What Is a Community of Practice?

Mercieca, Bernadette Mary

doi:10.1007/978-981-10-2879-3_1

Cited by 52 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Therefore, learning through what they describe as legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) draws attention to the situated practices through which communities of practice (CoP) cooperate. Individuals develop their identities and practices through participation in situated learning activities (Handley et al, 2006;Lave and Wenger, 1991;McDonald and Cater-Steel, 2017;Mercieca, 2017). Handley et al (2007) claim that, originally, situated learning in communities of practice was associated with relatively small groups of skilled learners (tailors and midwives).…”

Section: Creating Communities Of Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Situated learning in a business incubator: Encouraging students to become real entrepreneurs

Jones

Meckel

Taylor

2021

Industry and Higher Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The options for conventional graduate careers have become more limited in the last 20 years. This has stimulated an increase in university programmes and modules designed to encourage students to start their own businesses. The recent global Covid-19 pandemic is likely to make the job market even more difficult for those graduating from universities in the next few years. A career as an entrepreneur is a realistic alternative to employment in the ‘gig’ economy for many young graduates. University-based incubators can provide a sheltered learning environment for those wishing to develop business ideas without incurring a large financial burden. In this paper, the authors draw on a range of literature (business incubation, entrepreneurial learning, human capital and communities of practice) to develop a model of a university-based incubator that will support young people in their transition to becoming real entrepreneurs.

show abstract

Section: Creating Communities Of Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Situated learning in a business incubator: Encouraging students to become real entrepreneurs

Jones

Meckel

Taylor

2021

Industry and Higher Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Contemporary academic development initiatives often include CoP models and initiatives aimed at fostering a collegial environment (Lave & Wenger, 1991;Mercieca, 2017;Pyrko et al, 2017). These CoPs can be formal or informal and involve "mutually engaged social learning processes" (Pyrko et al 2017 p. 406).…”

Section: Foundational Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The camaraderie has been so positive that academics are starting to question the worth of working on their subject design in isolation, or with just one ED. Similarly, working with the academics every step of the way, I realised that we could not have achieved this result without the CoP (Mercieca, 2017), a professional development session alone would not have been sufficient. I feel that we could either recommend the setting up of a CoP on various assessment approaches or expand the current CoP to be dedicated to the design of assessments.…”

Section: Reflectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I feel that we could either recommend the setting up of a CoP on various assessment approaches or expand the current CoP to be dedicated to the design of assessments. It would improve the efficiency of subject designs, as well as allow a small team of educational designers to manage a large pool of academics by leveraging the synergies (Mercieca, 2017) of the CoP.…”

Section: Reflectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The value of a Community of Practice in the subject design process when embedding Interactive Oral Assessments

Scheele¹,

Krautloher²,

Shaeri³

et al. 2021

ASCILITE 2021: Back to the Future – ASCILITE ‘21 Proceedings ASCILITE 2021 in Armidale

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper shares insights gained from members of a Community of Practice (CoP) who jointly designed and developed Interactive Oral Assessments (IOAs) for their online subjects in the first half of 2021 as part of a broader institutional project to improve online assessment practice across a multi-campus regional NSW university. Meetings of the CoP were conducted virtually to allow geographically dispersed staff to participate in and benefit from the sessions. The main aim of the CoP was to design online assessments that promote academic integrity and reflect authentic graduates’ practice. The CoP members implemented new assessment regimes, tasks and rubrics for their respective subjects involved in the initiative and developed a suite of resources for future staff interested in trialling this approach. The outcomes highlight the value of a dedicated CoP in supporting academics to successfully embed a new assessment approach, and for encouraging uptake across the university courses.

show abstract

“…Their actions help smooth the distinction between 'peer' and 'tutor' in mixed groups and some academics adopt this identity in constructing peer learning groups in their practice (e.g. Mercieca, 2017). The peer tutors who bring these advanced skills and experience often commit significant time and effort to tutoring and may not be paid, so how are they rewarded?…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Communities of practice or communicative rationality? A study of autonomous peer assisted learning

Jayathilake

Huxham

2021

Active Learning in Higher Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Defined as ‘networks of learning relationships among students and significant others’, peer assisted learning takes a bewildering array of forms in higher education. A useful way to conceptualise these is to draw from ideas of communities of practice and communicative rationality, with the degree of student autonomy a third key element. We illustrate this approach with a study of Kuppi, an example of peer assisted learning initiated and organised entirely by students. We interviewed undergraduate participants from six state universities in Sri Lanka and found strong support for this model of peer assisted learning from student learners and student tutors. These classes are characterised by informality and discussion, flexibility in timing and location and a focus on assessments. Students determine the content and who teaches, whilst tutors give their time without payment, out of fraternity and to improve their own learning and skills. The theory of communicative rationality helped explain much of the attraction of this form of peer assisted learning. There was evidence for a strong community of practice; however apart from peer tutors aspiring to become academics, this involved mostly reinforcement of student identity rather than transformation into emerging roles. The high levels of engagement and student autonomy shown by Kuppi challenge suggestions that peer assisted learning must be organised by tutors if it is to be effective.

show abstract

What Is a Community of Practice?

Cited by 52 publications

References 12 publications

Situated learning in a business incubator: Encouraging students to become real entrepreneurs

Situated learning in a business incubator: Encouraging students to become real entrepreneurs

The value of a Community of Practice in the subject design process when embedding Interactive Oral Assessments

Communities of practice or communicative rationality? A study of autonomous peer assisted learning

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About