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Communities Of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity
... Assim, conseguir transferir o que se aprende para novas situações e contextos é um dos aspectos principais de uma boa aprendizagem. Nesta perspectiva, Wenger (1998) (2018, p. 3) complementam que "ensinar e aprender tornam-se fascinantes quando se convertem em processos de pesquisa constantes, de questionamento, de criação, de experimentação, de reflexão e de compartilhamento crescentes" e afirmam que é neste contexto que expressões atuais como aprendizagem maker ou por experimentação somam-se à aprendizagem ativa, personalizada e compartilhada. ...
... Delimitada a temática, é preciso definir as estratégias e/ou dinâmicas, bem como as atividades que serão realizadas pelos estudantes durante a Webprática, com atenção ao protagonismo do estudante, fundamental nas metodologias ativas (Moran, 2015;Diesel, Baldez, Martins, 2017) e na aprendizagem colaborativa. Conforme apontam Pozo (2002), Wenger (1998) e Barato (2004), planejar dinâmicas que envolvam participação e colaboração é essencial para potencializar o aprendizado dos estudantes; por isso no planejamento da Webprática esses aspectos devem ser considerados. ...
... Para demonstrar o uso da Webprática, são apresentados três exemplos criados no contexto da Especialização Tedpro do IFSC, considerando os objetivos das disciplinas e seus conteúdos. Esses exemplos explicitam estratégias que priorizam o aprender por meio do fazer e da participação (Wenger, 1998). ...
Este artigo apresenta de forma sistematizada as fases para criação e realização de aulas online usando uma estratégia didática denominada Webprática, que promove o protagonismo discente e auxilia os docentes na elaboração de aulas usando metodologias ativas. Desde 2018, efetivaram-se mais de oito mil participações nas Webpráticas, em cursos a distância de nível superior, de formação inicial e continuada e em treinamentos in company, bem como no apoio ao ensino presencial. Esta pesquisa caracteriza-se como qualitativa, exploratória e descritiva, de natureza aplicada, operacionalizada por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e pesquisa-ação. Os resultados das avaliações das Webpráticas, mostram a sua aceitação com índices de satisfação superiores a 90%. Conclui-se que se trata de uma estratégia eficaz para aulas práticas na EAD ou em ambientes híbridos, que combina metodologias ativas com ensino online e que pode ser adotada por docentes de diferentes áreas que estejam buscando inovar em suas aulas.
Palavras-chave: Aprendizagem ativa. Métodos educativos. Educação a distância. Webconferência. Estratégias educacionais.
Abstract This article presents the phases for creating and conducting online classes using a didactic strategy called Webpractice, that promotes student protagonism and helps teachers on creating classes through active learning methodologies. Since 2018, more than eight thousand participations have taken place in Webpractices, in higher-level courses, initial and continuing education and in-company training, both as a distance manner as well as a support for face-to-face teaching. This research is characterized as qualitative, exploratory and descriptive, of an applied nature, operationalized through bibliographical research and action research. The results of the Webpractices evaluations show their accessibility with satisfaction rates above 90%. We concluded that this is an effective didactic strategy for practical classes in distance learning or in hybrid environments, which combines active methodologies with online teaching and can be adopted by teachers from different areas who are seeking to innovate in their classes. Keywords: Active learning. Educational methods. Distance education. Webconferencing. Educational strategies.
... In the qualitative descriptive research reported herein, we asked, what are the opportunities for and challenges to collaboration among members of Edmonton's City Table? To answer this question, we interviewed nine City Table members and used Wenger's (1998) community of practice (CoP) model as our analytical framework. CoPs 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-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner, 2015, para. ...
... Thus, the City of Edmonton formed the City In general, CoPs involve mobilizing the knowledge of individual practitioners to a group of people who can replicate those learnings wherever else that knowledge might be useful (Edwards et al., 2021). CoPs have three key characteristics: 1) shared domain of interest, 2) shared practice, and 3) the creation of community (Wenger, 1998). CoPs help groups determine what to discuss, build trust, promote equitable processes for engagement (rather than facilitation), and draw attention to structures promoting learning (Diaz et al., 2021). ...
... CoPs help groups determine what to discuss, build trust, promote equitable processes for engagement (rather than facilitation), and draw attention to structures promoting learning (Diaz et al., 2021). Members express their belonging to a particular CoP through three modes of identification: engagement (doing things together, talking, producing artifacts), imagination (reflecting, constructing an image of the practice, seeing self as one of them), and alignment (following directions, aligning self with group expectations, coordinating actions towards a shared goal) (Smith et al., 2017;Wenger, 1998). These three modes, which are not mutually exclusive, can be used as parameters within which to conceptualize the shift required to move from a group of agencies working independently on the same issue, to a group involved in the process of building a CoP. ...
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been unprecedented attention and funding toward addressing household food insecurity (HFI) in Canada. In Edmonton, a virtual "City Table" was developed to coordinate the myriad of HFI responses and begin to explore and address systemic issues underlying HFI. In this qualitative descriptive study, we asked: what are the opportunities for and challenges to collaboratively addressing HFI within Edmonton's City Table? In 2020, we conducted nine interviews with diverse professionals representing a local funding agency, the municipal food council, the City of Edmonton (community social work), the Edmonton Food Bank, the University of Alberta, ethno-cultural organizations, and other not-for-profit organizations supporting people experiencing poverty. Wenger's three modes of identification in a community of practice (CoP)—engagement, imagination, and alignment—were used to conceptually frame our qualitative analysis. Overall, we found that the HFI response sector reflects the beginnings of a CoP, but that inter-agency competition for funding and donations presents obstacles to the collaborative process. Findings highlight parallels between agencies and their clients, such as the mazes they must navigate to access resources. However, collaboration was facilitated by agencies' ideological cohesion and their shared struggle to address root causes of HFI. Analyses revealed some engagement amongst City Table members, but sparser imagination and alignment. A CoP does not yet exist because all three modes of identification are deficient in varying ways. Building engagement between agencies, shifting staff's imagination to a collective cause, and aligning practices are monumental tasks in this context.
... Social constructivism is a theoretical perspective that emphasizes the role of social interactions and culture in constructing knowledge [22]. It posits that learning is a socially mediated activity and that individuals construct new knowledge through interactions with others and their environment [22]. ...
... Social constructivism is a theoretical perspective that emphasizes the role of social interactions and culture in constructing knowledge [22]. It posits that learning is a socially mediated activity and that individuals construct new knowledge through interactions with others and their environment [22]. Rooted in this social constructivist perspective, team teaching emphasizes the inseparability of the individual from social influences and the crucial role of sociocultural contexts in teaching and learning [13,23]. ...
... These social interactions often occur within an individual's community of engagement, such as their place of study or work. Consequently, from a social constructivist perspective, a person's knowledge is constructed and competencies are developed as they participate and contribute to community activities [22]. Through interactions with others, meaning is negotiated, and relationships are built toward a common purpose [22]. ...
This study investigates the impact of engaging accounting students in a team-teaching role on their knowledge and competency development in a higher education setting. The research quantifies the knowledge gains from this learning-by-team-teaching intervention and explores students’ experiences with this intervention through survey data. The findings suggest that engaging students in a team-teaching role, specifically a sequential equal-status team-teaching role incorporating interactive teaching styles, significantly enhances knowledge development, particularly among lower-performing students. Students reported a largely positive experience across all performance levels, attributing their growth to improved knowledge, teamwork, and communication skills provided by the intervention. The study recognizes the benefits derived from the team-based design of the intervention, such as enhanced social constructivist knowledge development. Overall, this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on learning-by-teaching strategies. It emphasizes the potential of engaging students in a team-teaching role to enhance their academic performance and the development of key professional competencies.
... Pedagogers upplevelse av lärandesamtal är central för att skapa förståelse kring den förändring som kan uppstå genom lärande. Studien utgår från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv och utifrån ett antagande om att lärande är en naturlig produkt av deltagande i sociala sammanhang (Säljö, 2014;Wenger, 1998). Med detta antagande följer ett fördjupat intresse för att skapa förståelse för hur lärandet kan se ut. ...
... Det sker en ömsesidig påverkan där individer formar varandra och sin omgivning samtidigt som de formas av omgivningen. Vidare kan lärande antas ske när nya utmaningar kräver något av individerna (Lave & Wenger, 1991;Wenger, 1998). ...
... Det skapas en praxis där individerna som arbetar tillsammans delar kunskap och erfarenheter och bildar ett gemensamt förhållningssätt. Gemenskapen kan beskrivas som en social tillhörighet inom vilken utveckling och lärande sker (Billett, 2004;Eteläpelto et al., 2014;Gherardi & Nicilini, 2000;Gringer, 2002;Lave & Wenger, 1991;Le et al., 2022;Wenger, 1998). ...
I följande studie undersöks hur pedagoger beskriver sitt eget lärande och sin identitetsutveckling i ljuset av införandet av en ny typ av föräldrasamtal. Föräldrasamtalen som genomförts har skett på gruppnivå med föräldragrupper istället för de traditionella utvecklingssamtalen. I samtalen riktar pedagogerna in sig på interaktion och kollektivt lärande hos barn och vårt material för den här studien utgörs av texter som pedagogerna har skrivit för att reflektera över den nya samtalsmodellen. Syftet med studien är att förstå samtalen som en aktivitet genom vilken pedagogers lärande och identitet i arbete kan utvecklas. Texterna har analyserats genom innehållsanalys. Genom studien belystes hur förskolepedagogerna utmanas kunskapsmässigt i sammanhang med föräldrar och kollegor, varför det blir viktigt för pedagogerna att reflektera över arbetet och den egna utvecklingen. Resultatet visar hur dessa gruppsamtal bidrar till pedagogernas yrkesidentitet och lärande i arbete. ENGLISH ABSRACT Work integrated learning through learning conversations with Parents: A Platform for developing Preschool Teachers’ Learning at Work The following study examines how preschool teachers describe their own learning and their own identity development concerning the introduction of a new type of parent-teacher conference. The conversation that has been conducted has taken place with groups of parents instead of the traditional individual conversations between parents and preschool teachers. In the conversations, the preschool teachers focus on interaction and collective learning among children, and our material for this study consists of texts that the preschool teachers have written to stimulate reflection concerning the new conversation model. The purpose of the study is to understand the conversations as an activity through which a preschool teacher’s learning and identity at work can be developed. Using content analysis, the study highlights how preschool teachers are challenged in terms of knowledge in the context of parents and colleagues, which is why it becomes important for preschool teachers to reflect upon their work and their own development. In addition, the results show how these group conversations contribute to the preschool teacher’s professional identity and learning at work.
... The analysis and thus the finding is based on the overall data material. The comprehensive interpretation aimed at transcending the findings from the individual to a universal level by including studies and theoretical abstractions by psychologist Alain Topor (17) and educational theorist Etienne Wenger (18). In this way, we continued with an in-depth interpretation and discussion of the themes identified in the structural analysis. ...
... As a result, much of our institutionalized teaching (and learning processes in regard to treatment and caring) is perceived by learners (e.g. students and patients/users) as irrelevant (18). ...
... Based on these arguments it is possible to consider mental health and an educational design, a learning architecture, not just in terms of delivering a curriculum (a health care theory/programme or a choir singing model), but more generally in terms of formation of humanity and identities. Wenger argues that students (or singers) "need places of engagement, materials, and experiences with which to build an image of the world of themselves; and ways of having an effect on the world and making their actions matter" (18). ...
Background: Social and relational dynamics in a choir singing setting are essential to explore. Knowledge is needed concerning the components of helping relationships and the characteristics of helping professionals.
Aim: To explore agency and mental health potentials in choir singing. Method: The study involved open-ended interviews and applied Paul Ricoeur’s phenomenological–hermeneutic theory of interpretation. COREQ was followed.
Findings: Two themes – Like You and Me and My Buddy and Me. Singers and professionals shared sensations of vulnerability. Seemingly, small everyday occurrences are found to constitute building blocks for feelings of sameness, creating grounds for identity constructive encounters. These dynamics are tacit yet potentiated by the choir leader ‘going beyond the professional role’ and being ‘just like you and me’. A ‘Buddy system’ supports ground for building agency promoting feelings of inclusiveness and belonging.
Conclusion: Small but empowering events, singers, and professionals meeting on equal footing, are vital to consider.
... Far from being synonymous with simply belonging to a group or organisation, in this case a school, Wenger (1998) emphasises that CoPs are bounded by the structural attributes of (1) Mutual engagement, which refers to the ways in which the members of a CoP interact with each other to achieve their goals; (2) The collective process of joint enterprise, which involves a negotiated response to a common concern and (3) Shared repertoires, which include the 'routines, words, tools, ways of doing things, stories … actions or concepts that the community has produced or adopted in the course of its existence, and which have become part of its practice' (p. 83). ...
... These social configurations are characterised by the process of legitimate peripheral participation. This sociocultural phenomenon comprises an evolving form of membership that propels 'newcomers' on an inbound trajectory towards their full participation as 'old timers' through a process of deep, situated learning that transforms who they are and what they can do (Lave & Wenger, 1991;Wenger, 1998). While PAR is not a research panacea, given its methodological, conceptual and operational pluralism (Lawson, 2015), it arguably constitutes a more effective approach to teachers' professional development than top-down directives which continue to dominate current initiatives despite widespread criticism of their relative ineffectiveness (Lefstein et al., 2020;Mercieca, 2017). ...
... This comes from an acceptance of all participants as incomplete fellow human beings who grow in their understandings by carefully and consciously facing rather than evading their differences through dialogue rather than debate, which simply promotes conflict. This is not to imply a promise of intergenerational engagements that are free of any discord (Wenger, 1998). Rather, an explicit focus on integrating this plurality of perspectives into the processes of negotiation and representation enables the community to be propelled forward by promoting intergenerational understandings and thus overall cohesion (Groundwater-Smith et al., 2015;Roulier, 2000). ...
This paper proposes dovetailing the concept of youth-adult partnership with youth participatory action research to generate a methodology of youth-adult participatory action research. Within contemporary education, deficit-oriented discourses of hopelessness and demoralisation among ‘at risk’ young people and their teachers, particularly those in marginalised and/or high poverty communities, pervade the literature. However, scholarship suggests that negative emotions do not tend to stem from a sense of hopelessness but one of uncertainty, which is typically caused by a lack of accurate information and thus provides a starting point for investigations through integrating reason and emotion. Embedded in Fraser’s conceptualisation of justice as parity of participation, coupled with Freire’s notion of intergenerational dialogue and a critical-democratic conceptualisation of engagement, youth-adult participatory action research seeks to generate communities of praxis in which students, teachers and researchers form explicit tripartite partnerships as co-investigators and co-learners. As they jointly explore their shared concerns, the members of the community mobilise their collective power and agency to co-design context-specific solutions and in so doing, transform the negative emotion and disenfranchisement stemming from uncertainty into a critical hope for more optimistic futures than those alluded to by the ‘at risk’ and ‘disengaged’ policy tags.
... Tais questionamentos indicam a importância de o professor Ressalta-se que as pesquisas discutidas se fundamentam em diversos referenciais teóricos que, em nossa opinião, dão subsídios para o entendimento dos diferentes domínios de conhecimentos docentes destacados por Ball e colaboradores. São, portanto, usados como referenciais: a Teoria dos Campos Conceituais (Vergnaud, 1986), o conceito de Comunidade de Prática (Wenger, 1998), o Enfoque Ontossemiótico da Instrução e Conhecimento Matemáticos (Godino;Batanero;Font, 2007), a Teoria dos Registros de Representação Semiótica (Duval, 2003) e os pressupostos do currículo (Sacristán, 2000). ...
... A investigação de Lima (2019) promoveu a discussão sobre como as ações colaborativas, de uma Comunidade de Prática (Wenger, 1998), existentes em uma escola, podem fortalecer os conhecimentos de professores de Matemática, ao mesmo tempo que verificou que esse fortalecimento proporciona o surgimento de mais ações colaborativas. Nesse sentido, a pesquisadora analisou os documentos institucionais da escola, observou as aulas de Combinatória de diferentes professores, participou de reuniões pedagógicas e de área na escola e fez entrevistas com professores para saber como ocorrem essas relações. ...
Neste texto, será discutida a importância do conhecimento
docente sobre o conteúdo a ser ensinado, destacando, em cada um
dos domínios, os desafios e as possibilidades do trabalho com a
Combinatória desde a Educação Infantil, passando pelos Anos
Iniciais e Finais do Ensino Fundamental, chegando ao Ensino
Médio. As discussões serão apresentadas por meio de diferentes
pesquisas realizadas por integrantes do Geração4
– Grupo de Estudos
em Raciocínios Combinatório e Probabilístico da Universidade
Federal de Pernambuco.
Ressalta-se que as pesquisas discutidas se fundamentam
em diversos referenciais teóricos que, em nossa opinião, dão
subsídios para o entendimento dos diferentes domínios de
conhecimentos docentes destacados por Ball e colaboradores.
São, portanto, usados como referenciais: a Teoria dos Campos
Conceituais (Vergnaud, 1986), o conceito de Comunidade de
Prática (Wenger, 1998), o Enfoque Ontossemiótico da Instrução
e Conhecimento Matemáticos (Godino; Batanero; Font, 2007), a
Teoria dos Registros de Representação Semiótica (Duval, 2003) e
os pressupostos do currículo (Sacristán, 2000).
Assim, o presente estudo tem como objetivo refletir sobre
os desafios e as possibilidades de ensinar Combinatória à luz dos
Conhecimentos Matemáticos para o Ensino (MKT) (Ball et al., 2008),
promovendo a discussão dos seis domínios propostos pelos autores.
A seguir, serão apresentados os seis domínios de conhecimentos
docentes, bem como resultados de pesquisas que apontam sobre
como esses domínios podem ser desenvolvidos por professores da Educação Básica.
... According to Furman (1998), community is not present until the members experience feelings of belonging, trust in others, and safety. Furthermore, Wenger (1998) states that a community of practice is established through relationships among the people in a group who share collaborative activities. Thus, participation, common engagement in tasks, and learning together in a class community are important aspects of inclusion. ...
... In a world where diversity is the increasing norm more than the exception, some researchers have also questioned whether the concept of culture should continue to be used (Fandrem, Haus, & Johannessen, 2015;Johannesen & Haus, 2011;Prieur, 2007). Nevertheless, if immigrant pupils are to be included, they must be socialized into the culture of the current community of practice (Wenger, 1998) and experience full-fledged participation in class. Mainly through communication and collaboration related to the topic of teaching, pupils will have experiences defining the quality of their participation (Solbue, 2013). ...
... Mentors can encourage mentees to join and take active roles in local, national, and international HPE communities and networks that nurture them in their chosen path. Networks of educators can be regarded as Communities of Practice (CoP), which have a common interest in a topic or domain, come together to discuss, share ideas, and create solutions to real-life problems (Lave and Wenger 1991;Wenger 1999). In CoPs, learning is a social process that takes place through interaction, collaboration, and co-construction of practical solutions and a new level of understanding. ...
... Historically, the process of developing expertise and career preparation has followed an apprenticeship model in which a novice learns by working alongside an expert (Lave and Wenger 1991;Wenger 1999;Byars-Winston and Dahlberg 2019). This apprenticeship structure is still standard in some Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medical (STEMM) learning environments, such as undergraduate and graduate research and clinical internships and residencies. ...
This AMEE guide discusses theoretical principles and practical strategies for health professions educators to promote impactful mentoring relationships. Traditional definitions are challenged, distinctions are made between roles such as mentor, advisor, coach and sponsor. As educational environments change and options for professional development expand, we argue that the traditional dyadic format of mentoring alone will not help mentees to maximise their professional growth. Newer formats of mentoring are discussed in detail and their advantages and disadvantages compared. We use a variety of theoretical concepts to anchor the practice of mentorship: self-focussed and other-focussed motives; psychological safety; personal interpretive framework; Daloz model for balancing support and challenge; zone of proximal development; communities of practice; and development along multiple layers of competence. Recommended strategies for effective mentoring are based on extensive review of literature, as well as combined professional mentoring experiences of the authors. We use key principles from the theories described and phases of mentoring relationships as foundations for the suggested best practices of mentorship. Finally, we emphasise the role of mentees in their own professional development and provide tips for them on seeking mentors, expanding their mentoring network and taking the lead in setting the agenda during mentoring meetings and formulating action plans for their own advancement.
... This article presents an empirical study of two courses that aim to support participants in entering the Swedish job market: a vocationally adapted language course for medical doctors and other healthcare workers (referred to as the medical course) and a course aimed at integrating participants into a future career in outdoor maintenance (referred to as the green course). The study aims to examine these courses from the perspective of inclusion into an imagined future professional community of practice (CoP; Wenger, 1998) by analysing course content and the knowledge that participants are assumed to need in preparation for working life in Sweden. We also analyse what factors may be beneficial for participants' inclusion into the future professional CoPs, focusing particularly on investment in a professional linguistic repertoire. ...
... To become a member, one must acquire that specific language, and to do so, a sense of belonging and identification as a member (by oneself and others) is crucial. The already-established members (called full members) contribute to the learning environment, and it is important they invite the new members (called legitimate peripheral members) to invest in the community (Wenger, 1998). Learning the language of the CoP is thus an investment in the process of becoming a full member. ...
This article presents a qualitative, empirical study of two educational programmes for immigrants that integrate language instruction and vocational training. In the context of migration, social inclusion is often conceptualised as access to social capital. Proficiency in the national language is considered key for employment and fast integration into working life has become a primary goal in Swedish migration policies. This article examines the two programmes from the perspective of inclusion into an (imagined) future professional community of practice (CoP), focusing specifically on the participants’ possibilities to invest in a professional linguistic repertoire. The article is dedicated to empirical analyses and positive factors, recognising the need for research. Data consists of interviews with students and teachers, observations, and video recordings of course activities. Organisational aspects of the courses, such as the teachers’ backgrounds and the courses’ proximity to future CoPs, as well as relational aspects of the learning environments, are considered essential for the participants’ inclusion in a future professional CoP. Analyses of the programmes’ content demonstrate that participants are assumed to lack context‐specific, vocational knowledge, including professionally related vocabulary. The article contributes to knowledge on how inclusion can be managed in practice in educational settings for adult immigrants and promotes an understanding of how vocationally adapted courses can assist immigrants in becoming members of a future professional CoP.
... How does this initiate students into a Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998)? International students and domestic students ...
Student presentations have become an integral part of classroom work and therefore teachers' assessment practices, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it may be the case that student presentations only mimic examples within limited expectations of the genre, such as an introduction with outline, main points, and conclusion/summary accompanied by fairly rudimentary slides. An alternative approach may lie in providing a platform for learners to share and communicate information in the most effective way, perhaps with visual representations of data such as charts and graphs or multimedia. This is advantageous to both students and teachers because the former gain truly effective communication skills, while the latter can feel more engaged by novel student work rather than work that is overly conventional. Using a theoretical framework derived from the pedagogy of multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996) the presentation explores ways to integrate information, graphical, and communications literacies with positive and negative examples from the presenter's own classes.
... Perhaps more than any other discipline, in their free time music students get their hands dirty in the communities in which they study (as discussed above). Greatness or international distinction are not the goals of such initiatives (not that these would be unwelcome were they to show up); rather, they can be understood as communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991;Wenger, 1998) that, because of the presence of students, become embedded between university, students, and community (for a model and detailed explanation of the process see Benneworth et al., 2022). This entanglement between town and gown, between students and community, is of benefit to all, but these mutual benefits are hard to measure on traditional scales of quality that posit excellence (e.g. ...
The cultural sector is a potential instigator of change due to its experimental, performative, and relational nature. However, like everywhere else, the cultural sector re-enacts and thus conserves inequalities of various kinds through its outreach to wider audiences and its deep engagement in socio-cultural practices. By taking our actions within the ERASMUS+ project ‘Voices of Women’ as a creative catalyst, this paper scrutinizes a set of items for further discussion of arts-based pathways for sustainable transformation towards a more (gender) equal world. We discuss the ability of the arts to engage, educate, and transform power relations through three pathways towards sustainable transformation: 1. Canon critique; 2. Decolonization; and 3. New materialism. We argue that all three pathways enable novel forms of knowledge creation and actions in arts-based research, arts education, the cultural sector, and beyond. Cover image: Still picture from film: Music and Gender in Balance (Mittner and Bergli, 2018)
... Davidson (2023) corroborated that changes in assessment culture are possible if teachers are well supported in their assessment practices. Teacher could also develop their assessment literacy and control the possible assessment variations through dialogues, selfreflections, and action research in assessment practices in their community of practice (Adie, 2013;Klenowski, 2013) and vicarious learning (Wenger, 1998;Zwozdiak-Myers, 2012). These training opportunities could help teachers learn from each other in several assessment domains, as well as discuss, question, and challenge each other's point of view to improve their assessment literacy. ...
Classroom assessment is a cornerstone for effective teaching and learning. However, there are variabilities in teachers' approaches to assessment due to recent educational policies, and classroom teaching and learning conditions. This study adopted a mixed method design through a sequential explanatory approach to examine teachers' approaches to classroom assessment in two educational contexts. Multistage sampling procedures were used to select a total of 431 teachers , consisting of 123 Bruneian and 308 Ghanaian teachers to complete online surveys on classroom assessment approaches. In addition to the survey, semi-structured and in-depth interviews were conducted with six Bruneian and eight Ghanaian teachers to understand how they approached classroom assessment. The findings of a latent profile and thematic analysis revealed that teachers' approaches to classroom assessment differed significantly within and between Daniel Asamoah ABOUT THE AUTHORS Daniel Asamoah is a final year Ph.D. in Education candidate at the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. His research focuses on classroom assessment, especially on developing students' and teachers' assessment literacy to promote school effectiveness and students' academic success. His work examines how teachers implement psychometrically-sound, equitable, and culturally responsive classroom assessments through the negotiation of their assessment knowledge with the prevailing contextual factors that shape their assessment practices.
... Hoadley's (2012) four Cs -connecting, creating, communicating and community -offer a useful frame to describe various aspects of our OCoP: 1) Teaching Scholars from across disciplines collaborate and learn online with colleagues who are leading diverse SoTL change initiatives, 2) Teaching Scholars connect and communicate online using a range of technologies, from Zoom, MSTeams, D2L, to shared workspaces, whitespaces and documents, 3) The Teaching Scholars access shared expertise within and beyond the community along with a set of curated digital resources, and 4) Teaching Scholars collectively provide awareness within and beyond the community of our diverse contexts and approaches to innovative learning and teaching, educational leadership, and research, practices. The OCoP's shared intention and goal, that sponsors distributed learning which is sustained over time (Wenger, 1998), is our persistent quest to lead change and innovation to improve teaching and learning practices across disciplines in higher education. ...
In this paper, we emphasize the value of an online community of practice (OCoP) for bringing together faculty from across disciplines to share and leverage their diverse expertise and perspectives. We examine the transition of an interdisciplinary community of practice through the pivot into an online environment for engagement, communication, and collaboration. Through this paper we describe our individual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) projects and how we have navigated these projects within the Teaching Scholars OCoP, as well as our reflections and key learnings that have resulted from this sustained collaboration. We contribute key learnings and online strategies which can inform and be tailored by other academics and institutions who are developing online communities of practice as an approach to sustaining educational leadership and change in SoTL research and practice in diverse and distributed contexts.
... Educators started placing an increased emphasis on the concept of community during the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s. For instance, in various degrees, educators started focusing on how communities of learners (Jonassen, 1995;Rogoff, 1994), communities of practice (Barab & Duffy, 2000;Wenger, 1999Wenger, , 2000, and professional learning communities (DuFour & Eaker, 1998;Stoll et al., 2006) can improve teaching and learning as well as training and performance. However, as online learning began to grow in the late 1990s, many questioned whether community could be developed online (Berge & Collins, 1995), largely due to perceived limitations of asynchronous communication and the cues filtered out of this type of communication (Gunawardena, 1995;Walther, 1996;Walther, Anderson, & Parks, 1994). ...
Increasingly researchers and practitioners have highlighted the importance of developing a sense of community in online courses and programs. However, many questions remain about the best ways to develop community in online courses. A recent literature review highlighted how influential Alfred P. Rovai’s research has been to researchers of connectedness and community in online higher education. However, some of this foundational research is over 20 years old. Given this, we conducted a review of Rovai’s research on community to take a deeper analysis of Rovai’s research and to identify themes across the studies, future areas of research, and implications for practice. In the following paper, we present the results of our inquiry.
... Hoyles and Noss (2009) implied that mathematical learning materials for students should be adapted to their social contexts and their characteristics arising from such contexts. This is in accordance with the concept of learning as a social process and thus within the theory of Communities of Practice (CoP) (Wenger, 1998). According to Wenger et al., (2002, p. 4), CoP can be described as "groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis". ...
Personas, initially originated in user experience research, are short and simplified representations of particular user groups, and this methodological approach has recently gained ground in educational research. This study aims to explore aspects of personas that may be beneficial for prospective mathematics teachers when they develop digital learning resources. To explore such aspects, we employed qualitative interviews, thinking-out-loud techniques, and jointly developed learning resources with prospective mathematics teachers, and analysed this diverse data with a combination of case study and grounded theory approaches. Consequently, we were able to identify the following essential aspects of using personas in our study: (A) personas as representatives of real people, (B) personas as planning & feedback tools for material development, (C) professionalisation of prospective mathematics teachers (by using personas), (D) differentiation/individualisation for personas through digital learning resources, and (E) motivational elements of digital mathematics learning resources. Based on our results, we concluded that using personas could broaden prospective mathematics teachers’ views on student characteristics and demands that may enable teachers to facilitate the development of differentiated and individualised digital mathematics learning resources.
... Much has been written about the construct of identity in various scholarly fields (Aguirre et al., 2013;Lave & Wenger, 1991;Martin & Gholson, 2012;Wenger, 1999), and identity is a prominent construct within feminist scholarship (e.g., Harding, 2004;Collins, 2002). The construct of identity has also gained considerable attention in science education research over the past two decades (Avraamidou, 2014;Mensah, 2012Mensah, , 2016. ...
[Open access article: https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21915]
The focus on identity in the field of teaching and learning continues to grow, especially when it concerns equitable outcomes for students. While most attention is placed on students' identities and increasingly those of teachers, lesser addressed are the identities of the teacher educators and researchers broaching the issue of identity. Additionally, identity research is not often linked to relationships between self, others, and transformative action. We recognize these as gaps to be addressed and offer critical positional praxis (CPP) as a response. CPP is the public manifestation of the insights gained through our sense of identity and reflexivity. More specifically, CPP is the actions (or inactions) that express who we are in response to an event in any given social context—especially oppressive ones. In this article, we draw from our own critical autoethnographies, as a context for putting CPP into practice in identity research. Our collective analysis of these critical autoethnographies revealed how our identity development was inseparable from the ways in which we have each resisted the politics of domestication. Our autoethnographies further point to the role of dissent as central to our experiences of becoming critical science teacher educators committed to equity, diversity, and anti-racism in education. We draw from this analysis to offer recommendations for how identity and positionality can move beyond theoretical constructs toward transformative personal and collective change in science education. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21915
... Given that many learning theorists have identified that cross-cultural experience could trigger learning followed by a change in worldview (Mezirow, 1991(Mezirow, & 1994Bennett, 1993Bennett, , 1998Bennett, & 2004Wenger, 1998;Engestrom et al., 1999;Mezirow & Associates, 2000;Hammer, Bennett & Wiseman, 2003;Kanno, 2003;Bennett & Hammer, 2006;Mezirow, Taylor & Associates, 2009), IDI should be a helpful framework to explore how returnees' crosscultural reentry experiences result in a change of their worldviews, and how the shift in worldviews affects the ways in which they participate in Japanese sociocultural practices. Using IDI along with a sociocultural perspective should be helpful to shed light on the factors influencing returnees' participation in Japanese sociocultural practices that cannot be covered by the theory of community of practice. ...
The rapid business globalization in the 1980s markedly increased the number of Japanese returnees. It is reported that approximately 50,000 returnees are currently enrolled in educational institutions in Japan, many of whom experience severe reverse culture shock. This paper reviews the most acknowledged educational research from among all ethnographic studies on Japanese returnees in English and Japanese from the 1980s onwards. The paper also explores returnees’ reentry processes and factors that influenced their reentry, and analyzes differences and commonalities in returnees’ reentry over time. The paper further suggests a framework for future research inquiries, and identifies further avenues for investigation. (100 words)
... Understood from the perspective of Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1998), school leaders relied on their community of principals to process the problems being faced as well as possible solutions. Similarly, leaders noted that teachers relied on their own Communities of Practice for the same support and processing. ...
... Boundary crossing has become an explicit concept in communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and the theory of expansive learning (Engestrom, 1987;2015). Though these two theories are rooted in different learning theories, situated learning theory and sociocultural learning theory, respectively, their descriptions of boundary crossing are compatible and coincide with my literature review. ...
What mathematics is and how to teach it are questions that mathematics educators constantly confront. A challenge identified in mathematics education is supporting students to see mathematics as normal human activity. Mathematics educators' viewpoints of mathematics determine whether they can recognize and exploit learning opportunities for student. This study presents the boundary crossing collaboration between two female educators within informal learning settings. Drawing on a boundary crossing learning perspective, I explored two female educators' mathematics experiences and interrogated their boundary crossing experiences as sites for humanizing mathematics. Based on this exploration, I address the possibilities for humanizing mathematics by facilitating boundary crossing between mathematics education and informal education.
... Informal, non-accredited societies or clubs that are student-led enterprises are a mechanism used to attract students to engage in entrepreneurial pursuits to develop their entrepreneurial competencies (Pocek et al., 2021). Some scholars have viewed extracurricular entrepreneurial programs as a social learning system, helping students to find a community where they can obtain a connection to networks and get exposure to relationships and at the same time obtain some practice being an entrepreneur (Cope, 2005;Rae, 2002;Wenger, 1998). Extracurricular startup activities are essential to students since they may never encounter an entrepreneurial environment. ...
Entrepreneurship promotion continues to be an important domain for economic policy and growth. Closely related to entrepreneurship promotion are the very individuals engaging with entrepreneurship, whose belief and efforts to succeed are highly correlated with their view that they ‘have what it takes”, measured as entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE). ESE has thus become a critical factor toward understanding entrepreneurship support. However, most extant scholarship focuses on formal and university education, while little is said about incorporating entrepreneurship and ESE with technical vocational education and training (TVET) to develop entrepreneurs. This is surprising because so many micro and small businesses, particularly trades, are heavily anchored in TVET. This study compares academic and TVET post-secondary students in Trinidad and Tobago to determine the factors that enhance their ESE. Data emerged from three (3) regression models explaining how academic and TVET students’ ESE are correlated with several factors. Parents with a university degree, friends who are entrepreneurs and an extracurricular focus on entrepreneurship were vital factors that saw a positive correlation with ESE among the TVET population. In contrast, academic students are driven primarily by experiences. Full-time work experience and entrepreneurial experiences were significantly correlated with the ESE of academic students. Our work highlights that academic and TVET students’ ESE have different world views that impact education. This study demonstrates the importance of tailoring entrepreneurial learning for TVET students by linking ESE with cultural capital theory. We found that when teaching academic students entrepreneurship, more emphasis should be placed on experiential learning. Our research provides empirical findings we believe to be both unique and highly relevant to the literature of entrepreneurship education.
... Handelns entwickeln, die es den Studierenden ermöglicht, am Schulfeld «peripher und legitim»(Lave & Wenger, 1991) zu partizipieren. Dafür benötigen wir Konzepte des Lernens von der und für die Berufsarbeit(Wenger, 1998). Solche Konzeptionen und ihre praktischen Konsequenzen werden in der Lehrerinnenund Lehrerbildung selten refl ektiert. ...
Dieser Beitrag beschreibt Partnerschaften von Schulen und Hochschulen in den Niederlanden, die es zum Ziel haben, die Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung mithilfe des Potenzials beider Institutionen, Hochschule und Schule, zu verbessern. Er gibt einen Überblick über verschiedene Formen der Hochschul-Schul-Partnerschaft, wie sie in den Niederlanden bestehen, und beschreibt die Lernarrangements und die Begleitung der Studierenden in den Schulen. Zugrunde gelegt sind verschiedene Quellen, darunter staatliche Berichte und Forschungsbeiträge zur Kooperation von Schulen und Hochschulen. Sie zeigen, dass neue Formen der Zusammenarbeit das Vertrauen in die jeweils andere Institution stärken und die Unterstützung der Studierenden in den Praktika verbessern. Grundlage dafür scheint ein echtes Verantwortungsgefühl für die Ausbildung guter Lehrpersonen zu sein. Allerdings ist die Theorie-Praxis-Kluft durch die Kooperation nicht vollständig verschwunden. Eine neue Herausforderung ist die Entwicklung eines kohärenten Studienprogramms der Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung auf der Grundlage der Zusammenarbeit der Akteure aus Schulen und Hochschulen.
... Eine vertiefte Diskussion von Communities of Practice und verwandter Konzepte (Lave& Wenger, 1991;Schrittesser, 2004;Stoll et al., 2006;Wenger, 1998) kann an dieser Stelle nicht geführt werden. Der deutsche Terminus «Arbeits-und Lerngemeinschaften» wird hier als Synonym verwendet. ...
Dieser Beitrag geht von vordringlichen Anforderungen an zukünftige Lehrpersonen aus, für die die Berufspraktischen Studien Erfolg versprechende Lerngelegenheiten schaffen müssen: Integration verzweigter Wissensbestände in berufliches Handeln; Aufbau robuster Handlungsmuster; Orientierung am Erfolg der Schülerinnen und Schüler; soziales Lernen und Kooperieren im realen Berufsfeld. Es wird argumentiert, dass traditionelle Praktikumsstrukturen den heutigen Ansprüchen der Professionalisierung kaum genügen und Erneuerungsprozesse erschweren. Es wird für eine zweifache Weiterentwicklung der Berufspraktischen Studien plädiert: zum einen für mehr Situierung mittels einer Stärkung von Partizipation im «Hybriden Raum» an der Schnittstelle von Hochschule und Schulfeld und zum anderen für mehr Strukturierung mittels hochschulbasierter Settings zum wissenschaftlich informierten Aufbauen und Flexibilisieren professioneller Handlungsmuster und zur optimalen Nutzung verfügbarer Ressourcen.
... We have tried to ʺcultivateʺ a community around the participantsʹ interest in improving their professional projection from a formal educational environment. Yet, we have proposed a predominantly situated learning activity, legitimizing it through identity dynamics and peripheral participation typical of communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991;Wenger, 2005;Wenger et al., 2002). This allows for fostering relationships between non-formal and informal contexts, such as incorporating the higher education program from one of the leading social media platforms in the professional field (Hootsuiteʹs Higher Education Program). ...
This paper examines the learning experience of an inter-faculty higher education course conducted in an expanded remote format, using digital space as facilitator. The study focuses on the implementation of personalized education, a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the diversification of resources, strategies, and actions to empower learners in assigning personal value and meaning to their learning journey. By presenting an action research project, this study highlights the pivotal role of personalized education in guiding the course design. To foster an engaging learning environment, the course incorporated open activities and leveraged tools and platforms of the social web. Through these means, the participants, forming a community of practice, were able to collaboratively generate knowledge before, during, and after synchronous sessions. Furthermore, the participants effectively disseminated this knowledge through networks and engaged in discussions with external stakeholders. The study underscores how personalized education facilitates situated and meaningful learning by fostering expanded, flexible, and distributed experiences. These experiences revolve around a transmedia narrative that seamlessly integrates digital culture into learning opportunities and processes, effectively naturalizing its presence. The results highlight the value of personalized education approaches in adapting to the complexities of the digital age and establishing meaningful learning experiences for students.
... In our understanding, identity is built of interpretations and narratives of experiences (Luehmann, 2007). In the words of Wenger (1998), "the experience of identity in practice is a way of being in the world" (p. 15). ...
Teacher education, as an historical social practice, has undergone multiple transformations, namely the adaptation to the Bologna process. In Portugal, the most visible change in teacher education programs was the fragmentation of five-year integrated program into two disconnected cycles, with the compacting of pedagogical, didactic, and early field experiences. Looking to go beyond a critical reflection, we intended to present arguments about how teacher education programs can be drawn for the challenges that Physical Education will be called upon to answer. The arguments are based on the knowledge and experience from research projects in the scope of the school placement in Physical Education, which aimed to embed initial teacher education in a collaborative dynamic between the university and the school, and contribute to the construction of the professional identities of learners and mentors.
... 25(p4-5) Researchers have demonstrated varied aims of communities of practice in health care, from knowledge exchange to clinical practice improvement and implementation of EBP. 26 Communities of learning and practice have specifically been highlighted as facilitators of unlearning. 4,27 Within athletic training, communities of practice may be beneficial in developing positive attitudes toward the unlearning process; keeping up with the evolving evidence base; identifying what skills, techniques, or procedures can be unlearned and why; and brainstorming how to turn intentions into action in clinical practice, all within a judgment-free space. Routinely engaging in a collaborative learning environment, like a community of practice, may help to facilitate intentional unlearning (ie, directed unlearning) and hopefully prevent unlearning from occurring in unexpected, uncontrolled, sometimes painful ways, or all of the above (ie, deep unlearning). ...
Context
Unlearning is a critical component of evidence-based practice, yet research related to its role in athletic training practice is limited.
Objective
To explore athletic trainers’ (ATs’) perceptions of and experiences with unlearning.
Design
Cross-sectional.
Setting
Online survey with open-ended questions.
Patients or Other Participants
Seven hundred fifteen of 6925 ATs accessed the survey (access rate = 10.3%) with 640 ATs completing it (completion rate = 94%).
Main Outcome Measure(s)
We distributed a survey consisting of 8 to 10 demographic questions, 1 Likert-scale item on familiarity with unlearning, and 4 to 5 open-ended questions. Descriptive statistics summarize demographic information. Open-ended data were analyzed using the consensual qualitative research approach. Respondents who self-reported familiarity with unlearning were asked to described its meaning. To ensure data quality, these responses were compared with definitions of unlearning by 2 research team members. If consensus was reached that a participant’s understanding of unlearning aligned with the definitions, the remaining responses from that participant were included in the qualitative data analyses reported in this manuscript.
Results
Most respondents were minimally or not at all familiar with unlearning (n = 505/652, 77%). Approximately 46% (n = 181/391; 120 clinicians, 61 educators) accurately described the meaning of unlearning. Analysis of open-ended responses yielded 2 themes: barriers to unlearning and facilitators of unlearning. Reported barriers were intrinsic and extrinsic in nature and involved key stakeholders that frequently interact with ATs. Facilitators of unlearning included continued education, mentorship and team mindset, resources and evidence, and stakeholder education.
Conclusions
Respondents were largely unfamiliar with unlearning despite its role in promoting evidence-based practice. Continued education for ATs and relevant stakeholders is needed and may be accomplished through the creation and dissemination of accessible resources that highlight knowledge and skills that should be unlearned. These educational efforts may help to normalize unlearning in athletic training practice to continually improve the delivery of patient care.
... The social and distributed nature of learning can translate into building communities of practice, creating knowledge building communities, coaching, mentoring, design-based research and research-practice partnerships. Community of practice refers to the creation of a learning environment in which the participants actively communicate about and engage in the skills involved in expertise (Lave & Wenger, 1991;Wenger, 1999). Such a community leads to a sense of ownership characterized by personal investment and mutual dependency (Collins & Kapur, 2022). ...
Capacity building programs equip education systems to be better prepared for the unknown future by enhancing the skills of its members. These programs are customized and contextualized based on the needs and role of the participants. This paper details the aspects of design and implementation of one such capacity building induction program for District Educational Officers in India. By exploring the characteristics of the program, the learnings present the components to build an effective capacity building program for senior functionaries who are new to the system. To make learning effective for this particular group, it needs to be social, collaborative, situated in authentic contexts with learners as active constructers of knowledge. The happenings should be relevant, it should ground new experiences and connect to the prior knowledge of the participants. These foundation principles of learning with concrete example of the induction program will promote informed creation of impactful and meaningful learning experiences for senior education functionaries.
... For all the others and from an archaeological perspective, these stages of pottery production can be traced through an analysis of ceramic assemblages to reconstruct potters' manufacturing choices, which might be linked to existing communities of practice. This concept, developed by the anthropologists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, refers to all groups of people who share a specific way of doing, creating and producing artifacts based on their learned and trained skills and investigates the issue of learning and the transmission of technological and cultural knowledge (Lave and Wenger, 1991;Wenger, 1998Wenger, , 2010. Communities of practice are not clearly delineated entities, as potters may be linked to several communities of practice, making them dynamic and changeable. ...
The study explores technological choices and practices of Iron Age pottery production at Monte Iato (Sicily, southern Italy). A set of 76 specimens from the central cult place of the site (600–450 BCE) and belonging to functional categories of serving and consumption of food and drinks, food preparation, cooking and storage were analyzed using macroscopic, mineralogic and petrographic methods. As proxy data, the results revealed varied and multi-layered practices, that do differ in regard to raw material procurement, clay processing as well as firing techniques but at the same time are to some extent linked together through the constant use of grog as temper – a practice detectable over the entire use of the cult site of over 100 years, the use of similar forming techniques, surface treatments and decoration operations.
Keywords: Pottery technology; Chaîne opératoire; Communities of practice; Clay lumps and grog; Monte Iato; Western Sicily
... Uma delas é baseada na perspectiva da aprendizagem social de Étienne Wenger, na qual a identidade é formada em contextos sociais. Para Wenger (1998, p. 5) apud Cyrino (2017, "uma forma de falar sobre como a aprendizagem muda quem nós somos e cria histórias pessoais de transformação no contexto de nossas comunidades". Desse modo, foram os pressupostos da comunidade de prática que levaram a um aporte para abordar a aprendizagem dos professores na perspectiva da aprendizagem social, e discutir a identidade do PEM. ...
This study presents partial results of the repercussions of the performance of a mathematics preceptor in the Pedagogical Residency Program (PRP). For this, we chose to use semi-structured interviews as an instrument of data production. After transcription, the analysis was performed in light of the characterization of the professional identity of the teacher who teaches mathematics, proposed by our main theoretical reference. It was found that participation in the PRP enabled the school teacher to play a new role (preceptor), which mobilized a shift towards the constitution of their identity as a teacher educator.
... In this context, duality does not mean that everything exists in pairs of opposites. On the contrary, taking the definition of E. Wenger (1988) as a reference, duality is "a single conceptual unit that is formed by two inseparable and mutually constitutive elements (in this case the system and the process) whose …. complementarity give the concept richness and dynamism." Both elements of the duality are inseparable because life cannot exist without a living system and the living system without life has no meaning, it is only ...
What is life? Multiple definitions have been proposed to answer this question, but unfortunately, none of them has reached the consensus of the scientific community. Here, the strategy used to define what life is was based on first establishing which characteristics are common to all living systems (organic nature, entropy-producing system, self-organizing, reworkable pre-program, capacity to interact and adapt, reproduction and evolution) and from them constructing the definition taking into account that reproduction and evolution are not essential for life. On this basis, life is defined as an interactive process occurring in entropy-producing, adaptive, and informative (organic) systems. An unforeseen consequence of the inseparable duality between the system (living being) and the process (life) is the interchangeability of the elements of the definition to obtain other equally valid alternatives. In addition, in the light of this definition, cases of temporarily lifeless living systems (viruses, dormant seeds, and ultracold cells) are analyzed, as well as the status of artificial life entities and the hypothetical nature of extraterrestrial life. All living systems are perishable because the passage of time leads to increasing entropy. Life must create order by continuously producing disorder and exporting it to the environment and so we move and stay in the phase transition between order and chaos, far from equilibrium, thanks to the input of energy from the outside. However, the passage of time eventually leads us to an end in which life disappears and entropy increases.
... The key is to engage with society and offer students a meaningful role or mission through community of practice (Wenger, 1999). ...
Switching the emphasis from researching to teaching has accelerated the reformation of higher education. This switch is directly reflected in the establishment of the Center for Teaching and Learning in universities worldwide and has gradually become standardized and mature for faculty professional development.
... The present study is grounded in a socio-cultural perspective on practice and learning (Lave and Wenger 1991;Wenger 1998). Research on professional learning shows that it Page 5 of 27 Hoekstra Empirical Res Voc Ed Train (2023) 15:12 is deeply embedded in practice and is informed by the way people conduct and understand their work (Bound 2011;Engeström 2011;Lave and Wenger 1991). ...
Background
For vocational and professional education to remain relevant, instructors need to keep developing themselves and their practices. Much of instructor learning happens on-the-job. Drawing on literature on teacher learning in the workplace, this article explores how structural and cultural conditions shape professional learning of instructors in departments for post-secondary vocational and professional education in western Canada.
Methods
A multiple case study approach was used to explore how instructors perceive departmental conditions as enhancing or inhibiting professional learning. Interview data, meeting observations, and program documentation was collected from 27 instructors from 5 departments in three institutes for post-secondary vocational and professional education. The educational programming in the five departments cover four industry sectors: two healthcare departments, one building trades, one business, and one social services department.
Results
Structural conditions reported to facilitate instructor professional learning at the department level include student feedback, job-rotation, coordinating work-placements, and whether participation in continuing professional development is a licensing requirement of the profession. Heavy workload and the way teaching is scheduled are most often reported as conditions inhibiting learning. Considering cultural conditions, three in-depth case descriptions illustrate how instructors draw on beliefs and practices prevalent in their original trade/profession when shaping their departmental culture as a learning environment.
Conclusions
The concept of sense-making proved useful to describe how instructors draw on elements of the occupational culture taught in the program when shaping their workplace as a learning environment. This influence of occupational culture could help explain previously observed differences in how instructors from various industry sectors engage in professional learning. Organizational support is warranted for facilitating organizational conditions for instructor learning including the development of departmental leaders’ capacity to influence workplace conditions for professional learning.
... Talia, for example, engaged in multiple COPs inside and outside Brighton-the PBL COP at Wilson MS, the educational technology communities at Aldrin MS and Wilson MS, and science teacher organizations at the local, state, and national level. Although Talia was not a core member in each COP she engaged with, she acted as a boundary agent (Wenger, 1998) between communities and brought messages and practices from external communities into her teaching practice. For Talia, her COPs created tensions around what was more important to Fig. 5 Illustration of Maggie's translation of the three focal policies. ...
Educational policies exist as part of complex systems of many policies, all of which science teachers must make sense before using in practice. Using Actor-Network Theory to view policy translation in assemblages, we examine how networked actors mediate teachers’ policy play. Drawing on ethnographic methods and post-structural analytic tools, we identified four mediating actors: espoused practices, learning events, administrator relationships, and communities of practice. These actors interact in the assemblage to mediate teachers’ policy dilemmas and policy responses, as they play with policies. Our findings indicate a need to look more closely at the interactions of policies with one another in teachers’ policy play, policy dilemmas as learning opportunities, the importance of social relationships with administrators in teachers’ policy play, and the dangers of lethal fidelity in adoption. We see these findings as tools to assist teacher educators in planning for future teacher learning around their role as translators and implementers of policy.
... These authors explain that professional identity formation is "a process of practical knowledge building characterised by an ongoing integration of what is individually and collectively seen as relevant to teaching" [18]. This process is influenced by both previous and current experiences within the teaching environment [19,20]. Individuals' perceptions of themselves, how they experience themselves being seen by others, and the different viewpoints they are exposed to during lectures and teaching practice blocks impact their development. ...
This article reports on the use of self-authorship as a pedagogical tool to develop pre-service teachers' professional identities. Pre-professional identity is considered a dynamic, less mature version of professional identity. Such a notion of fluidity in the professional self necessitates the integration of both personal and professional life experiences in the process of becoming, rather than already being, a teacher. A random sample of 56 pre-service teachers from a population of first-year students at a South African university was selected for this qualitative interpretivist study. Thematic analysis of personal reflections after a professional orientation programme indicates that the pre-professional identity of first-year pre-service teachers is mostly based on external cues and naïve perceptions rather than on well-thought-through personal ideology. The authors draw on Baxter-Magolda's theory of self-authorship to highlight this influence of past life experiences that shape the pre-professional identity that first-year pre-service teachers bring to initial teacher training programs. Self-authorship is defined as a person's ability to conceptualise and apply their own beliefs, identity, and social relations in various contexts. Findings confirm that most first-year pre-service teachers place themselves within the first phase of self-authorship. It is postulated that higher education institutions could, through platforms such as Work Integrated Learning, shift the structure and focus of pre-service teacher training programmes away from passive observation and instruction to active partnership, engaged reflection, and critical thinking. Such an approach can then contribute to professional and personal development through the remainder of the pre-service teacher programme. It is further argued that a longitudinal study is needed to explore this required movement towards and through the three phases of self-authorship.
Makerspaces persist as formal and informal spaces of learning for youth, promoting continued interest in studying how design can support the variety of learning opportunities within these spaces. However, much of the current research examining learning in makerspaces neglects the perspectives of educators. This not only hinders our understanding of educators’ goals and how educators navigate makerspaces but also constrains how we frame the design space of the learning experiences and environments. To address this, we engaged in a set of semi-structured interviews to examine the contexts, goals, values, and practices of seven educators across five makerspaces. A thematic analysis of the data identified six key categories of competencies that these educators prioritize including a range of skills, practices, and knowledge, such as technical proficiency, communication, and contextual reflection. The analysis also identified five categories of strategies to accomplish certain goals, such as scaffolding, collaboration, and relationship building. Last, it also shed light on three categories of challenges faced at the student-level, teacher-level, and institutional level. We conclude with a discussion on our insights into how we can broaden the problem space in the design of educational technologies to support learning in makerspaces.
This chapter addresses the challenges of creating an equitable classroom where all participants’ voices are valued, and student leaders are nurtured. Although institutional policies may perpetuate traditional top-down power dynamics, teachers must prioritize this goal. In addition, teachers must address deficit beliefs, such as native-speakerism and the infallibility of teachers that learners may have internalized. The authors, who are two language educator-researchers based in Japan, explore a variety of methods they have used to restructure the classroom to promote learning partnerships that foster empathetic and humanistic behavior and individual/group empowerment. Drawing on research in sociology, motivation, positive psychology, and applied linguistics, the authors discuss a philosophy of partnership and “well becoming” based on agentic, prosocial action that promotes well-being for oneself and others. The authors then offer several pedagogical interventions, including action logging, near-peer role modeling, and social testing, as examples of leaderful practices that can create a more welcoming learning environment. This chapter acts as a resource for teachers seeking to establish inclusive and empowering learning environments by reshaping traditional power dynamics and promoting partnerships with students.
Early-career language teachers, who are struggling with transitory stages of identity development from students to teachers, can experience a collection of negative emotions known as identity tensions. This exploratory mixed-methods study helps novice teachers to identify their tensions, especially identity tensions, and be more familiar with and manage various types of them. To this end, first an interview has been conducted with 16 teachers and, afterward, a developed questionnaire to 150 participants has been administrated. Thematic analysis and between-groups analysis of t-tests and ANOVAs were used for the qualitative and quantitative phases of the study respectively. The study found that gender was not associated with identity tensions, but that age, years of experience, and educational background were positively associated with identity tensions.
This paper reports on an inquiry into a group of students’ Portuguese language learning with a focus on their access to economic, social, and cultural capital. The inquiry problematizes the traditional uncritical assumption of a shared pursuit of linguistic competence among students. Drawing on individual in-depth interviews with 14 participants at a university in Macau, this article illustrates how local and mainland Chinese students related their Portuguese language learning to the acquisition of different forms of capital, respectively. Specifically, our analysis reveals that economic capital dominated in the local participants’ pursuits, with cultural and social capital being less influential, whereas among mainland Chinese participants the influence of economic capital was weak and unsustainable, with a balanced distribution of cultural and social capital. The findings also suggest that the participants’ family contexts and social networks shaped their pursuits of different forms of capital in Portuguese learning, implying that educational institutions and teachers need to reframe their learning resources and pedagogical strategies for Portuguese language learners in Macau, placing greater emphasis on reinforcing students’ social connections with Portuguese or local Macanese communities.
Ecovillages are intentional communities enacting sustainable living and livelihoods, through member-driven, cooperative initiative. Ample learning opportunities for both residents and visitors exist, through courses and workshops, immersion programs, participation in community work and projects, and engagement in ecovillage daily life. Understanding the processes and outcomes of learning experiences through participation in these experimental eco-communities has value for fostering broader eco-social change for sustainable living. This paper presents findings of a multiple case study of four ecovillages in North America, which investigated the learning experience of participants, and included in-situ research between October 2018 and February 2020. Ten key findings were drawn from cross-case analysis that considered learning processes and outcomes evident at each ecovillage, the role of the environment and community interactions on learning, and the impact of the learning experience on the learner. The study reveals a high prevalence of informality in ecovillage-based learning, with a focus on immersion, learning-by-doing, and learning from each other. Also, these experiences in ecovillages create time and space for unlearning exploitative ways of living, and learning just and regenerative norms and practices for the enactment of sustainable living and livelihoods. From a theoretical perspective, the study adds empirical evidence to understanding "learning sustainability" as a transformative and transgressive, place-based social process, which involves "learning our way out" and "learning our way in" to un/sustainable living. Furthermore, learning sustainability through participation in ecovillages can be interrogated through the lens of an "ecology of learning and practice."
Nigeria seeks a safe and sustainable community development which has given rise to workshops locally. Globally, there are constant talks on the need for cohesion, inclusiveness and community-driven development, acquisition of which lies in equity and inclusion of everyone and the realization that even the little child has something to offer. However, the Nigerian community (from the family to the political structure) suffers from non-inclusion and inequity. For example, parents try to get the life they did not live through and in their children causing such children not to be original, authentic, to have their own voice, to exercise agency and autonomy. In the community, few are empowered while the rest are left to eat from the crumbs that fall off the table. So, how aware are individuals of their amazingly unique qualities? How many individuals have discovered themselves? Does self-discovery come before acquisition of knowledge? This paper aims to show that sustainable community development rest on certain qualities such as autonomy, empowerment and agency. Through the method of critical philosophical thinking (CPT) this paper argues that agency, autonomy and empowerment are the pathways to sustainable community development. The paper concludes that CPT is required in order to establish the qualities of autonomy, empowerment and agency as they all share a nexus.
Der Beitrag stellt Ziele und Vorgehen eines Pilotkonzepts der Pädagogischen Hochschule FHNW vor. «Partnerschulen für Professionsentwicklung» sollen Studierende dabei unterstützen, in einer situierten Lernumgebung des Schulfeldes komplexe berufspraktische Kompetenzen aufzubauen. Die begleitende Studie zur Intervention untersucht die Professionalisierung der Studierenden über die Projektdauer und im Vergleich zu einer Kontrollgruppe sowie die Reaktionen des Feldes auf die Implementierung. Einblicke in eine Pilotschule des laufenden Projekts veranschaulichen den Aufbau einer Arbeits- und Lerngemeinschaft, die Fokussierung des Lernens der Schülerinnen und Schüler und den Weiterentwicklungsprozess des Projekts.
Resumo A formação de professores enquanto prática social histórica tem sido alvo de múltiplas transformações, nomeadamente a resultante da adaptação do quadro normativo ao processo de Bolonha. Em Portugal, a alteração mais visível nos currículos de formação de professores traduziu-se na fragmentação da formação integrada de cinco anos em dois ciclos desconexos, com a compressão das componentes pedagógicas, didáticas e de iniciação à prática de ensino. Procurando ir além de uma reflexão crítica, pretende-se apresentar argumentos acerca do modo como podem ser desenhados os programas de formação dos professores para os desafios que a educação física será chamada a responder. Os argumentos sustentam-se no conhecimento e experiência extraída dos projetos de investigação no âmbito do estágio profissional em Educação Física que visaram incrustar a formação dos estagiários numa dinâmica colaborativa entre a universidade e a escola e contribuir para a construção das identidades profissionais de formandos e formadores.
The focus of this paper is on the development of andragogy as an academic discipline and andragogy programmes at Tallinn University. It also reviews the development of adult education in Estonia and outlines empirical findings from previous research related to the learning experiences and the professional identity of students and graduates of andragogy programmes. The research questions in this paper are: What are the main developments of adult education and andragogy as an academic discipline? How do andragogy students and graduates understand their learning experience and professional identity? The findings suggest that academic studies and learning experiences enable students to construct a strong learner identity, which impacts the formation of professional identity. The sense of professional identity becomes stronger during the period of academic studies and continues to develop as a self-developmental process with professional, educational, and personal choices.
Purpose : The purpose of this project was to explore the developmental stages of a community of practice (CoP) and its impact on teachers’ professional learning. Methods : Eight physical education (PE) teachers and one professor participated in this project, which specifically examined a CoP focused on PE (PE-CoP). Interviews and observations, as well as a focus group, were used to collect the data, which were analyzed through a constructivist revision of grounded theory. Results : The PE-CoP, which shared the same teaching model, progressed rapidly in its early stage by providing the teachers with collaborative activities to develop innovative pedagogies. Learning from the existing members was then added as a main type of professional learning for the teachers. The PE-CoP, however, gradually lost its collaborative approach, which led to ineffective professional learning. Conclusions : Finding an optimal balance between retaining focus on the primary goal of creating a CoP and offering fresh activities for more experienced members was determined to be a key factor in making the community healthy and sustainable.
Archaeological palimpsests are depositional units where the remains of various human occupations have been mixed for hundreds to hundreds of thousands of years. They create various sets of analytical scales that archaeologists must deal with routinely. In this paper, I argue that sociocultural processes derived from a communities of practice framework — scaffolding, guided participation, and continuity through shared activities — can be used by archaeologists to describe a palimpsest’s lithic assemblage, to differentiate its patterns, and to interpret their meaning. These processes must first be remapped onto an ecological approach to skill before they can be expanded onto new sets of scales, however. I ground my work at the site of La Martre (Quebec, Canada), a nexus of fifteen marine terraces spread over 500,000 m2. Slow depositional processes and plowing have mixed its lithic remains to create a 10,000-year-wide depositional unit with poor chronological and spatial control. Fieldwork conducted between 1995 and 1999 sampled 0.03% of its total surface. Most of its 2111 tools and 207,506 flakes were uncovered in its 40-cm-thick plowzone. I build methodological tools — dispersion surfaces, skill combinatorics, and extended skilled reduction sequences — to describe a small subset (N=93) from one of La Martre’s loci (16-west). I describe ten extended skilled reduction sequences showing various degrees of skill and knapping methods. Concepts of scaffolding, guided participation and continuity through shared activities are then used to interpret these patterns.
https://rdcu.be/dp9wK
This study explores the educational and professional trajectories of three skilled migrants in Finland. The aim is to investigate how language-related issues intertwine with the migrants’ individual trajectories to gain a deeper understanding of the kinds of challenges migrants may face in Finnish society. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of nexus analysis and the concept of linguistic repertoire, the study focuses on the participants’ lived experiences of language along their trajectories. The longitudinal data, consisting of interviews over the period of 4.5 years, are analysed using the nexus analytic framework. The findings show that although the participants knew English and studied Finnish successfully, their individual lived experiences of language varied, and their non-straight-forward trajectories were shaped by multiple factors. To support migrants’ agency and their possibilities to participate, we thus need more flexible language policies and practices in higher education as well as a more nuanced understanding of linguistic repertoires.
After decades of turbulence and acute crises in recent years, how can we build a better future for Higher Education?
Thoughtfully edited by Laura Czerniewicz and Catherine Cronin, this rich and diverse collection by academics and professionals from across 17 countries and many disciplines offers a variety of answers to this question. It addresses the need to set new values for universities, trapped today in narratives dominated by financial incentives and performance indicators, and examines those “wicked” problems which need multiple solutions, resolutions, experiments, and imaginaries.
This mix of new and well-established voices provides hopeful new ways of thinking about Higher Education across a range of contexts, and how to concretise initiatives to deal with local and global challenges. In an unusual and refreshing way, the contributors provide insights about resilience tactics and collective actions across different levels of higher education using an array of styles and formats including essays, poetry, and speculative fiction.
With its interdisciplinary appeal, this book presents itself as a provocative and inspiring resource for universities, students, and scholars. Higher Education for Good courageously offers critique, hope, and purpose for the practice and the trajectory of Higher Education.
Coach education and development programmes are central to the professional development experiences of sport coaches. Typically, these programmes are structured and sequenced in a linear pathway, and present an opportunity for certification which can be a prerequisite to practice and/or employment. Increasingly, as learning becomes viewed as part of a coach’s lifeworld, versus simply as a means to an end, education and development provision is beginning to reflect this. This article introduces and explores the Coach Development Institute Programme, part of the Premier League’s Elite Coaching Plan, which seeks to improve the quality of football coaching in English boys’/men’s football by engaging coaches in a 2-year work-based learning opportunity. Built around a core of project-based learning and assessment, coaches are supported as they examine a series of meaningful performance problems in their unique practice environments. Through this work, we demonstrate how theories, concepts, and principles from the adult education and assessment as learning literature might work as they are applied in a coach education and development context. With such sparsity of case-based examples like this within the peer-reviewed literature, we intend that our contribution could inform, promote dialogue, and raise questions about authentically supporting coaches beyond a
minimum standard of practice.
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