Expansive Learning

Expansive learning refers to the idea, first introduced by Yrjo Engestrom in 1987, that not all learning is about things that are already in existence. In his book Learning By Expanding he critiqued standard theories of learning for being limited by the need for the knowledge or skill to be learned to be itself stable and reasonably well defined and the need for a competent teacher. He argued that there is a need for a form or forms of learning that generate possibilities and, especially, forms of activity that are “not yet there”,

People and organizations are all the time learning something that is not stable, not even defined or understood ahead of time. In important transformations of our personal lives and organizational practices, we must learn new forms of activity which are not yet there. They are literally learned as they are being created.

(Engestrom, 2001: p:137-138)

In a world full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity this kind of learning is and will continue to become, increasingly important.

Developmental Work Research (also referred to as Change Labs), a methodology developed by Engestrom and his colleagues at the Centre for Research on Activity, Development and Learning in Helsinki, is one approach to generating this kind of learning within and between activity systems.

For more information see especially: