Social Learning · Long-term (multi-month or multi-year organizational interventions)

Expansive Learning Theory

A transformative learning framework focused on collective activity systems where learners co-create new knowledge and practices to resolve systemic contradictions. Unlike traditional learning which transmits existing knowledge, this model facilitates 'learning what is not yet there' to drive institutional and societal change.

When to use Expansive Learning Theory

Best utilized during periods of organizational crisis, major technological shifts, or when traditional problem-solving methods fail to address deep-seated systemic issues.

How Expansive Learning Theory works

Facilitators can implement this through 'Change Laboratory' interventions, using mediating artifacts (like diagrams or models) to help participants visualize their current activity systems, identify internal conflicts, and design new workflows.

Phases of Expansive Learning Theory

  1. Questioning: Participants question and criticize aspects of the accepted practice. The facilitator brings in mirror data, such as cases or recordings of real work, that expose tensions and prompt people to ask why things are done this way.
  2. Analysis: Analyze the situation historically and in its current systemic form to explain the contradictions. Participants trace how the practice evolved and map the activity system to find where tensions come from.
  3. Modeling the new solution: Build a simple, explicit model of a new way of working that could resolve the contradictions. Groups sketch the new activity, for example as a redesigned activity system diagram.
  4. Examining the new model: Test the model by running, operating and experimenting with it to understand its potential and limits. Participants simulate or discuss scenarios and find weak points.
  5. Implementing the new model: Put the model into practice through concrete applications and extensions. Participants plan and start pilots in their real work.
  6. Reflecting on the process: Evaluate the process and what was learned. Participants review the pilots, look at the effects and discuss what worked and what should change.
  7. Consolidating the new practice: Stabilize the outcomes into a new, stable form of practice. Participants agree on how to embed the new way of working in routines, roles and tools.

Key principles

  • Contradictions as drivers of change
  • The activity system as the primary unit of analysis
  • Multi-voicedness within the collective
  • Historicity (understanding the evolution of the practice)
  • Object-orientedness

Best for

  • Organizational transformation
  • Systemic innovation
  • Professional development in complex environments
  • Community-based sustainability projects

Considerations

  • Requires significant longitudinal commitment from stakeholders
  • Focuses on collective agency rather than individual skill acquisition
  • Can be disruptive as it challenges established norms and power structures

Attribution & sources

Developed by Yrjö Engeström, 1987 (Expanded in 2016)

Primary source

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