Part 2 - Active Learning and Learning Strategies.

In Part II of our Future of Jobs Dialogic Panel series, we look at the second highest skill highlighted by the World Economic Forum as being essential for future-readiness - Active Learning and Learning Strategies. 

Learning Strategies

The WEF describes "Learning strategies" as "Capacities for teaching others how to do something, including selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things."

This interpretation emphasises 'teaching others how to do things', which assumes that someone doing the teaching knows how to do the thing being taught. This is NOT the case with innovation, emergent learning, team learning, etc. - all of which are increasingly important in an increasingly uncertain and unpredictable world.

Learning strategies within the WEF report are akin to models of situational leadership, in which people are promoted to positions of authority simply because of their technical expertise, directing, supporting, coaching and delegating according to the relative technical skills of their subordinates. While this was an effective model in the industrial age, it is unsuited to the complex cross-functional teamwork of the digital age, and will hinder the possibility of organisations developing future-fit cultures of innovation, agility and adaptiveness.

We will explore how contemporary learning strategies require more interaction, experimentation, collaboration and iteration than traditional models, and how organisations might implement such strategies today. 

Active Learning

In further exploring this provocation, we will look at the WEF’s second highlighted concept - active learning - and suggest it is only a partial solution to the need for effective organisational learning. Research has clearly indicated that effective, real-world learning is only possible if it includes both active and passive learning components.