Conducted an ethnography to evaluate the usefulness of the notion of community of practice in classroom settings. Documents how collectively available knowledge of a classroom community was transformed as resources and practices were adopted by more and more members. Discusses implications for the organization of classroom environments that…

Over the past several years, an increasing number of educators have come to believe that teaching should acknowledge the transactional nature of knowledge and suggest that a shift be made to focus on social practice, meaning, and patterns. This style of teaching proposes that it is important to permit students to construct knowledge meaningfully…