Learning in communities of practicechallenges for the 21st century

Etienne Wenger

October 21, 2010, Lillehammer

Etienne Wenger

… about being a flower?

What does a flower know …

Etienne Wenger

… about being a flower?

What does a computer know …

Etienne Wenger

Purple in the noselanguage and meaning in practice

Etienne Wenger

Learning can be defined as a realignment of competence and experience, whichever leads the other.

Socially defined competence:degrees of masteryparadigmatic trajectoriesbaseline and frontier

The experience of membersaccountabilityclaims to competencepersonal trajectories

Learning from a social perspectivecompetence and experience

Etienne Wenger

learningpractice

community

meaning

identityWhat are we

doing?

Where do webelong?

Who are webecoming?

What is ourexperience?

A social theory of learningsome key concepts

Etienne Wenger

Theory and schooling is also a practice

Practice is not the application of theory

Students easily switch between practices, but

understanding improves with their interplay

No practice subsumes another

There is no intrinsic ordering in relevance

We should strive to enable students to view one practice with the other in mind

Principles Implications

Key implications learning in practice: school and at work

Etienne Wenger

Regulatorybody

Teaching

Researchdiscipline 1

Workplace

A

Workplace

B

Researchdiscipline 2

Profession IProfession II

Professionalbody

Service recipent A

Service recipient B

A complex landscape of practicea body of knowledge

Etienne Wenger

Regulatorybody

TeachingResearch

discipline 1

Workplace

A

Workplace

B

Researchdiscipline 2

Profession IProfession II

Professionalbody

Service recipent A

Service recipient B

Competing views of practicecommunities and boundaries

Etienne Wenger

Regulatorybody

TeachingResearch

discipline 1

Workplace

A

Workplace

B

Researchdiscipline 2

Profession IProfession II

Professionalbody

Service recipent A

Service recipient B

A complexifying landscape of practicenew entrants and contenders

Clientcommunities

Wikipedia

Bloggers

Informalcommunities

Twitterers

NGO’sOpen curriculum

Professional networks

Google

Topicalwebsites

Social networks

Etienne Wenger

Engagement

Imagination

Alignment

Crossingboundaries

Beingcreative

Goingdeep

Making adifference

Building a trajectory

Locating oneself

Seeing afuture

Finding oneself in a landscape of practicemodes of identification

Etienne Wenger

The new source of value creation depends on the engagement of people’s identity in their work.

The personal in the service of the formal The formal in the service of the personal

Personalization of value creation work in the 21st century

Etienne Wenger

The 21st century will be the century of identity

If your educational system is going to be relevant to our students in the 21st century …

how can it help students address this key learning challenge

The future of learninga challenge for institutions

Etienne Wenger