The key thing I draw from Wenger's homepage (and what little I know about
it) is summed up in his following sentences:

"... my work focuses on social learning systems. I am trying to understand
the connection between knowledge, community, learning, and identity. The
basic idea is that human knowing is fundamentally a social act. "

In many ways, this is rather unremarkable - he seems to avoid notions of
learning being 'organic' or 'evolutionary' - but I can see that even a crude
Darwinian-Mendelian approach can lead to several interesting questions:
Which knowledge 'survives'? How does knowledge intract and 'breed'? Where
are the 'genes'? (These questions subsist at the individual as well as the
communal and social levels - it is not clear to me how the different levels
interact. Can we really talk about 'social knowledge'?)

The notion of social power would also seem to be important (perhaps related
to the 'genes' of the Darwinian approach?)

Also, how does it tie up with Popper, Kuhn and our very own social
constructivism?

For me, the most useful aspect of this (and equally of social
constrictivism) is its implications for pedagogy - it tells us why all the
bad old methods are bad, and why kids learn more from their peers than they
ever do from any teacher. (Dispiriting but true? If that is the case, why
does the teacher get paid and the student has to pay?!)

JOHN BIBBY

> -----Original Message-----
> From: email list for Radical Statistics
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jeff Evans
> Sent: 12 October 2005 13:22
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: 'Communities of practice'
>
>
> Hi,
> Hmmm, very interesting ....
>
> This work has been influential in education for some years, esp. in
> maths education - because of Wenger's collaboration with Jean Lave
> (Lave, 1988 Lave & Wenger, 1991) - and in work-based learning, because
> of Lave & Wenger's exploration of non-school, apprenticeship-type
> learning social relations  - hence "CoPs".
>
> Lave (and many others) showed that adults have learned, and use, many
> ideas and techniques in "mathematical" thinking ("street maths") - which
> are effective, but different from those they learn and use in "school
> maths". This was a response to the realisation in maths ed in the early
> to mid-80s that mathematical thinking is fundamentally context-specific,
> and not so "abstract".
>
> Its usefulness in the NHS will depend on by whom, and how, it will be
> used.
>
> Wenger (1998)'s 1st chapter will give you the bones of the argument, and
> Evans (2000, Ch.6) summarises the background in (adult) maths ed.
> research and practice.
>
> Regards,
> Jeff
> *****
>
> Dr. Jeff Evans
> Mathematics & Statistics Group
> Middlesex University Business School
> London NW4 4BT, UK
> Tel.: +44 (0)20 8411 5490
> Fax:  +44 (0)20 8202 1539
> Website: http://mubs.mdx.ac.uk/staff/
>
> *****
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: email list for Radical Statistics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Macfarlane, Alison
> Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 9:28 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: 'Communities of practice'
>
>
> Does anyone know anything about Etienne Wenger's work on 'communities of
> practice'? It seems to be flavour of the month in the NHS at present?
>
> ' ... Etienne Wenger's work on Communities of practice. He is currently
> doing a lecture tour in the UK and was at the Kings Fund in the summer
> speaking to a group of London non-executive members of teaching PCTs.
> His website can be accessed through:
> http://www.ewenger.com/theory/communities_of_practice_intro_WRD.doc  '
>
>
> Alison Macfarlane
> Alison Macfarlane
> Department of Midwifery
> City University
> 24 Chiswell Street
> London EC1Y 4TY
> Phone (0) (44) 207 040 5832
> Fax   (0) (44) 207 040 5866
> Email [log in to unmask]
>
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