Community of Practice

Grow a CoP

A CoP is essential for society and learners.

What is a CoP?

According to Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner (2015), CoPs - 'Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.'

Wenger (Wenger-Trayner website, 2015) also argues that CoPs need to interact regularly in order to be effective.  They:

• create
• expand

  

  staff collaborating, sharing knowledge
• exchange knowledge
• develop capabilities

Initially, I thought about the obvious...syndicate, colleagues work with, effective teachers (in my opinion), or experts in a specialised field (for example, Maths, Science, Literacy). However, a community of practice actually practice sharing learning and knowledge. 'In the school context, this occurs through informal learning via daily conversations, lesson reflections and other exchanges' (Jurasaite-Harbison & Rex, 2010).

This suggests that the conversations between teacher, students and whanau during the day...via the app 'Seesaw', within my classroom is actually part of a Community of Learning. Students are passionate about their learning...share what they have learnt with their families, and consequently deepen their knowledge and expertise. Parents contribute towards their child's learning, as does the teacher, AND other students (peers).

Parent feedback on seesaw app

A CoP also discusses their beliefs, learn from each other, and demonstrate to each other how they act in the actual classroom. Colleagues at our school have begun using Interlead to share our readings, thoughts, beliefs, and classroom practices with each other (sometimes in video format). We have found these interactions (Wenger-Trayner) a valuable source of collaboration, sharing of knowledge and expertise. Comments have been encouraging, uplifting and supportive. 

CoPs have 3 crucial characteristics!

        IDENTITY

A Shared Interest

A Commitment

A Collective Competence

COMMUNITY

Share Information

Build Relationships

Staff share reflections with each other

THE PRACTICE

 A Body of Practioners

 Share Resource

    A Shared Practice  

This links back to my original obvious ideas about what a CoP was. However, I have learnt a CoP is much more complex than that!

developing relationships with community resources
who share their resource of knowledge

Learners collaborating,
sharing dialogue about old and new ideas,
testing ideas, giving each other feedback

References

Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner (2015), Retrieved from http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

Jurasaite-Harbison, E., & Rex, L. (2010). School Cultures as Contexts for Informal Teacher Learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(2), 267-277.

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

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.