What is Communities of Practice

Refers to a group of people or persons who share a common concern or passion for something they do and learn and different ways to do it better and also to improve. For instance, communities who help one another.

Communities of practice are those instructional environments reflecting an understanding that all participants contribute to the learning process and involve situations in which teachers structure realistic problems or tasks and then facilitate learners to activate previous understandings, to interact collegially with others, and to apply combined knowledge to work towards a process-based solution.

These are communities who share insights, gain new knowledge, engage in learning and creating new meanings through critical engagement.

Groups of people who gain experience, knowledge, and understanding regarding a shared passion or interest through interactions with one another.

Process of social learning developed around common interests where individuals share ideas and collaborate.

Groups of people who share a passion for something that they know how to do, and who interact regularly in order to learn how to do it better.

Groups of individuals linked by their shared concerns or interests who work together collectively to solve such concerns and further develop knowledge and/or practice in that area.

Communities of practice are groups of people who have a common goal and who are internally motivated to reach the goal. The members have some form of common background and shared language.

Learning that is formed and positioned in a social context that revolves around the mediation of common interests through experience and practice.

Group of people who perform the same professional activity or responsibility who, concerned with a common problem or moved by a common interest, expand their knowledge and expertise in this subject through ongoing interaction.

A term used to refer to a group of individuals’ participation in a communal activity that involves collaboration to achieve a goal.

A group of people who come together to share their expertise in solving a problem.

The term was first used by Brown and Duguid (1991) and by Lave and Wenger (1991) and then by Wenger et al. (2002) . It refers to the idea of sharing information and knowledge within a small group, as well as to the value of informal learning for a group and an organization.

Communities of practice are groups that form to share what they know and to learn from one another regarding some aspects of their work. People in organizations often realize they could benefit from sharing their knowledge, in-sight, and experiences with others who have similar interests or goals. For the most part, this process of informal gathering and sharing of expertise is a voluntary.

A group of people interested in the same field, interest or process who learn from each other, supporting each other’s learning and together develop knowledge, understandings and skills.

Groups of people who engage in ongoing, voluntarily interaction to learn from each other and improve their work in a given field or domain.

A process described by Lave and Wenger (1991) where individuals become legitimate participants of a community through regular participation in community activities.

An active system in which its participants share knowledge based on their daily tasks. They share the meaning of this knowledge in their life within the community. The participants of the community are united in the community are united in the community’s practice and in the meaning of said practice, both at the community level and at broader levels ( Wenger, 1998 ).

Groups of people in organizations with common goals and a common repertoire of concepts and knowledge. They share what they know and learn from one each other regarding aspects of their work and provide a social context for that work.

“An aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavor. Ways of doing things, ways of talking, beliefs, values, power relations – in short, practices – emerge in the course of this mutual endeavor” (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 1992, p. 464).

Introduced the first time by J. Lave and E. Wenger in their book on legitimate peripheral participation to explain the dynamics of communities’ evolution when new people or less skilled people accessed to them. More recently they have been associated with knowledge management and organizational development.

A group of people bound together by an understanding of a sense of joint enterprise who interact with one another, establishing norms and relationships through mutual engagement and who produce over time a shared repertoire of communal resources.

‘Communities of practice’ as defined by Wenger, involve: “…groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Wenger, N.D.: 1). Hildreth, Kimble and Wright (1998) note that definitions of ‘communities of practice’ are wide ranging. Wenger (1998) sees the concept as a new term for a familiar experience, and relates it to a social theory of learning. The origin of the term is in Lave and Wenger’s (1991) book Situated Learning (Stamps, 1998). They propose a theory of situated learning where learning: “is an integral part of a generative social practice in the lived-in world” (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 35) and: “the mastery of knowledge and skill requires newcomers to move toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community” (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 29). In essence, this concerns the process by which newcomers or ‘apprentices’ engage with and become a part of a community of practice which consists of other apprentices, ‘young masters’ and masters. In looking at gender and language as community-based practice, Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (1992) take Lave and Wenger’s notion of community of practice to mean: “an aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavor. Ways of doing things, ways of talking, beliefs, values, power relations—in short, practices—emerge in the course of this mutual endeavor. As a social construct, a community of practice is different from the traditional community, primarily because it is defined simultaneously by its membership and by the practice in which that membership engages” (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 1992, p. 464).

A group of people that is brought together by joining in a common theme or interest (domain), that work together and interact regularly (community), with the aim of solving a problem (practice). They refer to the process of social learning that takes place and the associated socio-cultural practices that develop and are shared when people with common objectives interact and strive to achieve those objectives

A term associated with the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) that denotes what Gee (2007 AU21: The in-text citation "Gee (2007" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ) refers to as an affinity group or “semiotic domain”; individuals congregate in non-canonical, informal ways around norms, values, and beliefs associate with “how things are done.”

Creative networks of expertise tackling complex problems in order to keep up with increased administrative demands while also still progressing their fields of practice.

This refers to a group of people who share a concern or interest in a topic, or issue and work together to investigate the issue or to resolve it. In this project, the community of practice was centred around improving and supporting student transitions into postgraduate level higher education.

In education, a community of practice (CoP) is a group of professional educators who share a common concern or interest and have a desire to learn more and to want to do something better.

(CoPs): community of practice refers to the process of social learning that occurs and shared sociocultural practices that emerge and evolve when people who have common goals interact as they strive towards those goals.

Group of people who perform the same professional activity or responsibility who, concerned with a common problem or moved by a common interest, expand their knowledge and expertise in this subject through ongoing interaction.

A group of people who share a craft and/or a profession and created specifically with the goal of gaining and sharing knowledge related to their field.

Groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn to do it better as they interact regularly and contribute to the over all group’s desired and shared goals.

Small groups of individuals who engage in learning together around a common topic, engaging and interacting together, typically over a sustained period of time.

Organic developments composed of social and informal learning processes which revolve around joint enterprise, mutual engagement and produce a shared understanding and repertoire of communal meaning and resources.

Is a system of relationships between people, activities, and the world, developing with time. These are nurtured by cooperation while disregarding both competition and egotism. Communities of practice (CoPs) are the tools which enable employees to act in the organizational space; focus on the humanization perspective; and promote learning in business contexts.

Working with teacher colleagues targeting the same learning goals and objectives.

include learning communities constructed for the express purpose of creating new knowledge, skills, and/or abilities, and focused on academic, professional, and/or applied specializations.

Knowledge-based structures that facilitate knowledge sharing and development, and support learning.

Learning communities whose members share a common field of practice or profession.

Groups of people informally bound together by shared expertise and passion for a joint enterprise. Communities of practice can be, for example, engineers engaged in deep-water drilling, consultants who specialize in strategic marketing, or frontline managers in charge of check processing at a large commercial bank.

Collaborative groups who are involved in the process of knowledge management activities.

A group of people who share an interest and are willing to invest time and effort to learn and to share experiences and ways to improve their practice.

A group of people who share a craft and/or a profession and created specifically with the goal of gaining and sharing knowledge related to their field.

A community with shared professional interests.

A self-organized social network that shares similar interests around sharing of knowledge and experiences as well as a movement toward crowd-sourcing new ideas and complex cognitive development.

The term CoPs can be described as groups of people (either self-organised or sponsored) with a shared concern or passion for what they do and who learn how to do it better through frequent interaction. These people learn from each other as they share their knowledge and experiences with the group. The longevity of such a community will depend on its sustained value. Brown (cited in Allee, 2000 ) describes CoPs as “peers in the execution of real work” (p. 5). Bonds are formed by a common sense of purpose and a desire to discover members’ knowledge. These communities are defined by knowledge rather than duties and their life cycles depend on the sustained value as opposed to project deadlines ( Allee, 2000 ). According to Tzagarakis et al. (2009) CoPs are regarded as one of the most efficient approaches to promote collective intelligence also known as organisational memory. Adding to this, Schenkel, Teigland, and Borgatti (cited in Assimakopoulos & Yan, 2005 ) maintain that “every CoP consists of one (or many) social networks, but not every social network forms a CoP” (p. 475). Social networks thus serve as a potential base for CoPs.

Process of social learning that happens when people with a common focus or concern collaborate to share their ideas, develop future courses of action, and develop social capital.

Groups of people who have mutual interest and commitment to learning through sharing experiences.

Communities of Practice are groups of people who share interests and work together to solve common problems through regular interaction.

Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor. For a community of practice to function it needs to generate and appropriate a shared repertoire of ideas, commitments and memories. It also needs to develop various resources such as tools, documents, routines, vocabulary and symbols that in some way carry the accumulated knowledge of the community.

Groups of individuals with a shared intent who intentionally come together to exchange knowledge and learn from one another, often within the context of a larger organization.

A process of social learning that takes place and shared socio-cultural practices that emerge and evolve when people who have common goals work together as they strive towards achieving those goals.

Wenger et al (2002; p. 4) have provided a widely accepted definition of CoPs 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. These authors add that “These people don’t necessarily work together every day, but they meet because they find value in their interactions” (ibid; pp. 4).

the term was first used by Brown and Duguid (1991) and by Lave and Wenger (1991) , and then by Wenger et al.( 2002 , 2000 AU24: The in-text citation "Wenger et al. 2000" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ). It refers to the idea of sharing information and knowledge within a small group, as well as to the value of informal learning for a group and an organization.

It is a theory rooted in the situated theory of learning that are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor. In a community of practice, learning is seen as a form of social participation. Participation refers not just to local events of engagement in certain activities with certain people, but to a more encompassing process of being active participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation to the communities.

Communities of Practice are a set of relations among persons, activity, and world over time and in relation with other tangential and overlapping communities of practice ( Lave and Wenger, 1991 ). In education, CoP are a way for teachers to interact with their colleagues as well as those in authority over them.

A learning community situated in a social context that forms around common interests and is mediated by experience and practice.

A group of people with shared histories of learning who develop over time around things that meaningful to its participants and reify repertoires and resources for negotiating meaning within practice such as routines, words, tools, and symbols. In the context of the classroom, this concept becomes much more complex as students are mandated to attend and engage in particular ways while teachers relate differently to students based on particular power differentials.

Informally structured groups—often geographically dispersed— whose members share similar goals and interests. In pursuing them, they employ common methods or strategies, often work with the same or similar “tools” and express themselves with common terminology.

Groups of people who get together regarding sense of responsibility in the work process in progress, the common interests in learning and mainly in practical applications of the learned contents.

They are the teams that are linked to the environment and that aim at finding a match with it by means of interpretive sense-making and congruence finding.

Involve groups of people who share concerns, problems, and passions about a topic, and who choose to interact to deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis (Wenger et al., 2002).

A group of people who collaborate and work together to teach and learn from each other the art of what the members practice. It is an example of learning by engaging and practicing with a group already experienced in real-life practice.

A process of social learning in which a network of professionals with shared interests or a common problem come together over an extended period of time to share insights and knowledge, to investigate solutions, and to collaborate on innovative approaches.

A group of individuals participating in communal activity, with a shared identity and goal, who collectively contribute to professional and organizational development.

Group of people who perform the same professional activity or responsibility who, concerned with a common problem or moved by a common interest, expand their knowledge and expertise in this subject through ongoing interaction.

A community of practice encompasses a set of individuals who, through sharing a repertoire, common purpose, and mutual engagement, form a cohesive group.