LIFE Paper Submitted: Creating Environments for Continuous Learning: Adaptive Organizations & Adaptive Expertise
Authors: Timothy Kieran O’Mahony, Nancy Vye, John Bransford, Michael C. Richey, Vivian T. Dang, Kuen Lin, Moe K. Soleiman
Institutions: University of Washington, The Boeing Company
Abstract
The rapid pace of change is creating what some call a never ending “skills gap” between what people know at the moment and what they need to know in order to be successful in their everyday lives and the workplace. This raises a number of unique learning and identity issues that workers and their organizations must solve. For example, experienced workers who are used to being “masters of their trades” must come to see themselves not only as experts who have mastered strong sets of skills and knowledge, but as adaptive experts who are willing to ask questions, experiment with new ideas, and learn from their fellow workers as well as from other sources of information. Organizations must provide support for these kinds of changes in attitude, identities and criteria for successful work. The study reported in this paper discusses attempts to help a major company make some of these kinds of changes. The approach we helped them implement involved efforts to organize teaching, learning and assessments in ways that went beyond their current training and focused on characteristics of adaptive expertise such as the willingness to take risks and successfully collaborate by asking questions of, and helping their peers.
