Activity 1: My practice within the community.

Etienne Wenger (2011) describes Communities of practice (CoP) as “...groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” (p1).

These CoPs have three aspects (Knox, 2009):

Domain - or the area of shared inquiry and key issues;

Community - the relationships, sense of belonging and interactions of those in the CoP;

Practice -  the knowledge, resources, tools, experiences that members bring to the CoP.

I see my own community of practice, this year at least, as two CoPs: the science faculty at the secondary school I work in and the Taupo group of the Mind Lab by Unitec March 2017 course.

The Domain: these evolve and change to reflect the interests and needs of their members and whether they personally identify with the CoP. (White, 2008).

Science faculty: I teach science to Years 9 and 10 and the learning support classes. My passion is for making school a fun and relevant place for learning for students who have learning disabilities and/or who are unmotivated and ‘switched off’ learners. This CoP is more forged than organic due to it comprising those of us who teach, and are passionate about, science and changes to its membership are based on who is hired to teach this subject and who departs to teach elsewhere.

Taupo Mind Lab (ML) group: This group has formed this year with the common goal of completing the Mind Lab course. We all have a common goal to learn, share and apply digital and collaborative learning in our classrooms and make 21st century education meaningful and applicable for our students. In this sense we could all be described as innovators and early adopters (Robinson, 2009). This CoP is organic in origin and has encouraged me to make new connections with teachers from other schools. While it may not continue on in this format beyond the end of this year, there is the possibility that it will morph into something new.

The Community:

Science faculty: We have short weekly meetings as well as a couple of longer meetings spaced throughout the term. The purpose for these is to discuss science in education as well as developing programmes, planning, assessment and reporting. While relationships are friendly it is a more forced situation driven by the demands of the school as much as by the fact that we all teach science.

Taupo ML group: Membership is entirely voluntary. During semester one we met weekly as a whole group where interactions were fun, friendly, supportive and encouraging . Since the start of the online course in semester two those of us at my school have continued to meet weekly to discuss and go through the week's’ tasks. We have been joined by others from the Taupo ML group which has given me the opportunity to continue building relationships with teachers from other schools. We also have a dedicated Google + community for the Taupo ML group that is regularly used. Some of us are also connected via Twitter and Facebook through which there is a continual sharing of ideas and opinions.

The Practice:

Both CoPs are a forum for sharing resources, good practice, conversations and tools. Informal mentoring also occurs in both as members strive to add new innovations to their practice and strive for change within our respective schools in order to align with a more 21st century approach to education. My focus here is to continue to put what I am learning into my classroom practice.

References:

Knox, B. (2009, December 4). Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhLPRZnRFkk

Robinson, L. (2009). A Diffusion of Innovations. Retrieved form https://www.enablingchange.com.au/Summary  Diffusion

White, N. (2008).Community of Practice blog series. Retrieved from https://www.fullcirc.com/2008/09/20/cop-series-3-community-without-people/

Wenger, E. (2011) Communities of practice: a brief introduction.