Communities+of+Practice_What+the+Literature+Tells+Us

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The idea that learning involves a deepening process of participation in a community of practice has gained significant ground in recent years. Communities of practice have also become an important focus within organizational development and have considerable value when thinking about working with groups. =====

Smith, M. K. (2003, 2009) '[|Communities of practice', the encyclopedia of informal education] D

**__OVERVIEW RESOURCES__**
 * Etienne and Bev Wenger-Trayner's FAQ []
 * USDE, Office of Educational Technology: [|Connect and Inspire]

**Getting Started**
 * [|Designing with Teachers: Participatory Approaches To Professional Development in Education] -In the contemporary educational landscape, emerging participatory practices, facilitated by technological and socio-cultural developments, have given rise to a new model of knowledge circulation. Knowledge is increasingly distributed among numerous and diverse networks. Individuals now have the capacity – and the cultural impetus – to become creative producers of information and cultural products.
 * [|Five Steps to Building a Community]
 * [|Cultivating Communities of Practice]
 * [|Cultivating Communities of Practice- A Quick Start-Up Guide]
 * [|Developing Learning Partnerships] Discover the benefits of developing a learning partnership with colleagues in an online community of practice from researcher and author Dr. Etienne Wenger.

The IDEA Partnership: // New Eyes Briefs: // **Your Involvement **
 * [|Facilitating Community: Key Strategies for Building Communities of Practice to Accomplish State Goals]
 * [|www.sharedwork.org: A Communication Resource to Support Communities of Practice]
 * [|Improving Teacher Quality with Communities of Practice: The Center for Improving Teacher Quality Approach]
 * Our CoPI Structure: Four Social Learning Groups
 * [|Leadership Groups- Distributed Leadership in Social Learning] -Etienne and Bev Wenger-Trayner identify distinct leadership tasks that are key to social learning in a given context - and to form groups to take on these tasks on behalf of the community. Forming such leadership groups is a way to distribute leadership and encourage people to take shared ownership of their collective learning process.
 * [|The Landscape of Practice]  Etienne Wenger talks about "walking the landscape of practice" and the notion that participants engage at varying levels of involvement.
 * [|Career Benefits from Communities of Practice Involvement]- Communities of practice offer more than social networking. Engaging with others in your area of interest can offer professional development opportunities and connections to advance your career.


 * Evaluating the Results **
 * [|Cultural Crossings:Using Stories to Inform Your Learning Journey]
 * Research & Evaluation from National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) on Blended Online and Onsite PD & Communities of Practice


 * The Learning Theory Behind Communities of Practice**
 * [|Communities of Practice]- The idea that learning involves a deepening process of participation in a community of practice has gained significant ground in recent years. Communities of practice have also become an important focus within organizational development and have considerable value when thinking about working with groups. In this article Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave outline the theory and practice of such communities, and examine some of issues and questions for informal educators and those concerned with lifelong learning.
 * [|Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction]. This brief and general introduction examines what communities of practice are and why researchers and practitioners in so many different contexts find them useful as an approach to knowing and learning.
 * [|Jean Lave: The Situated Learning Theory]
 * Richard McDermott, " [|Knowing in Community: 10 Critical Success Factors in Building Communities of Practice] " IHRIM Journal, March 2000.

//from the Kansas State Department of Education: [|Kansas Communities of Practice] //
 * The Use of Communities of Practice for Professional Development **

The use of Communities of Practice (CoP) as a model for professional development is well documented in the teacher education literature and is generally defined as a group of professionals and other stakeholders in pursuit of a shared learning enterprise, commonly focused on a particular topic (e.g., methods to promote early literacy learning, strategies for increasing parent participation, implementing MTSS, school-wide positive behavior supports).

The difference between CoP and other concepts of communities, is the “development of self through participation in the community” and the importance of legitimate participation as part of a community in that development of self. It is a way to bring research to practice through co-constructing knowledge as part of a common enterprise.

There are two central tenets of the CoP framework: (a) knowledge is situated in experience, and (b) experience is understood through critical reflection with others who share the experience.

Communities of Practice: Connecting What We Know With What We Do. Virginia Buysse, Karen L. Sparkman, Patricia Wesley. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Council for Exceptional Children, 2003, Vol. 69, No. 3, pp 263-277. (Attached) //“As professional development continues to evolve…there is a growing consensus that high-quality professional development involves small groups of educators at a school site seeking and learning new knowledge and skills to respond to particular problems of student performance.” Educate Teachers, Administrators, Policy Makers, and System Learners on What High-Quality Professional Learning Is and Isn’t. Hayes Mizell, The Journal of the National Staff Development Council, Summer 2007. //


 * [|Professional Learning Communities: Key Themes from the Literature]
 * [|Defining Learning Communities]. Sue Kilpatrick, Margaret Barrett and Tammy Jones, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Australia
 * [|STEM Teachers in Professional Learning Communities: A Knowledge Synthesis]
 * What are the Differences between STEM PLCs and PLCs in Other Content Areas?........ The concept of Professional Learning Communities became popular in the ...Lave and Wenger studied “communities of practice” among adults, studying ...
 * [|CPSquare]: The Community of Practice on Communities of Practice
 * [|Evolution of Wenger's concept of community of practice]
 * [|Professional Learning Communities: What Are They And Why - SEDL]
 * [|The Elements of Professional Learning Communities]- AllThingsPCL


 * How "being local" is a limitation **

"IRL's Wenger likes to point out that all communities of practice are local. That doesn't mean there aren't communities whose members are geographically dispersed; it means that every community of practice takes a parochial view of the organization. That's why communities can be the source of problems as well as solutions. Their local viewpoint may keep them from understanding the needs of others in the company. 'No practice has the full picture,' says Wenger, 'not even the practice of management'." [|Communities of Practice: Learning Is Social. Training Is Irrelevant? Training Magazine, February 1997]