Communities of Practice

“A group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and who learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.”

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE PRESENTATION.pdf

SOME CHARACTERISTICS

• Term was coined based on a study of how apprentices learn together (Lave and Wenger, 1991).
• “Coined to refer to the community that acts as a living curriculum for the apprentice” (Wenger website, 2010, para 7).
• Shared practice serves as the primary curriculum (Wenger, July, 2010).
• There are both peripheral and core members in a community of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991).
• Focus on reciprocity. Voluntary, shared commitment to learn from others and with others in the community (Wenger, August, 2010).
• Commitment to a learning partnership with regular interaction enables trust to build (Wenger, August, 2010).
• Trust allows for close observation of one another’s practice, and exchange of successes and set backs.

THREE KEY INGREDIENTS 

Domain

• Members are brought together by a learning need they share.
• They organize around a domain of knowledge that gives them a joint sense of purpose.
• Knowledge in that domain is recognized as “expertise” by members of the COP and collective competence is valued.  

Community

• People who share tools, resources and ways of dealing with persistent problems.
• They discuss and engage in joint activities.
• Their collective learning becomes a bond among them over time.

Practice

• members are practitioners
• they develop a shared repertoire of resources
• practice is the basis of learning