When Complexity Enters the Picture

Project-based learning involves learning from real life experience through informal & incidental and self-directed learning. We share a framework for learning from experience in today’s complex, ambiguous professional and work contexts that draws on a concept of “design unbound” (Pendleton-Jullian & Seely Brown, 2018). We share principles and examples of how to incorporate “tools” for learning and teaching that build capabilities in “practical imagination,” abductive reasoning, world building, and what-if thinking.

Dr. Victoria J. Marsick is Professor of Adult Learning & Leadership in the Department of Organization & Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California and an MIPA from Syracuse University. Prior to joining Teachers College, she directed staff development and training at UNICEF. The Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) named her Scholar of the Year and inducted her to the AHRD Hall of Fame. She has also been inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame. Victoria has written extensively about transformative learning, action learning, and especially, informal and incidental learning in the workplace—by individuals, as well as groups, communities, and organizations. With Karen Watkins, she recently completed a forthcoming book entitled Rethinking Workplace Learning and Dvelopment. Watkins & Marsick developed and validated the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (1997) used in over 80 published studies. Gephart and Marsick (2016) developed and validated measures of Strategic Leverage through Learning, a comprehensive model and instrument used to assess system dynamics in a variety of settings.