Lee Webb
Oklahoma City University
Communities of Practice
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.
Etienne Wenger
Communities of practice: a brief introduction
http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm
A faculty learning community is a community
of practice…
… made up of faculty (also professional staff,
administrators, etc.) who study a topic related to
teaching and learning.
 8-12 members
 Multi-disciplinary
 Membership by application
 Teaching Center (CETL, CELT, Faculty
Development etc.)
Meets about every 3 weeks for an academic
year
… made up of faculty (also professional staff,
administrators, etc.) who study a topic related to
teaching and learning.
 Commitment
 Mutual interest, collaboration, feedback
 Reward
Community, not a committee
 not a discussion group
 has a facilitator, not a chair
Arts Integration Faculty Learning Community
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Faculty Learning
Community
Teaching with Technology Faculty Learning Community
Faculty Learning Community Exploring Effective
Teaching
Teaching and Learning with New Media Learning
Community
Faculty Learning Community on Improving Student
Research Skills
 Collaboration between faculty and librarians
 Interdisciplinary conversation about information
needs and research
 Improved student performance on research
assignments
 Higher level of student engagement in research
processs
 Assessable learning outcomes related to
information literacy
 Primary research opportunities for student
3-4 meetings per semester
 early meetings focus on theory; readings
 later meetings focus on sharing projects
 final artifact of the work: document, article,
presentation, etc.
Shapiro, Jeremy J., and Shelley K. Hughes. "Information
literacy as a liberal art." Educom Review 31, no. 2 (March
1996): 31.
Freeman, Edward, and Eileen Lynd-Balta. "Developing
Information Literacy Skills Early in an Undergraduate
Curriculum." College Teaching 58, no. 3 (Summer2010): 109.
Gilman, Todd. “Not Enough Time in the Library.” The
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 14, 2009, sec. Do Your
Job Better. http://chronicle.com/article/Not-Enough-Timein-the-Library/47410/.
Freyman, Marcia. “Assessing Information Literacy in an
English Composition Class.” In Assessing Student Learning
Outcomes for Information Literacy Instruction in Academic
Institutions, edited by Elizabeth Avery, 148-60. Chicago:
Association of College & Research Libraries, 2003.
Emmons, Mark. “Tailoring Instruction for College and
University Instruction.” In Information Literacy Instruction that
Works: A Guide to Teaching By Discipline and Student
Population, edited by Patrick Ragains, 35-54. New York:
Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2006.
Extensive Bibliography of readings for an FLC:
https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1C0LsifKUWUijg
GtJ2jOAH7Em6gSz4qzx7gJyfKh_CeY&hl=en&authkey=CN_sf8F
 Faculty Information Literacy Survey:
• faculty information seeking habits
• state of student research skills
• information literacy instruction and
assessment
 Survey of Student Perceptions:
• research habits
• library use
• resource use
 Citation Analysis of research papers
 Assignment revisions
• annotated bibliography
•staged research assigment
 Pre-test/post-test
• instruction timed to assignment
• computer lab time built into session
 Rubric for research presentations/posters
 Syllabus revision
Etienne C. Wenger and William M. Snyder. Communities of Practice: The
Organizational Frontier http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/1317.html
Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder. Cultivating
Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge - Seven
Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/2855.html
Developing Faculty and Professional Learning Communities (FLCs):
Communities of Practice in Higher Education.
http://www.units.muohio.edu/flc/index.php
Eric Resnis and Milton Cox, “How and Why Faculty Learning Communities:
in Support of Undergraduate Information Literacy.” TLT Group.
http://www.tltgroup.org/InfoLit/CollaborationFLC/index.htm.
Cox, Milton D., and Laurie Richlin. Building Faculty Learning Communities:
New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 97. Jossey-Bass, 2004.
Wenger, Etienne. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and
Identity. 1st ed. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
________________, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder. Cultivating
Communities of Practice. 1st ed. Harvard Business Press, 2002.