Presented at LILAC 2019

1. Dr. Nasser Saleh
Head Engineering & Science Librarian
nasser.saleh@queensu.ca
Developing a Community of Practice
Dr. Cory Laverty
Centre for Teaching and Learning
corinne.laverty@queensu.ca
Painting: Growing Together by Wilson Shangala

2. Outline
 Once upon a time .. Our story!
 Motivators: Discussion 1
 Main characteristics of a community of
practice (COP)
 Your Stories: Discussion 2
 Lessons learned

3. Painting: Questions, Questions by Daniel Loveday

4. What would motivate you to participate?
Record words/phrases on the flip chart provided.

5. What inspired our group?
Our analysis of feedback over four years:
 Process approach; organic and flexible; knowledge-driven
 Liaising with partners (e.g. instructional designers,
accessibility hub)
 Leadership role of core group to organize and sustain
 Regular meetings
 Resource sharing via online repository
 Community building, developing an identity
 Authentic learning in shared practice
 Personal growth through reflection
 Inclusivity and belonging through interaction

6. someone
to chat with
free-flowing
questions
At the assessment roundtable it was
interesting and fun to learn how my
colleagues were implementing assessment
methods in their courses. I hope we can
make it a regular event.
creating user-
friendly handouts
has impacted my teaching
practice a great deal
helped me learn
to think about
learning
know what other
librarians are doing
on campus
easier to get together as a
group and learn from each
other
be an advocate for the role
of librarians in curriculum
development and instruction
shared web
space
Work with
colleagues

7. Enables you to:
 Connect with like-minded colleagues and peers
 Share your experiences and learn from others
 Collaborate and achieve common outcomes
 Accelerate your learning
 Validate and build on existing knowledge and good practice
 Innovate and create new ideas
“a group of people who share a concern, set of problems, or
a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge
and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing
basis.” (Wenger et al., 2002)
Wenger,E., McDermott, R.,& Snyder,W. (2002). Cultivating communities of
practice. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

8. TLWG evolved into a CoP
 Knowledge construction
about teaching and
learning emerges from
reflection on practice
 Individuals benefit from
sharing expertise during
common pursuit
 Knowledge constructed
transactionally richer
than in isolation

9. Phases of COP
The phases of CoPs are more
cyclical than linear
 Phase 1: Define your CoP
 Phase 2: Design your CoP
 Phase 3: Grow your CoP
 Phase 4: Let your CoP Perform
 Phase 5: Transform your CoP
Because communities of practice are ORGANIC, designing them
is more a matter of shepherding their evolution than creating
them from scratch
Cultivating Communities of Practice

10. Define your CoP
Purpose
Shared
Interest
Community Practice

11.  Quality assurance
 Learning outcomes
 Curriculum mapping
 Teaching strategies
 Student engagement
 Assessment
 Accessibility
 Learning objects
 Working with partners

12. Perform: sharing stories
 There is no right beat for all
communities, and the beat is likely to
change as the community evolves.
 Finding the right rhythm at each
stage is key to a community
development.
 What kinds of community activities
will generate energy and
engagement and support the
emergence of community
“presence”
(activities, communication,
interaction, learning, knowledge
sharing, collaboration, and roles)?

13. Discussion 2
 Sharing stories was found to be essential in
building our CoP.
 What do you think based from your own
experience? Share your story please!

14. Lessons Learned
 Our experience is that the CoP developed organically
 The role of the working group as a facilitator enabled the
growth of the CoP
 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning emerged
 The collaborative learning process of ‘thinking together’,
we argue, is what essentially brings Communities of
Practice to life and not the other way round.
 Thinking together is conceptually based on Polanyi’s (1962)
idea of indwelling: when peoples’ indwelling is interlocked
on the same cue, they can guide each other through their
understanding of a mutually recognized real-life problem,
and in this way they indirectly ‘share’ tacit knowledge
Polanyi M (1962) Personal Knowledge, Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

15. Acknowledgement
“Coming together is a beginning;
keeping together is progress;
staying together is success.”
Henry Ford
To all our colleagues and collaborators over the years!