An Online Community of Practice to Support Evidence-Based Physiotherapy Practice in Manual Therapy

Abstract

An online longitudinal community of practice utilized as a continuing education approach to deliver an online course based on constructivist and social learning principles allowed geographically dispersed physiotherapists to be mutually engaged in a joint enterprise in evidence-based manual therapy. Advantages included opportunity for reflection, modeling, and collaboration. Future studies should examine the impact of participation on clinical practice.

A Critical Review of the Use of Wenger's Community of Practice (CoP) Theoretical Framework in Online and Blended Learning Research, 2000-2014

“…In their exploration of the online components of a blended course where doctoral students began their trajectory from the periphery of educational research to more central roles, Crossouard and Pryor (2008) documented how the students engaged with the disciplinary norms to develop the ability to think and act like researchers. Similar illustrations were also present in the Evans et al (2014) study, which focused on physical therapists' use of evidence-based approaches in their practice. Because these studies did not set out to explore how one goes about doing things in the practices that formed the context for their investigation, they did not provide a full account of the situated learning and knowing embedded within those practices.…”

“…Looking across the final group of 17 studies, we found that only two studies (Crossard & Pryor, 2008;Evans et al, 2014) detailed participants' epistemic engagement. In their exploration of the online components of a blended course where doctoral students began their trajectory from the periphery of educational research to more central roles, Crossouard and Pryor (2008) documented how the students engaged with the disciplinary norms to develop the ability to think and act like researchers.…”

“…Similar variation was present when looking across the studies focusing on professional development. These studies ranged from 3 weeks (Rogers, 2000), 7 weeks (Gray, 2004;Guldberg & Mackness, 2009), and 10 to 12-weeks (Brosnan & Burgess, 2003;Evans et al, 2014), to one year (Guldberg & Pilkington, 2006). …”

“…Among these, three studies stood out (Clarke, 2009;Crossouard & Pryor, 2008;Evans et al, 2014). These studies distinguished themselves by their clarity in explicating how those discussions were used to support participants' interaction-based meaning making for the development of community specific practices.…”

“…In Crossouard and Pryor (2008), the discussion forum enjoyed use as a space where students could problematize and reflect upon the process of conducting research and engage in peer assessment. Evans et al (2014) mentioned the use of discussion areas for a series of authentic evidence-based practice learning activities. These three studies provide readers with a clear idea of how technology was used for the purposes of generating communal knowledge and resources.…”