Co-ordin8 Art | Working as a Community of Practice

A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who “share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”. The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger in their 1991 book Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger 1991).

This can be best explained in the slide below taken from the Association Montessori Internationale:

So at Co-ordin8;

• When we work as a community of practice each person has something to contribute.
• When we sit together, laugh and chat together we sow seeds of inspiration.

Explained in our work;

Student Jason had not attended for 2 weeks and if left to his own devices will draw or paint similar things using similar shapes, these will be houses or circle/ovals coloured in. He was sitting with other students who had attended the previous 2 weeks. Students were asked to think about the previous work and had examples of their work around the room to look at and get inspiration from. J watched others and produced the above picture of a tree.

Shared learning and ideas creates, a sometimes, none verbal conversation which in turn produces amazing and inspiring results

AND

This is a series of pieces done over a period of 3 months a few years ago, where Rose was inspired by her friends to produce something spectacular in memory of Jackie who passed away during that time.