Communities of Practice Stephen Merry & Paul Orsmond Staffordshire University Faculty of Sciences

Background to the Study Students use feedback in a variety of different ways (Orsmond et al., 2005) Students pay attention to feedback they consider relevant and disregard other aspects (Orsmond & Merry, 2007) Students use a mix of both the formal learning outcomes and their own alternative assignment outcomes which they may feel more comfortable with (Orsmond et al., 2006)

Situated Learning Lave and Wenger (1991) emphasised that all activity, including learning, is inevitably situated. But 'situated' does not mean that learning 'needs' to be located in a particular location; instead, situated refers to the webs of social relationships which influence how we attend to, value and interpret communications (e.g. feedback) that we get.

Situated Learning Distributed cognition - James (2008) –‘Learning involves participation and what is learned is not the property of an individual but distributed within the social group’.

Aims To evaluate whether students naturally develop communities of assessment practice To discover if engagement in such communities of practice influence learning

Communities of Practice Wenger (1998) defined communities of practice as having three separate attributes: –(1) Mutual engagement –(2) Joint enterprise –(3) Shared repertoire.

Outcomes Community of practice that function in accordance with Wenger’s conceptual framework exist amongst undergraduate biology students.

Outcomes These communities evolve during student progression through their undergraduate study, with defined patterns of participation evident. Although these changes in participation occur, there is constancy in the purposes (motivation, information seeking, learning and clarification) for which students use their community of practice.

Outcomes Social networks are established by undergraduate students involving individuals outside the university which are important for students’ learning. These networks are not isolated from the university, but are linked through ‘brokering’ student activities.

What Does it Mean? Distribution of knowledge within situated learning practices may challenge the whole notion of tutor constructive alignment. This is because constructive alignment was developed as individualist theory of learning. Recasting constructive alignment within a social theory of learning places the tutor in a less dominant role in the student learning process, and recognises the student’s own ability to construct and align their own learning practice.

What Does it Mean? Distributed cognition may also challenge or lead to a re-evaluation of what constitutes collusion and plagiarism within higher education. The ‘interdependent’ learner Tutors perhaps need to rethink their approaches to enhancing student learning. For example, rather than giving generic skills lists, tutors might best consider encouraging students to most effectively use and position themselves in ‘knowing locations’ within networks

What Does it Mean? In so doing, and while not wishing to infiltrate these communities and social networks, tutors may enrich naturally occurring practices such as self and peer assessment. Therefore curriculum design needs to consider what activities students engage in and what learning this leads to. Has significance regarding the

What Does it Mean? In terms of the Academic Strategy: –Student as partners of learning – they are but not as we imagined –A different ‘student voice’ already exists – do we hear it? –Students are already co-producers of learning but mostly without tutors influence – how do we feel about that? –We need to consider this community learning as a ‘learning experience’ –In terms of curriculum design enquiry-based learning needs a definition – But potentially can enrich community learning.

Take Home Message Much learning occurs outside the formal curriculum beyond the ‘control’ of tutors. Tutors should recognise that this ‘student centred’ learning occurs and seek to use it more effectively to enhance student learning experiences.