Community Of Practice Analysis

The Principles
The community of practice framework emphasizes two central principles: firstly, knowledge relies on experience or situated learning; and secondly, the experience is comprehended via an in-depth reflective practice (Lave, 1991; Matusov, Bell, & Rogoff, 1994; Roberts, 2006; Wenger, 1991).
The first principle of community of practice ‘situated learning’ is known as “socio-cultural phenomenon rather than an isolated activity in which individual acquires knowledge from decontextualized body of knowledge” (Barab & Duffy, 2000; as cited in Buysse, 2003, p. 267). This principle renders a change that stimulates forces for collective and collaborative learning among the member of communities of practices (Mittendorff, Geijsel, Hoeve,

The establishment of a community of practice may vary: some are small while others are large, without determining how many people should be involved. The membership of community of practice is voluntary (self-selected or assigned) and often structured into a nucleus group and peripheral members. Meanwhile, the leadership can be provided by members and management coming both formally and informally from within and outside the community (distributed). The meeting can take place anywhere, such as on a campus, at a workplace, home, hotel, etc. (Wenger at al., 2002). Over an extended period of meeting, the community of practice needs a facilitator to facilitate the work of the community of practice because facilitation is a way or tool to enhance integration, inclusion, involvement, participation, and equality within the community. Knowledge sharing can be held narratively, or through questions and discussion among the communities (Brown & Duguid, 1991; Prendiville, 2008; Saint-Onge & Wallace, 2003; Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002). The community of practice, according to Cox (2005), has three elements within an organization, namely working, innovation, and learning. Learning within this community of practice is both formal and informal; nonetheless, it demands the community members (learning community) to become good practitioners (Orr, 1991, as cited in Brown & Duguid,