Community of Practice

Cultivation

The Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh

What is a community of practice (CoP)?

A CoP is a group of people who share, through ongoing interaction, …

a common concern
a set of problems
interest in a topic
good practices
new knowledge (Cambridge, Kaplan, & Suter, 2005).

Communities are housed in certain establishments (technical architecture). Members of a community meet, bond, and share information (social architecture).

Communities enact and promote certain practices which involve 'ways of talking, interacting, thinking, valuing and believing the significance of our actions' (Gee, 2012, p. 41).

A community is supported by people’s beliefs – these people set the 'gold standards' for the community. Communities prize certain values – they nurture these values.

How do we build a CoP?

CoPs…

value building of relationships, dialogic meaning-making and problem-solving;
consist of communal events and collaborative activities;
are dynamic social structures;
involve learning on many different levels;
are sites for cultivating and diffusing practices;
create growth-oriented, mutually beneficial opportunities;
have actionable and manageable goals; and
celebrate and sustain good practices (Cambridge, Kaplan, & Suter, 2005).

What are the core features of a CoP?

Relationships
Learning
Action
Knowledge

A community identifies, cultivates, and promotes good practices.

Mentoring in a CoP

The initiative of mentoring in a CoP delineated on this website is premised on a social theory of teacher preparation and professional learning. It strives to cultivate a learning community through alumni sharing, mentoring and advising activities.

Aims

This project is guided by the University Grants Committee’s (2010) aspiration to promote and sustain high quality teaching in Hong Kong’s higher education institutions, and by HKBU’s ethos of whole person education.

To promote a culture of sharing for continuous improvement in the quality of teaching and learning.
To support double-degree students in teacher preparation and professional learning during their undergraduate career.

Objectives

This project sets out to address the incongruities in teaching and learning that have been identified in the current academic structure (a ‘diagnostic’ stage), and to engage teacher-alumni and double-degree students in the scholarly discussion of English language education through sharing, mentoring and advising activities (a ‘therapeutic’ stage).

To identify the impediments to double-degree students developing their full potential in personal, academic and professional spheres.
To document practical applications of a social theory of teacher preparation and professional learning.
To collate evidence on the relevance of alumni sharing, mentoring and advising activities to the development of learner identity substantiated by HKBU’s graduate attributes.

With an emphasis on learning as socially situated, relational, active and experiential, the sharing, mentoring and advising activities of the CoP intend to equip double-degree students who are prospective teachers of English with cumulative knowledge and a sense of their ability to leverage the demands of learning and teaching.

Specifically, by means of participating in the sharing, mentoring and advising activities, double-degree students are expected to:

use effectively creative teaching methods, strategies and techniques for activating English learning at school;
exhibit a positive learner identity borne out by HKBU’s graduate attributes during the course of initial teacher preparation; and
demonstrate a stronger orientation and commitment to the teaching profession through the benefits of alumni mentorship.