Community of Practice

Community of Practice

A Community of Practice is formed by a selection of people who shared a common interest, or shared domain.  (Wenger-Trayner, 2015).  The common interest can be a group of students studying mathematics, a group of elderly woman who attend a weekly knitting class at the local library, a men's soccer team or a group of educators. 

When defining a community of practice there are three essential elements:

Domain

A community of practice is not just a network or connection between people, it has a common interest or domain of interest (Wenger-Trayner, 2015).  Members of this community have a "collective understanding of what their community is about" (Wenger, 2000).

  

Community

The community engage with each other in joint discussions, share relevant information and assist each other when necessary (Wenger-Trayner, 2015).

Practice

The practice helps the community to develop and build up a repertoire of resources, including tools, experiences, and stories, that can be referred to as "shared practice" (Wenger-Trayner, 2015, p. 3).

Being a teacher, a colleague and a student myself I belong to many different Communities of Practice.

My most important community of practice would be the students I interact with on a daily basis.  I teach them but the most valuable resource that they give me is knowing that they can teach me too.

We learn from each other. 

  

Another essential community of practice is the whanau of the children in my class as we work together to meet the needs of the children.

My colleagues and myself make up another community of practice as we work collaboratively to provide a skills based learning programme for the students in our team to ensure they are ready for the 21st century.  We communicate, we plan, we discuss, we reflect, we implement, using each other as a resource of knowledge, skill and expertise.

Finally after becoming a student late last year I have entered yet another community of learning, not one that meets face to face but one that uses social media to communicate with each other.  

The Masterton cohort of Mind Labbers started the course with a weekly face to face interaction but since this halted in January we have kept in touch via google plus, but more specifically a Facebook page was set up to ensure effective and efficient communication between each other, providing each other with feedback, support and guidance when needed.

I am also part of the Google + community of practice where every student that is enrolled in a Mindlab course has access.  My input to this forum is small but I have commented where I think my knowledge would be of use to others, including members of the Masterton cohort.

Personally I think a Community of Practice is essential in the education field as there is always something evolving and it is great to be able to share, reflect, discuss and communicate these ideas with others.

      

References

Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, 2015.  Introduction to Communities of Practice.  Retrieved from . Retrieved from

http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

Wenger, E.  (2000)  Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems.   Volume 7(2), p. 225-246.  London: Organisation.