Applying Theory to Inform Competency Development

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mambo Governor Mupepi ◽  
Sylvia C Mupepi
Keyword(s):  
Locus Of Control ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Epistemic Community ◽  
Knowledge Network ◽  
Competency Development ◽  
Knowledge Community ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
Joint Enterprise

This article describes the deliberate making of a knowledge community to advance specialization in divided labor and structuring a successful enterprise. A knowledge network is characterized by mutual engagement in a joint enterprise that gives rise to a shared repertoire of knowledge, skillsets, and practices. The division of labor is identified to enable the novice to develop the proficiencies required for specialty to happen. Bootstrapping and other techniques are applied to replicate the performance required in making effective specialists. A conclusion is drawn taking the position that the centricity of an epistemic community is the locus of control of the job, individual, and team; additionally, it is the only organization that can authenticate the practices necessary to boost productivity.

Applying Theory to Inform Capability Development

2019 ◽  
pp. 100-118
Author(s):  
Mambo G. Mupepi ◽  
Patience Taruwinga ◽  
Sylvia C. Mupepi
Keyword(s):  
Locus Of Control ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Epistemic Community ◽  
Knowledge Network ◽  
Capability Development ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
Joint Enterprise

This chapter describes the deliberate making of a community of practice to advance specialization in divided labor and structuring a successful enterprise. A knowledge network is characterized by mutual engagement in a joint enterprise that gives rise to a shared repertoire of knowledge, skillsets, and practices. The division of labor is identified to enable the novice to develop the proficiencies required for specialty to happen. Bootstrapping and other techniques are applied to replicate the performance required in making effective specialists. A conclusion is drawn taking the position that the centricity of an epistemic community is the locus of control of the job, individual, and team; additionally, it is the only organization that can authenticate the practices necessary to boost productivity.

Seeking Convergence and Surfacing Tensions Between Social Justice and Core Practices: Re-Presenting Teacher Education as a Community of Praxis

2020 ◽  
pp. 002248712096495
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Schiera
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Professional Educators ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
Core Practices ◽  
Social Justice Educators ◽  
Joint Enterprise ◽  
Horizontal Expertise

The Core Practices Movement (CPM) and Social Justice Teacher Education (SJTE) represent two communities of practice within which novices develop as professional educators. However, there is little dialogue about how they might collaborate to develop novice social justice educators, and the critiques and recommendations that do cross movements originate from divergent theoretical starting points. Possibilities for convergence within the learning theories that underpin CPM and SJTE are explored, examining how social learning theories might be infused with, and enveloped within, critical learning theories. This article thus re-presents teacher education as a “community of praxis.” Within each of its three hybrid dimensions—a shared repertoire of practice/praxis, mutual engagement of vertical and horizontal expertise, and joint enterprise of professional and political aims—possibilities for developing novice social justice educators are described, and tensions at the intersection of justice and practice in teacher education are explored.

Developing an Online Community to Promote Engagement and Professional Learning for Pre-Service Teachers Using Social Software Tools

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine McLoughlin ◽  
Mark J.W. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Peer Mentoring ◽  
Professional Community ◽  
Social Software ◽  
Mentoring Relationships ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
Joint Enterprise

To support students undertaking an initial teacher training program, a communities of practice model (Wenger, 1998) was implemented, supported by a social software-based technology framework, to enable mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire. Participants formed peer-to-peer mentoring relationships, creating and sharing web log (blog) entries and voice recordings of critical incidents while on their practicum. Data from the students’ discourse was analyzed to explore issues and patterns that were indicators of a learning community. This data, together with data collected from post-practicum focus group discussions in which students reflected on the benefits of these media for peer mentoring and support, attests to the relevance and effectiveness of the adopted approach to developing a socio-professional community to support the development of pre-service teachers. The authors believe that best outcomes are achieved when activities are structured, when students are adequately trained in using the technologies, and when instructors or experts are available to scaffold reflection processes as the need arises.

“I’ve Got a Situation and Would Appreciate Your Experience”

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-80
Author(s):  
Enrique Murillo
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Support Group ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Voluntary Participation ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
Member Commitment ◽  
Tax Professionals ◽  
It Resources ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice ◽  
Joint Enterprise

Virtual Communities of Practice (CoPs) that are launched and managed by organizations have been amply documented in KM literature, but extra-organizational virtual CoPs have received little coverage. This study performs an ethnography of an extra-organizational Usenet-based CoP of tax professionals, using a longitudinal Social Network Analysis to map a tight-knit long-lived community and identify its members. The result is a naturalistic description of the ways in which the Wenger dimensions of Mutual engagement, Joint enterprise and Shared repertoire manifest themselves in day-to-day interactions in an online CoP. The study highlights how energetic voluntary participation by members produces a successful long-lived virtual CoP, even in the absence of organizational KM or IT resources. For independent professionals, extra-organizational virtual CoPs can provide a powerful support group and the means to constantly update their personal competence. For organizations intent on developing formalized CoPs, these results are a useful reminder that member commitment is the ultimate driver of a CoP’s success.

scholarly journals Community of assessment practice or interests: The case of EAP writing assessment

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 262
Author(s):  
Faisal Al-Maamari
Keyword(s):  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
First Year ◽  
Assessment Practice ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
Assessment Policies ◽  
Joint Enterprise ◽  
Practice Framework ◽  
Policies And Practices

Setting, disseminating and applying assessment standards are part of university academic programmes of study. Nowadays, assessment is increasingly viewed from a social practice perspective, and so doing entails exploring how the quality of assessment is shaped by interaction and co-participation with different communities of practice. Therefore, based on this perspective, the study reported here aimed to examine the assessment policies and practices of laboratory report writing of first year students in credit-bearing, English for Special Purposes programmes at a university in the Sultanate of Oman. Interviews of programme administrators and the instructors plus institutional and programme documents were examined to investigate these assessment policies and practices. The programme administrators were asked about how they planned the written assessment in their programmes, and the instructors were asked about their experiences of these assessments. The data were then analysed thematically using community of practice framework, namely in relation to (1) a shared repertoire of communal resources, (2) mutual engagement, and (3) a sense of joint enterprise. It was found that instead of community of practice, there were (sub)communities of practices wherein interaction, negotiation and communication amongst members and non-members were punctuated by control, power and autonomy, all working with the aim of narrowing the range between the personal goals of the academic and the communal goals of the institution. The overarching conclusion is that in their assessment practices, the two instructional programmes exhibited varying degrees of community of practice based on the above three attributes.

Tracing the emergence of a community of practice: Beyond presupposition in sociolinguistic research

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian W. King
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Institutional Forces ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Joint Enterprise

AbstractThis study examines the language-driven aspects of the formation of a classroom-based community of practice (CoP), placing emphasis on ways in which researchers can verify the status of observed practices. Discourse analysis is reinforced by such an evidence-based understanding of the social milieu of a research site. When determining whether an aggregate of people is functioning as a CoP, however, the nature of the measuring stick is a vital question. When institutional forces have brought a group of participants together, how can an observer verify empirically the dynamic development of mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire? In a sample case study, representative features outlined by Wenger (1998:130–31) are identified, and their emergence traced, via analysis of ethnographic fieldnotes and audio recordings. These features provide evidence of the development of localised practices (i.e. ways of doing grounded in this community) as distinct from more widely recognisable practices. Identifying the difference increases the likelihood that results of discourse analysis can be useful to educators. (Community of practice, discourse analysis, nexus of practices, warranting)*

scholarly journals University‐industry collaboration: a CoPs approach to KTPs

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew Gertner ◽  
Joanne Roberts ◽  
David Charles
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Transfer Process ◽  
Situated Learning ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Personal Interactions ◽  
Joint Enterprise ◽  
The Uk ◽  
University Industry

PurposeThis article seeks to explore the micro‐dimensions of knowledge transfer partnerships (KTPs) with the aim of developing an appreciation of the personal interactions that facilitate the success of these university‐industry collaborations.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical evidence concerning the operation of three KTPs, collected through interviews with the key partners and the review of relevant documentary material, is analysed through the lens of the communities of practice approach to situated learning.FindingsThe analysis of three case studies provides evidence to support the value of conceptualising the process of knowledge transfer between universities and industry as one of learning taking place within communities in which the development of mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoires play important roles facilitating successful collaborations. Moreover, the analysis highlights the significance of the boundary spanning roles of the KTP partners in facilitating the knowledge transfer process through engagement in both the university and industry communities.Research limitations/implicationsBy illuminating the dimensions of the inter‐personal interactions involved in the knowledge transfer process the CoPs analysis provides the foundations for recommendations to improve university‐industry KTPs, in particular, and, inter‐organisational knowledge transfer initiatives in general. A limitation of this research is its focus on the UK context. Moreover, given the exploratory nature of this study further research is required to verify the findings reported here.Originality/valueThe article makes an original empirical and conceptual contribution to understandings of university‐industry knowledge transfer collaborations.

scholarly journals CHARACTERIZATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE TO SUPPORT PRE-SERVICE CHEMISTRY TEACHERS

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-132
Author(s):  
Valéria C. Santos ◽  
Agnaldo Arroio
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Chemistry Teaching ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
Teaching Community ◽  
Joint Enterprise ◽  
The University

The concept of communities of practice can be used in different contexts, included the educational context. The development of communities of practice where pre-service teachers work together, refine their practices and learn is a good training for these future teachers. Since communities of practice help teachers learn about teaching and improve their practices, this study aim to characterize the project PIBID of chemistry carried out at the University of São Paulo as a community of practice. On the first half of 2013 the PIBID project included 12 pre-service teachers who attended weekly meetings. These meetings consisted of theoretical training about the use of visual tools in teaching and other concepts about education and meetings to plan activities and classes about topics of chemistry to be applied in a public school at the city of São Paulo, Brazil. During these meetings was possible to notice that the pre-service teachers were engaged in a community of practice, demonstrating the three characteristics emphasized by Wenger (2008): mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire. Thus the project PIBID of chemistry could be characterized as a community of practice. Furthermore, it was noticed that the community helps in the training of pre-service teachers, since it is providing support to them learn about teaching in practice and implement their knowledge. Key words: chemistry teaching, community of practice, pre-service teacher training.

scholarly journals Forming communities of practice

1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Keenan ◽  
Peter Hughes ◽  
Arti Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Joint Enterprise ◽  
Group Member

The National Action Research Network (NARN) on Researching and Evaluating Personal Development Planning (PDP) and e-Portfolio was funded through the Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellowship Scheme in 2007. It brought together a partnership of people from 16 English Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) who were already members of national PDP networks – most significantly the Centre for Recording Achievement. The broader project aim was to develop research capacity among PDP practitioners and in order to help keep this aim manageable, smaller groups based on regional groupings were set up. Although the membership did come together to share experiences at national events, it was thought that the smaller groups would be more manageable units for the more concentrated work of setting up local research projects. Each group member came with an idea for a research project, many of which are exemplified in this special edition, and over the course of the three years regional groups met to review, feedback and build on the research they had been undertaking. This brief article describes the experiences of the three regional groups and concludes that there are a number of characteristics that contribute to the success of a community of practice, including notions of joint enterprise, shared repertoire and mutual engagement, but success in achieving these relies on shared commitments and the development of trust and respect amongst the group members.

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