Communities of

Practice

A tool for professional

development
By ANA LORENA MOLINA
CASTRO

Defining a CoP
Task 1
Using the following words,
define Community of
Practice:
Website
Database
Interaction
Learning
Commitment
Belonging

Whats a CoP? Expert

Definition

A phrase coined by Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave in

1991.
A community of practice is not just a Web site, a
database, or a collection of best practices. It is a group
of people who interact, learn together, build
relationships, and in the process develop a sense of
belonging and mutual commitment. Having others who
share your overall view of the domain and yet bring
their individual perspectives on any given problem
creates a social learning system that goes beyond the
sum of its parts. (Wenger, 2002 as cited in Hirtz, 2008)
Now associated with knowledge management and
learning.

Theory behind CoP

Knowledge is constructed in
communities of practice through
social interaction (Lave & Wenger,
1991; Vygotsky, 1978)
Constructivist and social constructivism
learning theories

Match the following

characteristics
of
CoP
Having a space
Shared
interests

Shared
resources
Negotiation
Social
interaction
and active
participation
Roles

to discuss everyday
pressures, demands and priorities,
posting and responding to discussion
messages, creating a social presence
within the community & keeping the
conversations going.
Negotiating rules, expectations, and
norms.
Sharing a common goal or problem
Including inspirational leaders, day-today leaders, collectors and organizers
of information, facilitators or mentors
Having the ability and flexibility to
share, reuse, or modify workplace
resources, and lesson plans (Schlager,
2003), sharing what worked and what
did not as part of the collaboration and
discussions (Sherer, Shea, & Kristensen,
2003; Wenger, 1998).

Characteristics a CoP

Shared interests
common goal or
problem.
Shared resources
experience,
activities, session plans, knowledge
gained.
Negotiation
rules, expectations.
Social Interaction & Active participation
show commitment, not being a lurker.
Roles
formal or informal.

Conditions for a
successful CoP
Task 4:
Discuss the following questions in your
group.
What is needed to make our CoP work?
How do you plan to contribute?
What will it imply for you?

Conditions for a
successful CoP

Help constructing knowledge by

contributing and participating in the
community. Draw on some expertise,
but contribute as knowledge builders.
Reflect, share ideas, try them out in
practice, get feedback, modify the
delivery of content and share this
knowledge.

References

Hirtz, J. R. M. (2008) Teacher

professional development and
communities of practice. (Master's
thesis, University of British Columbia,
Okanagan, Canada)Retrieved from
https://
circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/handle/2429/2
802/ubc_2008_spring_hirtz_janine.pdf?
sequence=1

THANKS