Identifying and ranking components of communities of practice (CoPs) for accelerating Knowledge and Experiences Sharing among Faculty Members in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

Due to the complexity of medical education and the importance of teaching in the field of medical sciences, it's necessary providing an appropriate context to prevail over this complexity and to develop interventions in educational issues. Communities of Practice (CoPs) are one of the strategies for developing appropriate interventions for medical training, which can help faculty members and students to prevail over complexities of medical education. So this research aimed to Identify and Rank Components of CoPs in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. It was applied in terms of objective and descriptive-survey in terms of methodology. The population consisted of 802 faculty members of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences and the sample size was 210 people using a purposive sampling method among Dean of faculties, education and research managers, vice-chancellors of education and research and faculty members with academic ranking of (professor, associate professor, assistant professor) who participated in two or more workshops. The instrument was a researcher made questionnaire consisting of 35 items that its validity and reliability was conformed (CVR=0/78, CVI=0.92,a= 0.89, ICC=0.92). Data were analyzed by Exploratory Factor Analysis and Friedman test using SPSS,  Excel and Mont Carlo PCA. Based on expletory factor analysis six components including participatory leadership; aims; formal and informal structure; boundary and size; and interactions were conformed. Results of Components ranking showed that participatory leadership was the most important component (mean rank=4.60). Aims (mean rank=3.86), informal structure (mean rank=3.21), boundary and size (mean rank=3.12) were located in subsequent rank. Interactions and formal structure were less important components (mean rank=3.10). Based on the results, important components of CoPs including participatory leadership, aims and informal structure were identified to share knowledge and experiences among members. In this research, it was determined that the structure of these communities can be determined according to the formation approach, management styles, the type of participation of members, and the type and manner in which members are present in communities. The formal aspect of the structure of communities was also less important than the informal aspect.