The Curriculum within a Community of Practice

- A Case Study –

MPhill in Education Sciences – Educational Technologies

Dissertation Supervised by Dr. Maria Helena Peralta

2007

Justification of the Theme

• The WiA are:• an online CoP and • an innovative model of long life learning and

professional development based of the use of (educational) technologies

– Online CoPs are an emergent reality in the

educational world.

Initial Aims of the Study

• Understand the learning models upon which the practice of the WiA are based;

• Observe the impact and effectiveness of the WiA in the teacher-participant’s performances;

• Reveal an example of good practices within the context of EFL teacher training / professional development and

• Contribute with some new perspectivers to the scientific knowledge in this area

Problem

Are Communities of Practice – and the WiA in particular - instances that aim to facilitate the construction of a constructivist curriculum and provide teacher training opportunities?

Research Questions

• Which characteristics do the WiA display to effectively be considered a CoP, according to the literature?

• How is the curricular model that supports the practices carried out by the group characterized?

• Which role does this CoP displays as a model of shared training for EFL teachers?

The Information and Communication Technologies:

– represent an emergent phenomenon in our (network) society (Castells, 2002);

– have impact in different areas, in Education too;

– offer innovative forms of communicating and learning (with technologies) (Costa, 2005);

– enable new educational practices alternatives (Palloff e Pratt, 2001).

Ongoing Teacher Training

– As a way of: • updating and adapting to the emergent reality; • answering the challenge set forward by the digital

society (Costa and Peralta, 2001);• improving and acquiring new practices (Palloff and

Pratt, 2001);• augmenting innovation and change (Pardal and

Martins, 2005); • developing professional competences (Perrenoud,

1998).

The Curriculum (in CoPs)

The “curriculum is the Community of Practice itself” Wenger (1998, pp.100)

Learning Curriculum

(Lave e Wenger, 1991)

Process

(Stenhouse, 1975)

Practice

(Grundy, 1987)

Context

(Figueiredo, 1999

Declarative Knowledge

Procedural Knowledge

Attitudinal knowledge

(Coll e Valls, 1998; Coll, 1998; Rodrigues e Peralta, 2006; )

Communities of Practice (online)

Collective Learning Practices

Etienne Wenger (1998)

Acquisition/ development of knowledge and practices

Interaction and socialization

(online) CoPs

Etienne Wenger (1998)

“A learning curriculum is a field of learning resources in everyday resources in everyday

practice viewed from the perspective of learners” (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 97).

The CoP

is the curriculum itself

Shared Repertoire

Mutual Engagement

Joint Enterprise

Routines, resources; sensibilities; artefacts;

vocabulary; styles; stories; tools; events ; etc

Engagement Interaction

Interrelationships Socialization Humanware

(Re)Negotiation of meaning

Interpretations Feedback Collaboration

Research Methodology

Qualitative Research – Case Study

– Participant Observation – perspective of the Insider (Merriam, 1998).

– Document Analysis – relevant, especially case studies (Yin, 1994)

– eQuestionnaire – an approach that best represents individual perspectives (Blanchet and Gotman, 1992)

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

DOCUMENTANALYSIS e-QUESTIONNAIRE

Observation of the reality from an

insider perspective

Analysis of the documented reality Reflect ion about the Reality in analysis

Emergency of the analysis categories

Analysis Model – Webheads in Action

Problem

Case Study

A Qualitative Approach

Triangulation of the collected data

Conclusions

Structuring Learning Elements**

Authentic Activities

Articulation betweenTacit and Explicit

knowledge

AuthenticContexts

Integrated assessment

Coaching eScaffolding

Reflection

Multiple roles and

Perspectives

Collaborative Construction of

knowledge

Acess to expert performances (diff. levels)

In an Online CoP

Stimulated by:

History

Identity

Plurality

Autonomy

Participation

Integration

Learning

Technology

Future

Socialization

Communication

Interaction

Discussion

Feedback

Sharing Collaboration

Professional Development and acquisition of

GOOD PRACTICES

Thru a Learning Curriculum***

Results

Mutuality

CoP Elements*

•*Adapted from Schwier, R. (2002), diagram

•** based on Oliver, R. e Herrington, J. (2000)

•*** “A learning curriculum is a field of learning resources in everyday resources in everyday practice viewed from the perspective of learners” (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 97).

Conclusions

Reflection

WiA: • are a Community of Practice; • develop their practices through a flexible,

open, responsible, shared, responsible, progressively constructed curriculum;

• represent a model of shared professional training for EFL teachers.

Some Final Thoughts

May the discussion begin!@