The BRIDGE Story: Learning through Communities of Practice
Description of BRIDGE’s approach to running and managing communities of practice for its different focus areas over 14 years, consolidating key features through graphics. It sets out foundational concepts and principles, as well as facilitation and knowledge management methodologies and implementation systems. It includes discussion of the outcomes expected from the BRIDGE communities of practice, how to action these, and how to use these communities of practice to support collaborative efforts. Key lessons learned about communities of practice, their membership and successful delivery as well as sustainability in changing contexts (including Covid-19) over the years are shared.
Developed after BRIDGE’s closure in the interests of promoting growth in understanding the power of communities of practice and their impacts. It will be relevant to those researching the role of communities of practice in educational innovation and interventions, as well as to those designing interventions which include communities of practice (or professional learning communities) as programme drivers.
January 2024. Compiled by Melissa King, BRIDGE Knowledge Manager, with input from John Gilmour and Barbara Dale-Jones as BRIDGE founding agents.