The Community of Practice Thinking about learning as a process of social participation Teaching and Assessment Network June, 2005

Aim To: Consider the extent to which this theory of learning is relevant to us in our multi-faceted roles in higher education how it may help us to respond to the major changes affecting the sector

Objectives To: Describe developments that have affected the nature of UK higher education Outline the aspects of changes in higher education that have impacted upon the role of individual lecturers Identify specific indicators of future potential tension Discuss Wenger’s Community of Practice model and its potential for knowledge management.

‘Universities should be bodies with great hearts as well as great minds. Our students are members of this community of learning and metaphorical sons and daughters to us all’ (Ollin, 2002)

All the world’s a stage… The Interactionist approach Belonging Playing the role Reinforcing the role Identity

I remember, I remember….. In terms of your own practise in higher education: A) what differences do you notice now compared with 10 years ago? B) how does working in he compare to what you thought it would be like?

National, European and International Policy Dearing report Hefce HE Academy European International

The University is: A key site for knowledge production. Disciplines are forms of socially organised knowledge associated with Universities Young, M (2004) Mode 1 knowledge Mode 2 knowledge (trans-disciplinary) Gibbons et al (1994)

Transdisciplinary knowledge ‘Its goal is the understanding of the present world, of which one of the imperatives is the unity of knowledge. The methodologies of transdisciplinary research are given by the different levels of reality that ‘transdisciplinarity’ requires, the logic that transdisciplinary investigation often finds itself between disciplines, and complexity. (Gibbons)

Community of Practice ‘A community who share a passion about something and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better’ (Wenger, E.)

Peripheral Group Core Group – Heart of the Forum. Active Group Outsiders  intellectual neighbours Coordinator

Membership of the core group Individual departments CETL teams University Teaching Fellows Students Union Members of the central support functions with a role in learning and teaching

Questions What kind of transdisciplinary practice should members of the University of Leicester’s learning and teaching community be involved in? What conflict could occur in the development of a transdisciplinary community? What benefits could this conflict have?