Community Of Research Practice Research Articles

Exploring preservice teachers’ professional vision: Modes of isolation, ethical noticing, and anticipation in research communities of practice

Research-based teacher education programs are designed to develop preservice teachers' multifaceted attitudes to teaching, including their professional vision or the perceptual processes and ability to notice and interpret education fundamentals in a classroom. Nonetheless, such programs' influence on preservice teachers' professional vision remains unclear. Utilising Australian preservice teachers’ interviews, research projects and surveys in a research-based teacher education program built upon principles of Communities of Practice (CoPs), this study illuminates modes of isolation, ethical noticing, and anticipation in shaping their professional vision. The latter captures an emerging capacity to (re)structure schooling fundamentals as research/practice amalgamations rather than merely practice-driven constructs.

Understanding the Practices and Challenges of Networked Orchestration in Research Communities of Practice

Work and learning communities have become increasingly networked to support their members in developing the skills to solve complex, real-world problems. Though disciplinary knowledge remains important to tackle these problems, working effectively in these modern-day communities of practice demands the ability for one to learn how to access networked support (e.g., venues, tools, resource guides, or peers) throughout the community for one's needs. Against this backdrop, we study networked orchestration--how community members access and learn to access networked supports--in a community of practice for undergraduate research training. Through field observations and in-depth interviews, we find that students in the networked research community dynamically engage with their mentors and peers across multiple venues throughout the week in order to identify, clarify, and resolve their needs. Mentors in the community monitor how students are engaging with the supports available in the network, and provide coaching on effective strategies when students are ineffective on their own. Finally, we surface the challenges involved in each of these processes and offer practical insights for future ecosystem-level networked orchestration technologies that have an understanding of the interactions occurring across the venues and tools in a community, and can support the learning and practice of effective access strategies. Our paper presents important insights for supporting people's work and learning needs in networked future workplaces and learning communities, and provides guidance on designing new technologies for supporting networked ways of working and learning.

Experiences of a community of research practice: a service evaluation.

A community of research practice (CRP) was established to increase research capacity and provide learning opportunities and networking for healthcare practitioners, working within a Children's Care Group. The CRP aimed to engage research-interested practitioners in research to develop their skills and confidence, encourage networking, and build research capacity. To report the results of a service evaluation that was undertaken to review the CRP's value in practice. Thematic analysis revealed four themes - 'positive environment', 'confidence', 'professional development' and 'networking' - highlighting benefits from the CRP, alongside the challenges encountered. This article highlights the significant contribution of CRP for practitioners in the context of an innovative organisation with a supportive culture. A CRP empowers healthcare practitioners to engage with research while in clinical practice, enabling increased research confidence, and the development of research skill and knowledge and enhanced networking. CRP can potentially influence recruitment and retention.

What does it take to learn about teaching and learning in classrooms across cultures?

Beginning in the 1960s and early seventies, classroom research contributed to understandings and insights concerning the complexities and diversities of teaching. In the late 1990s, classroom research began to also include student voices in the classroom. Socio-cultural theory turned the empirical focus toward student interaction, and methodological development made new insights possible. The impact of this paradigmatic change is still in progress. At the same time, a rapid growth in international comparative classroom studies emerged, where the two most recognized comparative classroom research initiatives have been the TIMSS Video Studies, the first one initiated in 1995 at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Learner’s Perspective Study (LPS), initiated in 1999, at the University of Melbourne’s International Center for Classroom Research (ICCR). In this paper, we ask what it takes to carry out successful international classroom research, using the LPS as an example. The analysis shows that the LPS project design made it possible for research groups from different countries and cultures to participate in building a sustainable community of research practice specialized in working with the complexities in the study of teaching and learning in classrooms. Of particular importance was the intense and sustained collaborative work on data, where researchers of varying seniority and experience met and carried out scholarly work in relation to a shared dataset. While also having disadvantages, the heavy emphasis on data was crucial for creating and sustaining a reflexive international research community.

Valori centrale în comunități de practică a cercetării științifice la H. H. Stahl

This short presentation is about the communities of research practice facilitated by Professor Henri H. Stahl (HHS). Own experience of being a student, doctoral student, and young researcher under the mentorship of HHS served as a ground for reconstructing the style of HHS as a facilitator of communities of research practice. The space of Stahl’s communities of research practice was structured in a three-dimensional way. He acted to form his students and collaborators to value the definition and operationalization of working concepts, use of qualitative-quantitative mixed methods, and open communication with all the partners of the scientific research. The roots of this style of facilitating research communities of practice were in Stahl’s practice of monographic research, in his multidisciplinary social research and, also, in key references to the methodological Western literature that he studied and followed.

Fostering Collaborative Research Culture Through Research Development Rounds.

Helping physicians to prepare for and fulfill their role as CanMEDS scholars requires collaborative research environments, which promote engagement with a research community of practice through all stages of the research process. To foster such an environment in the Department of Family Medicine, we spearheaded Research Development Rounds. Open to anyone with interest in research development, Research Development Rounds offer an opportunity for faculty, staff, residents, and other trainees to receive constructive feedback on their work that is in development from department members. Programs seeking to create a more collaborative research culture should try this approach.

QEP is HIP: A Case Study Implementing an Institution-wide Undergraduate Research Community of Practice for a Small, Private College Setting

Piedmont College’s quality enhancement plan (QEP) emphasizes a developmental and progressive integration of high-impact practices (HIPs) into the academic and social fabric of the institution. The QEP is HIP initiative provides students with multiple opportunities to deepen learning and leadership skills, which leads to improvements in student success, persistence, and retention. However, the institution grappled with how to effectively engage students in effective, meaningful research-based experiences. During the 2nd year of its QEP implementation, a campus-wide undergraduate research symposium was launched to showcase students’ research and creative inquiry in an effort to (a) gain full institutional participation in this crucial HIP and (b) offer the underserved student population (defined as ethnic minority, Pell-eligible, and first-generation students) an opportunity to participate in professional socialization and experience faculty mentorship. This case study shows the initial influences of this HIP on student success (in terms of grade point average [GPA]), students’ perceptions of their own learning, students’ persistence (measured with the Grit Scale), and retention from the 2018–2019 to the 2019–2020 academic year. Specifically, this study compared students who presented their research at the undergraduate research symposium to students who did not. While the immediate influence of this HIP on student persistence/perseverance (grit scores) remains undetermined, the retention rates and GPA appear to have been higher for students who presented, in both the dominant and underserved populations. Furthermore, students reported an increase in perceptions of their own learning. These findings are significant and affirm that undergraduate research communities can be considered a HIP for students, including those of underserved populations.

Facilitating the Scholarship of Discovery: Using the Mini-Ethnographic Case Study Design

Background: Case study is widely used in teaching and learning literature; however, the extant literature contains few examples of student-developed case studies. This study used the situated perspective of experiential education (EE) to highlight context and legitimate peripheral participation encouraging enculturation into research communities of practice. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of a mini-ethnographic case study (MECS) during an international service-learning (ISL) experience to transform ISL and EE pedagogy through the inquiry-as-EL approach. The MECS design is a research method that uses an ethnographic approach bounded within case study methodology. Methodology/Approach: Working collaboratively, four students designed and implemented an MECS research project during an ISL. Using the crafted profile technique, data were analyzed to evaluate the impact of the MECS design on the students’ experience and research skill development while in country. Findings/Conclusions: The MECS approach helped students develop their own exploratory research framework and have real-world experiences with data collection, analysis, and dissemination as emerging researchers. Implications: This study describes how the MECS design can be used as a tool to enhance service-learning experiences for students, especially during graduate education.

Academic language in Catalan students’ research reports across levels of study

AbstractWhen students engage in a research community of practice they not only have to master academic register but also discourse features embodied in the research genre. This corpus-based study examines lexico-grammatical features and stance and engagement markers in 54 Catalan (Romance language) research reports in biology, from high school twelfth-graders and university master theses’ writers. These texts belong to the TARBUC corpus (Treballs Acadèmics de Recerca de Batxillerat i Universitat en Català) – Baccalaureate and University Academic Research Reports written in Catalan. Analyses reveal a statistically significant increase in syntactic complexity and lexical density in university writers. Furthermore, findings on interactional function indicate that marking of stance (i.e., hedges) correlates with a specific type of engagement marker (i.e., directive to argument) in university students’ texts. Self-mention is the most salient rhetorical strategy used by students, in line with the requirements of the research article published in this discipline. Finally, overall data on the distribution of interactional markers suggest that the conventions of the research article genre constrain interactional strategies from high school onwards. Results suggest that linguistic literacy, cognitive maturity and the genre’s social convention interact in a linked process in the development of a skilled writer.

Wounds Research Network (WReN) - a community of practice for improving wound care-related trials

Well-designed trials that generate clinically relevant and robust knowledge are integral to improving health nationwide and achieving universal health coverage. This paper critically analyses the existing challenges associated with improving trials as well as how these challenges can be overcome through a research community of practice, such as the Wounds Research Network.

Tracing Pedagogical Progression on the Doctoral Level

While much has been written about cognition and intellect as factors enhancing researcher productivity, less is known about the mental processes impacting scholarly endeavors. The anxiety stemming from such vast and solitary projects as thesis writing has been recognized, but the literature on doctoral study has been more silent on pedagogies supporting thesis completion. To design effective pedagogies mediating postgraduate degree completion and promoting research quality, this article traces pedagogical progression on the doctoral level. As a modest empirical effort investing in affective learning, this work analyses doctor-al students’ needs for instructional writing support. The analysis reveals unmet needs that undermine student well-being, engagement, and writing progress. The qualitative analysis of 93 engineering candidates’ responses directs the pedagogic focus in doctoral writing away from language proficiency towards holistic con-sideration of learner needs, especially in terms of the affective load involved in thesis writing. This article aims to decelerate the trend towards decreased contact hours on the doctoral level through empirically-derived evidence highlighting the importance of face-to-face instruction. As pedagogy, this study proposes 1) participation in the research community of practice through peer reviews to intensify mimicry strategy in adopting expertise, and 2) teacher immediacy as means of promoting the quality of the mentor-mentée relationship and of ultimately expedit-ing research progress and degree completion.

A narrative study of the experience of feedback on a professional doctorate: ‘a kind of flowing conversation’

ABSTRACTFeedback has an important role in supporting learning. It is through feedback that learners can actively construct and clarify understanding, monitor their performance and direct their learning. Despite attention on feedback in higher education, limited research exists exploring the role and experience of feedback within doctoral programmes. This article focuses on student experiences of feedback during a professional doctorate in England. Analysis of the narrative of one recent Doctorate in Education graduate reveals several inter-related themes, illustrating the role of peers in supporting the move to autonomous researcher. This intensive focus on one student’s experience narrative contributes to a reconceptualization of feedback as dialogic, revealing feedback through the doctoral journey as an ongoing dialogue, with the doctoral researcher taking increasing responsibility for orchestrating the conversation. I argue that such a perspective moves beyond the traditional view of doctoral learning through the support of a supervisor to encompass both formal and informal learning experiences within a community of research practice, emphasising the active participation of the doctoral candidate in this community. I discuss the potential contribution of student experience stories to the development of doctoral relationships and practice.

Conceptualising online knowledge sharing: what teachers’ perceptions can tell us

This study questions the current dependence on theories of social learning and communities of practice in research on teachers’ online learning and online knowledge-sharing behaviour. It employs the interpretative approach to examine how teachers conceptualise their engagement with two USA-based online knowledge-sharing platforms within the context of their broader teaching practice. The findings suggest that the platforms, together with teachers’ engagement with them, are intimately connected with, and must be understood in reference to, both the online and offline contexts in which they operate, with each setting providing unique affordances that shape engagement and outcomes. Teachers’ engagement was largely motivated by their individual knowledge requirements and practice-based needs, resulting in learning primarily being individually rather than socially mediated and constructed.

Vertical and horizontal communities of practice: gender and geography in South Africa

For this special edition marking the centenary of geography in South Africa, we have documented the communities of practice associated with geography and gender; and we have presented a review of the scholarship emerging from this community. The South African gender and geography community of practice is connected to communities of practice at different scales. We examine the relationship of this community to international initiatives and we examine the contribution of South African feminist geographers to broader feminist discourse. We also document the embeddedness of this community of practice with other local gender-based research communities of practice. Finally, we examine challenges to the South African geography and gender community of practice.

Developing a researcher identity: A reflective narration of postgraduate students supervision experiences in a research project

Postgraduate students go through diverse experiences as they struggle with the construction of their identities towards becoming ‘researchers’. Such diversity is even more pronounced when they are supervised within a large-scale research project where they interact with a number of supervisors from different disciplines. This article analyses postgraduate students’ learning experiences on becoming researchers in a research project using situated learning theory. The analysis focuses on different experiences such as mentoring towards conference presentations and writing for publication. We suggest that in addition to the completion of doctoral or master's degrees, postgraduate supervision through large projects may facilitate the development of researcher identity and enhance institutions’ research outputs as long as there is trust, collaboration and devolution of power among the members of a research community of practice.

Creating learning communities for undergraduate students participating in research

The undergraduate research experience program is a funding program offered by the Qatar National Research Fund. The purpose of the program is to provide hands-on research experience for undergraduate students in order to increase their capacity for future research activities. However, leading a team of unexperienced researchers can be challenging. Minimal literature exists of how to overcome these challenges and provide a positive learning experience for novice researchers. The purpose of this paper is to: 1) describe a ‘situated learning’ framework, and teaching methods and approaches that may be helpful for future researchers to actively engage students in the research learning process; 2) describe our own experiences with creating a professional community of research using a team approach; and, 3) offer some practical strategies for scaffolding students to gain research skills through working in close proximity to more experienced colleagues. Helpful situated learning strategies included active engagement of students throughout the project, setting meaningful activities, meeting regularly as a team, scaffolding student learning, setting both individual and group work, assigning specific roles, engaging students in dissemination activities, sharing responsibility, and fading control of project activities to the students as their competency increased. Using a structured mentoring strategy resulted in students being actively engaged in all stages of the project. This approach helped to overcome many challenges of working with novice researchers. It was also rewarding to observe the growth of young researchers through the experiences that they gained in working as members of a research community of practice.

Building a Research Culture from Scratch at a University of Technology

Universities of Technology in South Africa have emerged from a low research base. Despite this, it is argued that it is possible to develop a research culture at such institutions especially through Research Communities of Practice. This is evident from the data analysed of Research Capacity Development Programmes hosted at the institution from 2008 to 2011. The results show that a research culture is emerging at the institution but that for a research culture to be institutionalised, institutional attributes need to be strengthened. Of particular importance is the development of the research leadership of Heads of Department. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n1p151

‘In practice it doesn't always work out like that.' Undergraduate experiences in a research community of practice

This paper examines the extent to which a structured undergraduate research intervention, UROP, permits undergraduate students early access to legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) in a research community of practice. Accounts of placement experiences suggest that UROP affords rich possibilities for engagement with research practice. Undergraduates tread a path of gaining access to mature practice while also building their own independence, participating in work that they see matters to the community and making gains in use of a shared research repertoire. Students place UROP experiences in a contrasting frame to research exercises experienced during degree programmes; their sense of the authenticity of the research experienced through UROP emerges as a key element of these accounts. The data generate the interesting question that the degree of engagement with mature practice may account for more of the gain from UROP than simply the quantity of contact other researchers.

Forging a research community of practice to find out how South African children make their world mathematical

In a search for ways to capture foundation phase children’s competence in mathematics, a small research team was put together at a South African university four years ago. At first, working only in a single school where the objective was to model 80 learners’ growth in competence over four years, the team transformed into a very different entity. This article narrates the founding and development of a community of research practice, which eventually included undergraduate- and postgraduate students, researchers from institutions in Germany, Switzerland and South Africa, teachers at local schools close to the university, and an educational research and survey company. Supported by funding from four different sources, the project is fairly close to reaching the goal of delivering a standardised mathematics competence test for 4-8 year-olds, which is a first of its kind for the country where educational measurement seems to be at a crossroads. In the story line of this community of practice, it is evident that progress can be assessed best by the learning that has been taking place in a community with a notable diversity of people and interests, but with the shared goal of investigating children’s mathematical behaviour on a measure that can be trusted.

Theoretical trajectories within communities of practice in higher education research

In this article, the role of theory in higher education research is problematised using a communities of practice framework. Drawing on a case study derived from the author's own published work and doctoral study, the article concludes that the differential uses of theory within communities of research practice can be fruitfully explored, in part, through a consideration of the ways in which the explicit use of theory by newcomers to the community is, or is not, sustained as community membership deepens. The article concludes by suggesting that the differential use of theory amongst communities of educational researchers constitutes a problematic object of practice that requires critical exploration.