Community of practice (CoP)
A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of individuals who share a common interest or activity, allowing them to exchange knowledge and enhance their skills collaboratively. The concept, articulated in the early 1990s by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, emphasizes the social nature of learning, where knowledge is constructed and disseminated through interactions within the group. CoPs can emerge organically in diverse settings, from professional environments to informal hobbyist gatherings, and they are characterized by three key elements: a shared domain of interest, a community of practitioners, and a collective practice that includes tools and resources related to the activity.
Originally noted for their informal learning processes, CoPs have gained recognition in organizational contexts as valuable assets for knowledge management. They facilitate efficient knowledge sharing, helping to break down hierarchical barriers in organizations and improve overall performance. As technology has advanced, CoPs have expanded to include online platforms, enabling peer-to-peer professional development and collaboration across geographical boundaries. By fostering both individual learning and collective growth, CoPs play a significant role in advancing practices within various fields, from education to business.
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Subject Terms
Community of practice (CoP)
A community of practice is any group of people engaged in a similar activity who share knowledge about the activity to increase expertise and solve problems. Although first articulated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the term describes a type of social learning that has always taken place, whether among professionals or hobbyists or members of a tribe. It recognizes learning as not just a cognitive process in which a learner passively absorbs information delivered by an instructor, but as a social, relational process in which knowledge spreads through group interaction and exchange.
Overview
The first formal elaboration of the concept of communities of practice (CoP) is attributed to social anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger in their 1991 book Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. As part of their research, Lave and Wenger traveled to Africa and studied local apprenticeship practices among tailors; the researchers found that in learning their trade, apprentices gained more knowledge from other apprentices and journeymen than they did from the master tailors. They found this same pattern of informal group learning, which they described as “communities of practice,” in widely divergent areas of endeavor, from naval quartermasters to participants in Alcoholics Anonymous.
Lave and Wenger described a process whereby novices enter a group and learn from more senior members, gradually increasing their level of participation until they themselves are experienced enough to impart knowledge to other newcomers. At the same time, discoveries and novel approaches by any member of the group are spread to other members, so that the practice in question advances and improves. Wenger went on to develop the CoP concept further, identifying three key elements: a domain, or common area of activity; a community, or group of people engaged in the activity and sharing information about it; and a practice, or body of tools, resources, and knowledge about the activity that advances it. CoPs typically arise spontaneously, and in the twenty-first century, they can take place in person or may develop online.
However, communities of practice—initially of interest mainly to learning theorists—can also be actively fostered, and the idea has drawn the attention of organizational theorists interested in knowledge management in the twenty-first-century business context. CoPs have come to be seen as valuable organizational assets that can bypass cumbersome hierarchies and ensure that knowledge is shared as efficiently as possible, thus improving business performance. In this way, “community of practice” has, to some extent, moved from a descriptive term identifying a naturally occurring style of learning to a knowledge-management principle actively promoted by organizations. The latter development gained sufficient currency that by the 2020s, CoP initiatives were commonplace in large organizations from corporations to educational institutions to international agencies. With the increase of online learning, institutions have explored virtual CoPs as a way to provide opportunities for peer-to-peer professional development.
Bibliography
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