Mindlab Week 25: My Community of Practice

Mindlab - Week 25 - My Community of Practice

The article 'Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems' (Wenger, 2000) argued that organisations are defined by their effectiveness to enable it's participants to engage with and learn social systems which, in turn, defines a community. For example, in a scientific community, knowledge is a competence that members are engaged in learning about and value, imparting a social learning system to allow their experience to develop within that community.

A 'Community of Practice', therefore can be defined as a paradigm of sorts: whereby members can share collective learning, values and resources and, by participating in this way, define their own identity within it. As noted by Wenger, it can be applied to any group, society, guild, church, institution, corporation, online community or any formal organisational structure. In some respects, this is a theory of epistemology combined with anthropology. In others, it's a theory of effective business management. It is Wenger's contention that by reflecting on the structures involved in Community of Practice, it can be built into a more effective system for progress.

As a teacher, my own school community describes a community of practice based on social learning. It's made up of a network of communities, including my own Department of Science that encompasses eight teachers of Science. Each teacher has their own speciality (Physics, Biology and Chemistry) with a Head of Department for each discipline and an overall Head of Department who is also Head of Physics.

Communities of Practice define 'competence' in three ways (Wenger, 2000): Members are bound together and accountable to a joint enterprise or shared goal, trusted relationships of mutuality are developed through interaction, and a shared repertoire of communal resources (including routines, sensibilities and language, etc).

In my own practice, the enterprise is clearly identified through our departmental goals, which are reviewed each year, but remain essentially focussed on creating a successful programme of study for students within which grades and assessments set targets. The teachers within the school are employed in the long term, along with support staff, so there are various levels of mutualism developed in informal ways. Collaboration is an integrated part of the process of developing a programme of study and sharing the resources necessary to teach any particular part of it. Under these criteria, as an experienced teacher, I must therefore be competent member of my community! However, this community also extends towards the students I teach (as well as the wider community/ whanau) - on a structurally different but more professionally significant level.

While fellow teachers can look to their wages and careers to create a joint enterprise, mutualism and a shared repertoire, students have no such incentive. Some criticism of CoP being 'one size fits all' (Pemberton, Mavin, 2007) is somewhat exemplified by the dichotomy between a generally harmonious implementation of CoP for teachers, and the issues of adopting the ideas to the inherently hierarchal structure of a typical high school classroom.

The Mindlab course has sought to emphasis 21st century key competencies and integrate modern digital technology in a process that, ultimately, is more democratic in design. As such, I can possibly make it a point of personal development in trying to create a community that evolves to be more of a joint enterprise, with mutualism and a shared repertoire at the heart of it.

References: 

Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization Articles. Vol 7 (2) 225-246

Pemberton, J., & Mavin, S. (2007). Communities of practice - one size fits all?. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Finding a topic to research for a Literature Review

This was not easy. Being caught in two minds as to whether I should research something familiar and supported vs something more unfamiliar but potentially more fulfilling is a tough question to answer. However, the amount of exemplary material and support swings things decisively when you have a tight timeframe. So, I chose:

"What is the impact on engagement in learning of flipped classrooms for students in science education?"

This is hopefully not too specific, but not too vague, and I do at least have a few leads with which to work on as reading material. So, step one done. Step two: get some reading done!