Communities of Practice as Platforms for Educational Improvement

Abstract

This article reports a literature review on communities of practice developed in the educational context. Its purpose is to serve as a documentary basis for the visualization of a preliminary panorama in the subsequent development of a research on the effects of the configuration of a community of practice in the teaching of mathematics, when it is formed by elementary school teachers from the same educational institution. Therefore, the main findings of research related to three levels of Colombian education are presented, namely: university and basic secondary and middle school education, where a greater amount of research is evidenced when compared to basic elementary education. One of the main conclusions is that communities of practice play a fundamental role when they are used to improve educational processes, allowing the strengthening of mechanisms for the improvement of pedagogical practices.