Communities of Practice

Communities of practice was first adopted in education as a theory of learning, and by business, particularly within organizational development, as a knowledge management approach. This chapter reviews the literature on communities of practice. It is organized into five sections which call out the major areas in which communities of practice has had an influence. Each section provides an overview of the literature on communities of practice for the following domains: communities of practice definitions and theory, identities and belonging, learning and teaching methods using the theory of communities of practice, workplace communities of practice, and virtual communities of practice. The chapter finally addresses communities of scientific practice through the use of a case study.