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Chapter 10
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0013-1.ch010
ABSTRACT
Community of practice (CoP) encompasses shared approaches for carrying out tasks with a view to
facilitating intellectual neighborliness among learners, educators and practicing professionals. Despite
the popularity of the CoP approach within industries and the medical education, the practice of using it
in engineering education is not widespread as most educators have limited knowledge of how to imple-
ment CoP into their classrooms. Moreover, it is not clear from the engineering education literature how
the implementation of CoP has enhanced conceptual understanding and imparted employable skills to
learners. To address these concerns, available literature detailing the implementation of CoP across
professional disciplines and education sector over the past one and half decades were evaluated with a
view to identifying and documenting evidences of current practices of CoP, and subsequently developed
into a framework for re-designing an important aspect of engineering curricula: work integrated learn-
ing (WIL). This will have an objective to successfully enhance conceptual understanding and impart
employable skills to learners.
INTRODUCTION
Despite the popularity of the community of practice (CoP) approach within the industry, the practice of
its use in engineering modules has not become widespread as most educators have limited knowledge
of how to implement CoP in their classrooms. In addition, empirical studies on the effectiveness of
CoP are limited and the research that does exist is primarily focused on its perceptions by users rather
than how it fosters conceptual understanding and employable skills in engineering learners. Moreover,
Refections on the Roles of
Community of Practice (CoP)
in Engineering Education
Eyitayo Olatunde Olakanmi
University of South Africa, South Africa
Moses J. Strydom
University of South Africa, South Africa