A study of social participation and knowledge sharing in the teachers' online professional community of practice

• Published in: Computers and education Vol. 72; pp. 37 - 47
• Main Authors: Tseng, Fan-Chuan, Kuo, Feng-Yang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2014
• Subjects: Computer-mediated communication; Cooperative/collaborative learning; Interactive learning environments; Learning communities; Learning communities; Cooperative/collaborative learning; Interactive learning environments; Computer-mediated communication
• ISSN: 0360-1315; 1873-782X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2013.10.005

To facilitate professional development of teachers in the online context, the online community of practice (CoPs) has become an important platform in which individuals with similar interests or common goals get together to share their resources, develop working strategies, solve problems, and improve individual as well as organizational performance. In this study, we have collected self-reported knowledge-sharing behaviors from 321 members of the largest online professional CoP of teachers in Taiwan. The results show that closer connections among online CoP members can lead to greater recognition of and altruism towards others. Moreover, performance expectation and self-efficacy belief play essential roles in knowledge-sharing participation. Thus, the development of social relationships among online teacher members helps them obtain potential resources and reliable support through their social network. Also, teachers' membership in the online professional CoP fosters a prosocial attitude that heightens their willingness to share useful resources and solve other members' problems, both emotionally and instrumentally. Consequently, knowledge-sharing behaviors, in terms of knowledge giving and knowing receiving, are significantly predicted by prosocial commitment and performance expectation respectively. The implications to both research and practice are provided in this paper. •The strength of ties and prosocial commitment help obtain resources and support in the online professional CoP.•Self-efficacy reflects a mediating effect on knowledge sharing through prosocial commitment and performance expectation.•Knowledge sharing as a form of social participation is predicted by prosocial commitment and performance expectation.