Learning Architectures in Higher Education ― Beyond Communities of Practice

Learning Architectures in Higher Education restores criticality and rigour to the study of communities of practice as a means of understanding learning, acknowledging that this is one of the most influential and widely used theories of learning to emerge during the last 30 years but one that has been misapplied and diluted. Jonathan Tummons explores communities of practice theory, looking at how its focus on learning as apprenticeship can be understood, providing the reader with a conceptual framework for making sense of learning as a social practice as distinct from an individual, psychological process. Tummons looks at how communities of practice theory needs to be reconfigured to take account of the insights provided by other theoretical models and then applies his critically and theoretically reworked perspective to two distinct higher education contexts, providing critical and powerful tools for examining learning and teaching practices.

Jonathan Tummons is Associate Professor of Education at Durham University, UK. His research and writing interests encompass higher, further, and professional education.