Communities of Practice in the first-year business classroom: developing students’ meta-cognition for employability through modelling against future selves

Bird, Sara

Abstract

As TEF core metrics place growing focus on graduate employability as a determinant of UK universities’ success, universities seek increasing collaboration with employers. This paper explores the impact of a doctoral Action Research (AR) project developing a nascent Community of Practice (CoP) (Lave and Wenger, 1991), and the impact of both CoP and AR upon students’ employability-related meta-cognitive skills. Two employers, both experienced practitioners in management roles and successful alumni, joined group discussions four times over two semesters. Whilst students developed skills, language and behaviours as expected of a CoP, an unpredicted outcome was some students’ exceptional modelling of reflective practices through; observation of established employers’ own reflection, engagement with myself as module leader and researcher, and participation in the AR itself. This suggests the value of scalable replication of such practices and AR itself.

Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Society for Research in Higher Education Annual Conference
• Start Date: Dec 11, 2019
• End Date: Dec 13, 2019
• Deposit Date: Sep 29, 2021
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7450731