Teachers Working Together: A Successful Community of Practice · •examine practical steps for...
Transcript of Teachers Working Together: A Successful Community of Practice · •examine practical steps for...
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Best practices and innovative ideas can be shared and cultivated in a collaborative and engaging professional network called a Community of Practice (CoP).
Participating in a CoP can help educators gain a positive outlook towards professional development through increased autonomy—choosing learning topics as well as how and when to learn.
In this webinar, we will:
• define a CoP and its components • examine practical steps for building a
sustainable CoP• discuss CoP participation benefits • share the successes of an ongoing CoP
Teachers Working Together: A Successful Community of Practice
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Mari Bodensteiner
Mari is a lecturer in the Languages Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Recently, she served two years in Laos as a U.S. Department of State English Language Fellow, working on the Lower Mekong Initiative’s Professional Communication Skills for Leaders project and other regional professional education projects.Mari received her Master of Education degree with an emphasis in Adult and Higher Education from Western Washington University. Having lived and worked in international settings, she strongly believes in the power of the global community.
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Teachers Working Together:
A Successful Community of Practice
© 2020 by Mari Bodensteiner. Teachers Working Together: A Successful Community of Practice for the Office of English Language Programs. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, except where noted. To view a copy of the license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Webinar Overview
• Define a Community of Practice (CoP) and identify its key characteristics
• Discuss the steps to developing a sustainable CoP• Examine the benefits of a CoP
• Share experiences, successes, and challenges of a regional CoP
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Community of Practice
A community of practice (CoP) is “a persistent, sustained, social network of individuals who share and develop an overlapping knowledge base, set of beliefs, values, history, and experiences focused on a common practice or mutual enterprise.”
(Barab et al. 2001)
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A CoP is a sustainable group of teachers who develop a shared knowledge base
focused on a common goal.
Community of Practice
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Essential Elements of a CoP
(Tavakoli 2015)
Mutual Engagement
Joint Enterprise
A Shared Repertoire
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Essential Elements of a CoP
Mutual Engagement
Joint Enterprise
A Shared Repertoire
Sustainable group
Common goal
Shared knowledge(Tavakoli 2015)
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Essential Elements of a CoP: The Basics
Sustainable group:number of members
varies by group
Common goal: determined by group
Shared knowledge: face-to-face or online
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Which is a CoP?
Teachers gather on breaks or other free time and talk about their problems of the day: students, schedule changes, additional work given.
Five new teachers get together every week to identify issues and share strategies to increase students’ classroom participation.
Option A Option B
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1. Establish the group 2. Establish the purpose 3. Identify goals4. Get organized 5. Learn to collaborate
How to develop a CoP
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1. Establish a core group
How?From your school
From your town
From a conference
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Goals
Benefits
2. Establish the purpose of your CoP
Why?
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Establish key issues
Develop a timeline
3. Identify goals
Reflect on progress
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Develop a timeline:
Meeting A: Brainstorming key issues
Meeting B: Select issue for focus: increase student participation
Meeting C: Members each research one strategy
Meeting D: Share strategies
Meeting E: Try one strategy in the classroom
Meeting F: Reflect on progress
3. Identify goals
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4. Get organized
Logistics
Leadership
Expectations
How often?
Where?
How?
Introductory CoP orientation
Who?
What?
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5. Learn to collaborate.
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1. Establish the group 2. Establish the purpose 3. Identify goals4. Get organized 5. Learn to collaborate
Review: How to develop a CoP
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What are the benefits
of a CoP?
Question
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Develop meaningful and professional relationships in a specific and personalized setting
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Collaborate in a supportive environment
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Share and discover best practices
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Support sustainable changes
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Develop leadership skills and build confidence
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Gain a positive outlook toward professional development
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• Develop meaningful & professional relationships in a specific and personalized setting
• Collaborate in a supportive environment
• Share and discover best practices
• Support sustainable changes
• Develop leadership skills and build confidence
• Gain a positive outlook toward professional development
What are the benefits of a CoP?
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How could participating in a
CoP help you?
Question
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Experiences from a successful CoP
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Activities of CoP Participants
Grant writing and mentorship
Mentoring new teachers
Co-teaching workshops and training events
Action research
Online discussions
Conference participation or
presentation
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Comments from CoP Participants“I am finally enjoying teaching English because of the wonderful people I’ve met along the way . . . students and
colleagues in rural areas.”
“Action research modules have rekindled my passion for research when
I was busy teaching. The research I’m conducting is not too complicated either.
It’s manageable.”
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CoP members describing
their experiences...
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“(Collaborating) online … gave us unlimited opportunities to collaborate with other CoP members. Moreover ... every member can read one another’s feedback or responses. So, it’s easy to share ideas.”
... Online collaboration “allows me to connect with other as well as a chance to see other people’s ideas.”
Comments from CoP Participants
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Question
Who would you like to work with
in a CoP?
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• Defined a Community of Practice (CoP) and identify its key characteristics
• Discussed the steps to developing a sustainable CoP• Examined the benefits of a CoP
• Shared experiences, successes, and challenges of a regional CoP
Webinar review
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References• Barab, S.A, et al. “Developing an Empirical Account of a Community of Practice:
Characterizing the Essential Tensions.” Journal Of The Learning Sciences, vol. 11, no. 4, 2002, pp. 489–542.• Cho, H.S. “Under Co-Construction: An Online Community of Practice for Bilingual Pre-
Service Teachers.” Computers & Education, vol. 92-93, no. C, 2016, pp. 76–89.• Tavakoli, P. “Connecting Research and Practice in TESOL: A Community of Practice
Perspective.” RELC Journal, vol. 46, no. 1, 2015, pp. 37–52.• Wenger, E., et al. Cultivating Communities of Practice : a Guide to Managing Knowledge.
Harvard Business School Press, 2002.• Wenger, E. Communities of Practice : Learning, Meaning, and Identity. First paperback
ed., Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Unless otherwise noted, all images in this presentation are the author’s own or are “no-attribution required” under
the Pixabay simplified license or the Unsplash license.
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Email: [email protected]
AE Live - Ning Community of Practice: americanenglishwebinars.comAE for Educators Facebook page: facebook.com/AmericanEnglishforEducators
AE website: americanenglish.state.govAE YouTube channel: youtube.com/StateAmericanEnglishAE Facebook page: facebook.com/AmericanEnglishatState
Thank you!
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Reflection Questions
1. Around which topics or goals would teachers in your local area form a Community of Practice?
2. Would you prefer to participate in a CoP that works mostly face to face, mostly online, or a combination of both? Why?
3. What challenges would you expect to face when forming a new CoP in your area? How might you overcome these challenges?
4. How might you share the practical findings and other benefits of participating in a CoP with teachers beyond the core group members?