Communities of Practice

Communities of practice consist in groups of people who share the same needs or aims and, because of that, engage in a colaborative learning process. It is interesting to point out that this group learning is not always intentional. According to the professor Etienne Wenger, "learning can be the reason the community comes together or an incidental outcome of member's interactions".

I would like to comment about how important group learning is. In fact, while we import the concept of communities of practice for our teaching purpose, we can create this environment of colaborative learning among our students, by creating activities including chats, debates, and discussions, for example. We give the students the chance to learn from their own mistakes as well as from the mistakes of others, and peer correction is also practiced.

Communities of practice on the Internet:

http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communities_of_practice

KIMBLE, C.; HILDRETH, P.; BOURDON, I. Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators. Charlotte: Information Age Publishing, abr. 2008. Disponível em: http://www.chris-kimble.com/CLEE/ToC.html Acesso em 24 jun. 2010

HILDRETH, P.; KIMBLE, C. Knowledge Networks: Innovation through Communities of Practice. Hershey: IGI Publishing, 2004. Disponível em: http://www.chris-kimble.com/KNICOP/Chapters/Introduction.html

ROFFMAN, Robert R., MILITELO, Laura: Perspectives on Cognitive Task Analysis: Historical Origins and Modern Communities of Practice. Psychology Press, 2008.