Social Learning Theory - Communities of Practice

Wenger (1999) explains that since humans are social beings learning occurs in the social context. The experiences and activities we engage in are seen to be meaningful and allow us to participate in the world. This active participation takes place through knowing and the ‘knowledge is a matter of competence with respect to valued enterprises’. (Wenger 1999, pp. 4) Wenger (1998) explains learning is based on the following premises –

1. ‘We are social beings. Far from being trivially true, this fact is a central aspect of learning.
2. Knowledge is a matter of competence with respect to valued enterprises – such as singing in tune, discovering scientific facts, fixing machines, writing poetry, being convivial, growing up as a boy or a girl, and so forth.
3. Knowing is a matter of participating in the pursuit of such enterprises, that is, of active engagement in the world.
4. Meaning – our ability to experience the world and our engagement with it as meaningful – is ultimately what learning is to produce.’ (pp 4)

Learning is an integral part of our life and it takes place through participation in communities. When we get placed in situations that challenge our ability to respond we seek out others who can enable us to learn and develop new practices. This allows for development of individuals and leads to their becoming fully functional members of the society in which they live. This makes it necessary to look at individuals and also the social and material environment with which they interact, as a part of their development. Learning takes place through people’s engagement in actions and interactions which is embedded in culture and history. These actions and interactions allow learning to take place and this in turn replicates and transforms the social make-up in which it occurs. (Wenger 1998)

Learning shapes the individuals through the activities of the past generations. The process also leads to change / progress in the society. To learn, the individual first has to make sense of others and then construct knowledge, which will allow him to relate to self and to his situation. The emphasis is on the interaction with others, which leads to becoming functioning members of community before internalisation of knowledge can occur. This indicates that thinking of individuals is influenced by the group. Thus people with common interest or activity will come together to form a community of practice. Within this group mediated understanding there is a merger of social and intellectual processes and a tension between the collective understanding of the group and the individuals within. 

De Laat (2006) identifies this tension as the driving force for the collective processing of the group. The example he gives is, ‘when an individual member of the group expresses his or her opinion in relation to the shared public understanding of the group, this will be based on an attempt to synthesise his or her own understanding with the public one. The other members of the group will compare this new synthesis with their own understandings of the group-accepted version and their own disagreements with it. Depending on the outcome of this process there may be further interaction and negotiation until the group accepts a new meaning or understanding.’ (pp. 16)

A community of practice according to Wenger (1998) has three dimensions which would be relevant when learning in groups is considered:

• It is a joint endeavour as understood by the members. It can be also continually renegotiated by its members.
• The members form a social entity through relationships of shared engagement.
• The members share resources that they have developed over time so that this becomes a repository which can be accessed by any group member.

The issues central to this social learning theory are related to learning in groups, having a discussion where participants describe their experiences and understanding, comment of others contributions in an effort to scaffold, collaborate and negotiate meaning. I believe this helps them to reflect and internalise meaning and build on their understanding of the concept being discussed. These have to be central in any elearning development as edcucationalists continuously endeavour to ensure that learners gain from learning with and from each other.