Professional Learning Community

By Deborah A. Sheehy, Heidi Bohler, K. Richardson, A. Gallo. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal, 2015

108 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract: Researchers have begun to focus attention on the participation of teacher educators in communities of practice (CoPs) and the role that participation plays in improving the quality of teacher education. This case study explores an inter-university CoP (sustained for over 10 years) that includes four faculty members at three universities, who work collaboratively on teacher education program development (e.g., accreditation), research, and service. This exploration is situated in the literature on CoPs, professional capital, and teacher educators’ involvement in CoPs. In this paper the evolution of this inter-university CoP and each CoP member’s personal meaning is shared. Key influences of this involvement in our professional learning (PL) and suggestions for teacher educators’ PL as members of an academic community are offered. Key Words: communities of practice, situated learning, teacher education, professional learning, higher education. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to explore the professional learning (PL) of four physical education teacher educators engaged in a community of practice (CoP) that has been sustained for over 10 years. This exploration is situated in the literature on CoPs, professional capital, and teacher educators’ involvement in CoPs. In this paper the evolution of this inter-university CoP and each member’s personal meaning of the COP is shared. Based on our research on this inter- university CoP we will offer key influences of this involvement on our professional learning and provide suggestions for teacher educators’ PL as members of an academic community. The following operational definitions help to situate this paper. CoP refers to “any collectivity or group who together contribute to shared or public practices in a particular sphere of life” (Kirk & Macdonald, 1998, p. 380). Wenger (2007) highlighted three CoP elements: a) members share a domain of interest, b) members actively pursue that interest, and c) through sustained interaction members develop a shared practice. Through the joint social construction of contextualized knowledge of practice, CoPs engage in a collective process of learning through ongoing interactions and writing (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999). Developing new sets of relationships and progressing towards legitimate peripheral participation occur within sets of relationships. In these sets of relationships newcomers can move toward full participation by being involved in particular experiences. Engaging in various apprenticeship roles (e.g., attending, observing) facilitates learning though legitimate peripheral participation in a CoP (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Recently researchers have begun to focus attention on teacher educators participating in CoPs as key players in improving the quality of teacher education and, by association, examining the role of teacher educators’(TEs) professional learning (PL) and development (Brody & Hadar, 2011). Further, Parker, Patton & Tannehill (2012) implied that a community of teacher educators might provide new teachers to the field,

Subfields: Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ff414656258eae03eb9f181253816eb2f9e7e920