What is Community of Practice?
The University of Arkansas CURRENTS supports regional
Communities of Practice as one of our training and technical
assistance strategies. Wenger defines Communities of Practice
(COPs) as “…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.” (http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm)
Brown and Duguid (2002) identify a Community of Practice as
an ideal learning environment (p. 127) that both shapes and
supports learning (p. 129) and emphasize that practice-driven
change tends to be more continuous than change imposed in a
hierarchal manner (p. 114). By incorporating
communities of practice in both distance and face-to-face
training strategies, a true transfer of “practicable” knowledge
can occur.
Research has shown that Communities of Practice increase
problem assessment capacities; develop local leadership; build
empowering organizational structures; improve resource
mobilization; strengthen links to other organizations and
people; enhance stakeholder ability to “ask why”; increase
stakeholder control over program management; and create an
equitable relationship with outside agents( Robson,1993, p.
222).
CURRENTS has existing Communities of Practice around
Transition, VR-Business Networks, In-Service Training and
Independent Living.
References
Brown, J. S. & Dugid, P. (2002). The social life of
information. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Robson C. (1993) Real World Research. Blackwell,
Oxford. In M. Gibbon, R. Labonte and G. Laverak (2002),
Evaluating community capacity. Health and Social Care in the
Community, 10 (5). Blackwell Science Ltd. Accessed
July 28, 2008 at
http://www.healthcomms.org/pdf/HSC_388.pdf
Home
|
Top Nav
|
Left Nav