1. Services and Support
  2. Communities of Practice

Communities of Practice

4 section venn diagram where the all intersect in at the bottom middle. the 4 sections are labelled: Teaching & Learning, Sharing of Ideas, Community & Collaboration, and Practice and SupportWhat is a Community of Practice?

A community of practice (CoP) brings together individuals who share a set of problems or interest in a topic to learn from each other, share ideas and experiences, and collaborate on active solutions. Teaching and Learning CoPs are for all educators including teaching assistants, teaching fellows, faculty members, and all educational support staff where the community acts as a “living curriculum” (Wenger-Trayner 2015). Through this, communities of practice can:

  • Enable connection between individuals at different career and experience levels.
  • Create space for sharing information, stories, struggles and experiences to build insight and understanding.
  • Enable dialogue across disciplines, departments, and faculties all the while challenging work in silos.
  • Stimulate learning and generate new ideas through mentoring, coaching, and self-reflections.  
  • Introduce collaborative processes to encourage exchange of ideas and information about best practices.  
  • Create a community of care, support, and practice with a community of like-minded-folx with similar interests.    

Join a CoP Listserv

Radical Assessments

Meeting every third Friday of the month, this community of practice discusses innovative assessment practices to help student learning. Topics include ungrading, contract grading, rubrics, feedforward, Indigenous pedagogies, and more! If you would like to join this CoP, please contact ctl@queensu.ca.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

There are many individuals across campus who study teaching and learning through a variety of lenses. This CoP is focused on sharing information and opportunities related to the scholarship of teaching and learning (often referred to as SoTL). There will be a 2023 Fall workshop focused on research ethics clearance for education-based projects, and a Winter 2024 workshop focused on tri-council funding opportunities relevant for SoTL projects. If you would like to join the CoP and/or receive information about upcoming events, please email ctl@queensu.ca