Using student group work in
higher education to emulate
professional communities
of practice
Colm Fearon, Heather McLaughlin and Tan Yoke Eng
Faculty of Business and Management, Canterbury Christchurch University,
Canterbury, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the value of social learning from group work that
emulates a professional community of practice.
Design/methodology/approach – A thought piece that first, examines the role of group-work
projects as part of social learning, then outlines key arguments for social learning based
upon applying a “communities of practice” approach and finally, discusses the experience of a leading
UK university in light of Hoadley and Kilner’s “C4P” communities of practice framework.
Some reflections are offered to help practitioners and academics who wish to adopt a similar
approach.
Findings – Developing a communities of practice approach using group work can promote social
learning and workplace transferrable skills. The authors discussed five main elements of the C4P
communities of practice framework in light of a group project at a leading UK university: “purpose” –
to emulate an IT consultancy environment and create energy and results as part of the final year
group-work project; “conversation and connections” – to promote information exchange between
group members through meetings, e-mail, or wikis; “content and context” – drawing upon
organisational knowledge and directing groups to improve the quality of project deliverables. Some
key reflections include: emulating real world practice helps develop transferrable skills; building
membership of a community through simulated teamwork roles encourages motivation; and group
leadership helps achieve common purpose.
Originality/value – The paper offers a unique insight and applies a communities of practice
framework for analysing and developing group work as part of social learning.
Keywords United Kingdom, Universities, Communities of practice, Skills, Group work,
Social learning, C4P
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
It is important for students, lecturers and employers to understand the role of social
learning from group work within higher education. Group work is increasingly
recognised as a way for students to problem solve and demonstrate transferrable
skills necessary for the workplace (Hodgkinson-Williams et al., 2008; Lave and
Wenger, 1991). In this paper, we first examine the role of group-work projects as
part of social learning, then we outline key arguments for social learning based upon
applying a “communities of practice” approach (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger,
2000) and finally, we discuss the experience of a leading UK university in light
of the “C4P” communities of practice framework (Hoadley and Kilner, 2005). In
addition, based upon our overall discussion, we offer some useful reflections which
have helped inform group project design over a number of years for business
information technology (IT) students.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0040-0912.htm
Received 20 October 2010
Revised 4 May 2011
Accepted 1 July 2011
Education þ Training
Vol. 54 No. 2/3, 2012
pp. 114-125
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0040-0912
DOI 10.1108/00400911211210233
114
ET
54,2/3