Studies in Expansive Learning

'This is a very important book. It brings together some of the most significant papers in Engestrm's archive and provides them with a new introduction and rationale. In his first chapter he also muses on the possible future of the learning sciences. This prospective view is grounded in the legacy that is so well captured and explicated in the rest of the book. It will be of great value to newcomers to the field and serves as an invaluable source of reference for those who are more familiar with the work.' Harry Daniels, University of Oxford

'In this volume, we see the fertility of Engestrm and his colleagues in the Change Laboratory. These chapters extend expansive learning to address a variety of settings from schools to hi-tech corporations. The approach's genius is in developing mediating artifacts (semiotic representations inserted into the activity system) that allow participants to see their work and relations in new ways, expanding their view, to come to fresh solutions to the problems that trouble their work.' Charles Bazeman, University of California, Santa Barbara

Yrj Engestrm is Professor of Adult Education and Director of the Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning (CRADLE) at the University of Helsinki. He is also Professor Emeritus of Communication at the University of California, San Diego. Engestrm applies and develops cultural-historical activity theory as a framework for the study of transformations and learning processes in work activities and organizations. He is widely known for his theory of expansive learning and for the interventionist methodology of developmental work research. His books include From Teams to Knots: Activity-Theoretical Studies of Collaboration and Learning at Work (Cambridge, 2008) and Learning by Expanding: An Activity-Theoretical Approach to Developmental Research (Cambridge, 2014).

1. Introduction - learning sciences at the threshold of expansion; 2. Whatever happened to process theories of learning?; 3. Studies of expansive learning - foundations, findings and future challenges; 4. Enriching the theory of expansive learning - lessons from journeys toward co-configuration; 5. From learning environments and implementation to activity systems and expansive learning; 6. Process enhancement versus community building - transcending the dichotomy through expansive learning; 7. Expansive learning in a library - actions, cycles and deviations from instructional intentions; 8. Beyond discontinuity - expansive organizational learning remembered; 9. Wildfire activities - new patterns of mobility and learning; 10. From design experiments to formative interventions; References; Index.