ABSTRACT
One of the most important concepts in social or situated learning theory is the notion of a community of practice. The concept, like the concept of constructivism or the concept of zones of proximal development, has been used both as an explanatory framework for learning and as a metaphor for how instruction should take place. In this chapter, I first describe some basic history of the concept of communities of practice and some of the theoretical assumptions underlying it. Next, I examine some of the key processes identified as producing and sustaining communities of practice. I compare and contrast the notion of communities of practice with other social learning approaches or knowledge communities. And finally, I describe some of the techniques people have used to support communities of practice through technology.
