(1186) COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE AS A WAY OF ENHANCING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL PEDAGOGY IN UNIVERSITIES

摘要

In this paper we present that communities of practice (CoP) could be utilized in university setting tosupport the use of entrepreneurial teaching methods in academic teaching. Using the practices ofcommunities of practice could develop the academic teaching practices, offer tools for redesigningcourses, improve the outcomes of the education and enhance the collaboration between universityand society. Communities of practice could be implemented in university context by combining bothtraditional community activities - where people meet face to face - and virtual community activities. Aspart of our ongoing project Smart Classroom - which is focused on improving teaching practices andenvironments in universities - we have conducted a survey on the teaching practices and thedevelopment of teaching and learning environments in our home university. With the help of thissurvey we have studied if teaching methods similar to CoP activities are already in active use in thefaculties of the university and how university teachers regard with teaching use of ICT. In the light ofthe preliminary survey results communities of practice are not commonly utilized across themultidisciplinary university. The teaching use of ICT was regarded positively and it was foundsignificant in relation to the development of students' discipline-specific and working life skills.