Course

6-8 Math Community of Practice

Ended May 31, 2023

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Full course description

Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. 
Communities of practice are important as a professional learning strategy, because they have the potential to:

  • Connect people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to interact, either as frequently or at all.

  • Provide a shared context for people to communicate and share information, stories and personal experiences in a way that builds understanding and insight.

  •  Enable dialogue between people who come together to explore new possibilities, solve challenging problems, and create new, mutually beneficial opportunities.

  • Stimulate learning by serving as a vehicle for authentic communication, mentoring, coaching, and self-reflection.

  • Capture and share existing knowledge to help people improve their practice by providing a forum to identify solutions to common problems and a process to collect and evaluate best practices.

  • Introduce collaborative processes to groups and organizations to encourage the free flow of ideas and exchange of information.

  • Help people organize around purposeful actions that develop tangible results.

  • Generate new knowledge to help people transform their practice to accommodate changes in needs and technologies. (Adapted from Cambridge, Kaplan & Suter)