Professional Practice

I am just revisiting some of the papers that I did for Part One of my PhD and popping them on blog posts. Here is the first one that I did for the Professional Practice Module.

Exploring conceptions of the development of a Technology Enhanced Learning Community of Practice (TELCoP) through Phenomenography.

Abstract

This study explores conceptions for the development of a Technology Enhanced Learning Community of Practice (TEL CoP) at University. Taking a phenomenographic approach within the lens of Community of Practice theory, the study seeks to discover variations of staff experiences of communities of practice their conceptions of what a TELCoP should look like and what would motivate staff to participate. The data was gathered using semi-structured interviews and analysed to draw out conceptual variations. Analysis revealed nine categories of description relating to three main pools of data: Participation, Motivation and Structure. The outcome space identifies participation variations as barriers, a requirement of job role and sharing of ideas. Motivation variations were identified as a sense of community, getting support and feeling valued, career progression and a desire to share foster innovative practice. The data also revealed a range of structural preferences including virtual environment, face to face meetings and a mixture of the two.

Outcomes of this exploration will be used to inform the development of a dedicated TELCoP to underpin the operational delivery of the Learning and Teaching strategy. It also identifies opportunities for further research related to development within professional practice.

Key Words: Communities of Practice, Technology Enhanced Learning, TELCoP Higher Education, Professional Development, Phenomenography

Reflections

My second module of the PhD was about Professional Practice I really enjoyed this one and chose to do use Phenomenography for my methodology and focus on Communities of Practice. I remember that I found Gerlese Åkerlind ‘s papers really helpful when trying to get my head around Phenomenography.

I still always think of Phenomenography and that muppet song …

References

Akerlind, G., 2005. Phenomenographic methods: A case illustatration. In J. Bowden & P. Green, eds. Doing Developmental Phenemenography. Melbourne RMIT University Press.

Åkerlind, G.S., 2005. Variation and commonality in phenomenographic research methods. Higher Education Research & Development, 24(4), pp.321–334. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360500284672.