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This paper provides an insider account of a cohort-based doctoral programme. It shows how undertaking doctoral study exposes candidates to confronting unfamiliar levels of conceptualization. The conceptual framework, a regularly occurring difficulty for many candidates, became the specific focus for tutorial discussions and informal attention within communities of practice. These two devices appear to have assisted candidates in developing appreciative positions towards acquiring, or improving, their conceptual grasp through higher cognitive processes that emerge from the act of interaction. Thus, cohort-based communities of practice offer doctoral programmes ways that assist candidates to improve their conceptual capabilities.