as a way of thinking about the nature of educational research. In this paper, I look at the benefits and dangers of doing this. There seem to be two main sorts of lesson that have been drawn from this literature, one about research as an activity in its own right, the other about its relationship to educational practice. These ideas certainly suggest some important points about educational research itself, for example countering the notion that it could involve merely following an abstract set of methodological rules derived from the model of natural science. However, there have long been criticisms of this type of naturalism, and so there is a question about whether the literature on communities of practice adds anything distinctive in this respect, for example by comparison with the work of Kuhn in the history and philosophy of science. There is also the issue of whether educational research is a single community of practice, or is a field containing multiple such communities; and whether the literature on communities of practice effectively rules out any attempt at community building as against the organic growth of local cultures. The second strand of argument, this time about the relationship between research and educational practice, is potentially very radical in its implications. Indeed, I will suggest that it threatens to eradicate educational research as a distinctive form of activity. However, it raises some serious questions about the literature on situated learning in communities of practice, concerning the roles of reflection, propositional knowledge and narrative. While not wishing to deny the value of this literature, I conclude that any application of its central ideas to the case of research requires considerable caution.

Children Online: learning in a virtual community of practice

Children Online: learning in a virtual community of practice

Designing online learning communities of practice: A democratic perspective

This study addresses the problem of designing an appropriate learning space or architecture for distributed online courses using net-based communication technologies. We apply Wenger's criteria to explore, identify and discuss the design architectures of two online courses from two comparable online Master's programmes, developed and delivered in two different educational cultures, Ireland (MIC) and Denmark (OL). The investigation will take the shape of a discussion of the 'walls of the learning spaces' of the two courses, with reference to Wenger's criteria and values for an appropriate learning architecture. In an earlier evaluation study, both courses were deemed to be examples of online learning communities of practice, despite their geographical and cultural diversity in contexts of development. The findings of the present study confirm and document several significant design elements of the two courses, which are stressed in the design criteria suggested by Wenger as being vital for community building.