In this Action planning document, the main objectives that are present from the overall KA COP4HL perspective to the local COPs are described. At the level of the local level of the COP the shared objective, which came out of the needs analysis process, are described per COP.In COP Groningen, the shared objective/goal will be: “stimulating a Healthy environment (physical & social) with focus on physical activity”. COP Malaga had three potential shared objectives but after a shared decision making procedure the unanimously decision was towards: “developing, implementing and evaluatingoutdoor fitness”. COP Odense will elaborate on an intermediary approach with the focus on the: “further develop and educate professionals who work on stimulating physical activity in community dwelling older adult”’.COP Kaunas defined the following shared objective: “to provide opportunities for primary school children and Kaunas district community members older than 50 more opportunities for exercising and physical activity”. COP Cascais will contribute the goal to: “develop, organize for and together with the stakeholders and end users (youngsters from 12-24 years old) activities focused on healthy lifestyle (e.g., healthy cooking workshops, parent-child physical activities etc.) embedded in approach GERAÇÃO S+ “.The next phase, after the decision on the shared objective of the COPs, is the action planning for the further COP development. A total of 7 steps are described.
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The Knowledge Alliance for Communities of Practice for Healthy Lifestyle (COP4HL) aimed at developing and sustaining communities of practice (COP) in order to stimulate innovation and socio-economic development in the area of Healthy Ageing. Promoting Healthy Ageing, and specifically an Active & Healthy Lifestyle, is one of the biggest societal and economical challenges the EU is facing. A paradigm shift from health care and cure to prevention is essential since the traditional ways have proven to be insufficient to solve this complex problem. An impact-driven multi-sector approach is necessary to develop innovative products and services to change this for the better. The KA was composed of higher education institutes and businesses, supported by public authorities and non-for-profits, who are accepting the need of co-creating knowledge to stimulate innovation for an Active & Healthy Lifestyle. A local needs and assets mapping procedure, that assessed the national and local status quo in the area of Healthy Ageing/Healthy Lifestyles, served as starting point of the development of five communities or practice the communities of Groningen (the Netherlands), Odense (Denmark), Malaga (Spain), Kaunas (Lithuania) and Cascais (Portugal) plus an additional COP in Alcobaca (Portugal). These COP were focused on a common goal that was collectively decided in the local COP.
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In this brief chapter of the report we focus on the model that was developed as part of the evaluation strategy: the local CoP impact measurement model. This model has been described as part of the strategy report as well. For purposes of clarity (as it is one of the main deliverables of work package 3) we briefly present it in this document. Background: Promoting Healthy Ageing, and specifically an Active & Healthy Lifestyle, is one of the biggest societal and economical challenges the EU is facing. A paradigm shift from health care and cure to prevention is essential since the traditional ways have proven to be insufficient to solve this complex problem. An impact-driven multi-sector approach is necessary to develop innovative products and services to change this for the better.ObjectivesThe Knowledge Alliance for Communities of Practice for Healthy Lifestyle aimed at developing and sustaining communities of practice (COP) in order to stimulate innovation and socio-economic development in the area of Healthy Ageing.ImplementationThe Consortium comes from 7 EU Member States and in 5 countries Local COP were developed. A European COP Support Lab and a European COP Alliance were developed that facilitate the set-up and sustainability of COP. An open access Community Knowledge Hub provides pilot-tested formal and informal blended learning material for managing COP and implementing interventions; whilst an entrepreneurship competition lead into an intensive program to develop entrepreneurial skills and stimulate innovation.AchievementsIn total 6 local COP were fully established who all defined their shared interest, organized learning opportunities, meetings and effective local activities that contributed to a common agenda setting for Healthy Lifestyle. Furthermore, the Alliance between businesses and HEI was extended exponentially and over 30 businesses, 18 HEI and 73 public authorities were involved. All 6 COPs are still running beyond the project funding period and supported by an open online platform www.yanuz.eu.
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In this chapter I would like to introduce the knowledge management concept known as communities of practice (CoPs) and show a direct link between CoPs and human resource development (HRD). CoPs are a proven way to effectively manage knowledge as well as promote organizational learning, so it is a logical step to aim HRD initiatives towards developing and supporting them. It is my experience that both the vision and operational goals of an organization’s HR department is exceptionally crucial in designing and supporting a learning organization and that CoPs are one strategy to achieving these goals. The set up of the chapter is as follows; in this section I present some of the advantages that communities can have for the organization and the individual. Then I give an introduction to what CoPs actually are and how they function, followed by a discussion of the link between HRD, CoPs and organizational learning. In section four I look at what kind of support CoPs need in order to thrive and in section five, I expand these concepts to include global communities. The following section looks at how technology enables CoPs – both local and global – and describes general guidelines for deciding which technology is appropriate for facilitating communities. My closing remarks consider the increasing role of Cops in HRM as well as some of their possible down-sides.
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The impact communities of practice (CoPs) make can be understood in several different ways, depending on which theoretical perspective is used. For example, CoPs have been studied from a learning-theory perspective, from organizational development theory, and from a small-group theory. To understand the effects of participating in a CoP on individuals, groups or the organization in which they function, we could use traditional learning theory, organizational learning theory, information-processing theory or small-group process theory, etc. Or we could look at the internal processes of CoPs; the output they generate, or employ a synthesized view. CoPs can also be seen as impacting different actors in the organization in which they operate; individuals, groups or the whole organization. This means, for example, that we could look at CoPs from an organizational learning perspective to see how CoPs impact strategy development or renewal. At the level of the group, we could look at how CoPs lead to increased group performance and how that in turn leads to a higher output of knowledge products. And as learning is one of the key processes in a CoP, an important aspect of we need to study is how the individual learns, as well as what the individual learns. The complexity of impact a CoP can have on the diverse actors requires a pluralistic and multiperspective approach. However, a review of the literature showed no comprehensive model that neither integrates these different levels of impact nor employs multiple theoretical perspectives. Furthermore, most models of measurement or assessment use traditional types of output measurement, such as ROI, or anecdotal evidence that the CoP has improved organizational capability. Much like any human resource development initiative – which is the perspective of CoPs we take in this paper – there has been no real attempt to develop measures for assessing impact. We try to fill this gap by presenting a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, conceptual model that approaches measuring certain aspects a CoP has on individuals, groups and organizations.
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The field of higher professional educational in the Netherlands is undergoing drastic structural changes. Organizational-wide mergers are commonplace and are often followed by development of new curricula. Furthermore, this is often accompanied by the implementation of a completely new educational concept as well. These structural changes in the educational system require that teachers adapt their current teaching practices, along with working on gaining new competences associated with working in a changing organization. This paper presents a short background of communities of practice in higher education, followed by a report on the first impressions from an experiment in which a bottom-up style of change management has been implemented through the use of a community of practice. A community of practice (CoP) is a powerful knowledge management tool that brings people from a similar domain together in order to solve complex problems, deal with a changing organization and build knowledge around a specific practice. Inholland decided to implement a CoP for the international faculty in order for the members to better cope with the major curricula and didactic changes currently being implemented there. Concepts such as change, organizational sense making and teacher professionalization
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Laboratory study using a repeated measures design. The aim of this study was to determine if ankle proprioception is targeted in exercises on unstable surfaces. Lateral ankle sprain (LAS) has recurrence rates over 70%, which are believed to be due to a reduced accuracy of proprioceptive signals from the ankle. Proprioceptive exercises in rehabilitation of LAS mostly consist of balancing activities on an unstable surface. The methods include 100 healthy adults stood barefoot on a solid surface and a foam pad over a force plate, with occluded vision. Mechanical vibration was used to stimulate proprioceptive output of muscle spindles of triceps surae and lumbar paraspinal musculature. Each trial lasted for 60 s; vibration was applied from the 15th till the 30th second. Changes in mean velocity and mean position of the center of pressure (CoP) as a result of muscle vibration were calculated. Results show that on foam, the effect of triceps surae vibration on mean CoP velocity was significantly smaller than on a solid surface, while for paraspinal musculature vibration the effect was bigger on foam than on solid surface. Similar effects were seen for mean CoP displacement as outcome. Exercises on unstable surfaces appear not to target peripheral ankle proprioception. Exercises on an unstable surface may challenge the capacity of the central nervous system to shift the weighting of sources of proprioceptive signals on balance.
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Communities of Practice (CoPs) are social learning systems that can be, to a certain extent, designed. Wenger (1998) proposes the following paradox; “ no community can fully design the learning of another, but at the same time, no community can fully design its own learning” (p:234). My interpretation of Wenger’s statement is that learning environments such as CoPs need to be facilitated in their learning processes, but not their specific design. Approaching CoPs this way allows for the design of interventions that facilitate learning processes within a CoP rather than regulate them. However, empirical studies on facilitating internal processes of CoPs are sparse – most work is anecdotal. This means that one needs to look to other fields for guidance in order to discover how to facilitate CoPs in their learning. This paper describes part of a larger research project that asks the question whether communities of practice can be instituted in higher professional educational organizations as an effective method to facilitate participant learning (professional development) and stimulate new knowledge creation in the service of the organization. Using a more pragmatic approach to cultivating CoPs (Ropes, 2007) opens the possibility to use different theoretical perspectives in order to find and ground interventions that can facilitate learning in CoPs and which are typically used in organizational development trajectories based on learning (de Caluwe & Vermaak, 2002). In this paper I look at how theories of human resource development, workplace learning and social constructivism conceptualize learning and what type of environments promote this. I then map out community of practice theory along these fields in order to come to a synthesized conceptual framework, which I will use to help understand what specific interventions can be used for designing CoPs. Finally I propose several interventions based on the work done here. The main question I consider here can be formulated as follows; ‘what insight can Human Resource Development theories, Workplace Learning theories and Social Constructivist learning theory give in order to design interventions that facilitate internal processes of communities of practice?’
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