Community of practice

[1] The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger in their 1991 book Situated Learning.

[3] They can form a "virtual community of practice" (VCoP)[4] when the CoP is primarily located in online spaces such as discussion boards, newsgroups, or social media.

The idea is rooted in American pragmatism, especially C. S. Peirce's concept of the "community of inquiry",[6] as well as John Dewey's principle of learning through occupation.

There is a great deal of interest within organizations to encourage, support, and sponsor communities of practice to benefit from shared knowledge that may lead to higher productivity.

[citation needed] Communities of practice are viewed by many within business settings as a means to explicate tacit knowledge, or the "know-how" that is difficult to articulate.

Lesser and Storck identify four areas of organizational performance that can be affected by communities of practice:[10] Collaboration constellations differ in various ways.

Thus, for knowledge management, if community practices within a CoP can be codified and archived, they provide rich content and contexts that can be accessed for future use.

For example, someone might share one of their best ways of responding to a situation based on their experiences, which may enable another person to avoid mistakes, thus shortening the learning curve.

[18] As members of CoPs, individuals report increased communication with people (professionals, interested parties, hobbyists), less dependence on geographic proximity, and the generation of new knowledge.

Studies show that members are motivated to become active participants in a CoP when they view knowledge as a public good, a moral obligation and/or a community interest.

In a study on knowledge exchange in a business network, Sveiby and Simons found that more seasoned colleagues tend to foster a more collaborative culture.

[25] To understand how learning occurs outside the classroom, Lave and Wenger studied how newcomers or novices become established community members within an apprenticeship.

Wenger describes three dimensions of practice that support community cohesion: mutual engagement, negotiation of a joint enterprise and shared repertoire.

[3] The communities Lave and Wenger studied were naturally forming as practitioners of craft and skill-based activities met to share experiences and insights.

[2] Lave and Wenger observed situated learning within a community of practice among Yucatán midwives, Liberian tailors, navy quartermasters and meat cutters,[2] and insurance claims processors.