Implementing a Communities of Practice model to enhance learning and teaching at a transnational university in China

Free to read at publisher's site. In this paper, we present a case study of a communities of practice (CoP) model (Lave & Wenger, 1998) to enhance learning and teaching at a transnational university in China. A communities of practice model was chosen as an alternative to a centrally designed workshop model, whereby academic staff attend a series of workshops on offer and their attendance is ‘ticked off’. A communities of practice model was seen as a potentially more organic and ‘bottom-up’ approach to professional development and learning, as opposed to a more centralised and ‘top-down’ approach. This case study reports on the conceptualisation and initial implementation phases of this model at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, a joint venture between Xi’an Jiaotong University in China, and Liverpool University in the UK.