Communities of reflection-practice and clash of communities: thoughts on the (re-)design of classes in humanities

Abstract

Grounded in constructivist instructional philosophy [5] and a view that the purpose of schooling is to prepare students for a changing workplace [7; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, www.21stcenturyskills.org], learning scientists turned to communities of practice (CoPs) to get inspiration for the design of learning activities in classrooms that resemble the 'authentic' and 'real-world' situations found in CoPs outside of schools. For domains that are naturally close to the workforce, like domains in the sciences, technology, engineering, math, and others, it seems a perfect match and classroom environments are transformed to resemble CoPs [4; 6; 9].