Chapter 9: Levels of Learning in Communities of Practice

In this chapter, the authors describe three new levels of learning, all of which are supported by CoPs. The expanded levels increase opportunities for social, situational, and experiential learning. The early organizational learning (OL) theories are aligned with learning methods. Learning levels are also aligned with the types of knowledge capital. The authors also identify and explain the important role that team learning methods can play in enhancing the value of situational and experiential learning for members and the community. Finally, the chapter highlights the effects that levels of learning have on the other three components of the model.

The shift to social learning introduces a new level of learning – learning at the group level (Nabavi, 2012; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Sole & Edmondson, 2002; Wildermeersch et al., 1998). The knowledge economy expands learning from the focus on an individual in a formal education system to social and collective learning in the job, on the job, lifelong and lifewide. Social and collective learning produces a broader spectrum of knowledge capital (Andriessen, 2000). We see from the different types of knowledge capital that learning at different levels is different in kind. Individual learning develops an individual's human capital. Collective learning develops the structural capital of the collective. Relational capital brings in the notion of learning that involves networks and structures. Social learning produces exponentially greater value than a single individual is capable of generating. Additionally, as learning spheres expand and social media reaches more communities, opportunities to learn outside formal institutions have grown. As Reid et al. (2021) explain, the spheres of learning have changed – today, individuals learn at all levels and in all places and spaces.