Transcript An Ecological View of LEarning

An Ecological View of Learning:
The evolution of knowledge into action into
knowledge into action…
Knowledge Mobilization Works
A presentation by Peter Levesque
Friday, May 8th, 2009
Toronto Airport Marriott Hotel, Toronto, ON
www.knowledgemobilization.net
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An Ecology is:
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the relations of organisms to one another
and their physical surroundings
(Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2004)
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suggest that we also add relations to our
conceptual surroundings: culture,
behavior, work, politics, processes, and
technology.
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Data
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Data: simple observations of states
of the world:
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easily structured,
easily captured on machines,
often quantified,
easily transferred
Thomas Davenport: Information Ecology, Oxford, 1997
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Information
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Data endowed with relevance and
purpose:
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requires unit of analysis,
need consensus on meaning
human mediation necessary
Thomas Davenport: Information Ecology, Oxford, 1997
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Knowledge
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Valuable information from the
human mind. Includes refection,
synthesis, context
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hard to structure,
difficult to capture on machines
often tacit (rather than explicit)
hard to transfer
Thomas Davenport: Information Ecology, Oxford, 1997
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You are Professionals
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Some of
Your Tools:
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Data
Information
Evidence
Knowledge
Experience
Experimentation
Standards
Ethics
Practice
Technology
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Professional Revolution
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Knowledge
Management
Knowledge
Transfer
Knowledge
Exchange
Knowledge
Mobilization
Knowledge
Translation
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Evidence-based
practice
Evidence-based
decision-making
Evidence-informed
policy
Evidence-informed
practice
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Relationship among KMb concepts
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Knowledge Mobilization
A commonly cited definition:
Getting the right information to the right people in the
right format at the right time so as to influence
decision-making.
Easier said than done.
 How do we support doing this?
 What is a knowledge mobilization culture?
KMbW definition:
Knowledge Mobilization is the complex process of
making what we know ready for service or action to
build value.
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So…what do we mean by Knowledge?
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Hierarchy of Knowledge, Dave Sackett:
 Systematic reviews/ meta-analyses
 RCTs
 Experimental designs
 Cohort control studies
 Case-control studies
 Consensus conference
 Expert opinion
 Observational study
 Other types of study eg. Interview based,
local audit
 Quasi-experimental, qualitative design
 Personal communication
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Perhaps a taxonomy?
1. Knowledge: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list,
memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall,
repeat, reproduce state.
2. Comprehension: classify, describe, discuss,
explain, express, identify, indicate, locate,
recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate,
3. Application: apply, choose, demonstrate,
dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate,
practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.
4. Analysis: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize,
compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate,
discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment,
question, test.
5. Synthesis: arrange, assemble, collect, compose,
construct, create, design, develop, formulate,
manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up,
write.
6. Evaluation: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose
compare, defend estimate, judge, predict, rate,
core, select, support, value, evaluate.
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http://www.officeport.com/edu/blooms.htm
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This Hierarchy is Paradoxical
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We engage first in personal communication.
 How to we get the most credible forms of knowledge
into our day to day conversations
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Collectively, we know what to do on many topics but
do we have the wisdom or capacity to do it.
We are more connected than ever before but are we
more connectable?
It’s mostly about people – not technology suggested formula is 10% technology/90% social
(CEFRIO)
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But what is the goal?
To do the best
for those we care
about
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Have we really moved beyond
Hunting and Gathering?
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Never in human history have we hunted for so much
data, information and knowledge.
Never in human history have we gathered so much
that is useful but not used.
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Growing feeling of being “overfed” with information?
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Are we suffering from data obesity/infoglut?
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What are the effects of this: slower organizations,
poor sharing, lower morale, lost experience, poorer
outcomes.
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The Future of Organizations?
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The typical large business 20 years hence
…will bear little resemblance to the typical
manufacturing company, circa 1950…it is
far more likely to resemble organizations
(like) the hospital, the university, the
symphony orchestra…an organization
composed largely of specialists who
direct and discipline their own
performance through organized
feedback
Peter Drucker, Harvard Business Review,
The Coming of the New Organization, 1988.
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Publish or Perish
New Yorker: Mischa Richter 1966
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Plain language
New Yorker: Dana Fradon 1975
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Use of evidence
New Yorker: Mick Stevens 1989
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Impact
New Yorker: Sam Gross 1991
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Access
New Yorker: John Caldwell 2000
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Richard Heinberg
Taking in traumatic
information and
transmuting it into lifeaffirming action may
turn out to be the most
advanced and
meaningful spiritual
practice of our time.
http://globalpublicmedia.com/how_do_you_like_the_collapse_so_far
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Knowledge Mobilization
as a Human Right?
10 December 1948,
UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education.
Education shall be free, at least in the
elementary and fundamental stages.
Elementary education shall be compulsory.
Technical and professional education shall
be made generally available and higher
education shall be equally accessible to all
on the basis of merit.
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
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Knowledge Mobilization
as a Human Right?
10 December 1948,
UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to
participate in the cultural life of the
community, to enjoy the arts and to
share in scientific advancement and
its benefits.
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
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KMb: Basic Methods
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Réjean Landry, of l’Université Laval, has shown that the
greatest value from knowledge mobilization happens when
we LINK and EXCHANGE. Yet most KMb activities are still
based on PUSH and PULL.
PUSH
PULL
LINK
EXCHANGE
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Common KMb practice
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Dissemination
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Scattering of seeds
Spread widely
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How do we prepare the soil to receive
the seeds?
How do we nurture the growth of these
seeds?
What does the harvest look like?
What happens in the marketplace?
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Common KMb practice
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Accessibility
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Access
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Physical
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Increasing access to findings published in
Journals, on-line, open access, systematic
reviews
Conceptual
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What does this mean for my practice,
location, context, culture
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Common KMb practice
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Systems need Diversity
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The challenge with herding cats is that
the cats may have interests that are
non-standard.
How to support BOTH the utilization of
standards and the exploration of the
new?
Managing for diversity provides the
potential for resilience to learn from
failure.
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Systems Diversity: Networks
How to link together
your daily functional
networks so that you
have better access both physical and
conceptual - to the
growing neural
network across
Canada and the
World?
http://www.cheswick.com/ches/map/gallery/wired.gif
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Links
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A network is a set of interconnected
nodes. Networks are a very old form of
human practice, but they have taken on a
new life in our time by becoming
information networks, powered by the
Internet.
Manuel Castells, The Internet Galaxy, 2001
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The network is the pervasive
organizational image of the new
millennium.
Janice Gross Stein and Richard Stren, Knowledge Networks in Global Society:
Pathways to Development in Networks of Knowledge, 2001
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Exchange
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Network Images:
Collaboration of Physicists
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/networks/collab.gif
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Network Images:
Tuberculosis Infection
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/networks/contagion.gif
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Network Images:
USA Election 2004 Books
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/networks/divided2004.gif
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Network Images:
HIV Contacts
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/networks/hivgc.gif
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Network Images:
Characters from Les Misérables
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/networks/lesmis.gif
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Explosion of Social Networking value for your work?
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What? So What? Now What?
Programs
Policies
Priorities
Processes
Practice
Value Creation
Products
Perspectives
Procedures
Possibilities
People Skills
Innovation
Supporting
Infrastructure
Initiatives
Now What:
Decisions,
Directions, Actions
So What:
Meaning,
Analysis, Interpretation
Incentives to
Share between
Levels
What: Data, Information, Description, Stories
MULTIPLE INPUTS FROM
RESEARCH, PRACTICE, EXPERIENCE, CULTURE40
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Core C-Concepts
Context
Conversations
Capacity
Culture
Content
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Conversations
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Content:
Relationships between all sources
Philip Davies, Is Evidence-Based Government Possible?
Jerry Lee Lecture 2004, Washington, DC
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Conversations
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How to best
communicate
with other
communities for
better policies,
programs,
products,
processes, etc?
Conversations
without context
often look like
this.
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Linking contexts, capacity, and
culture: Communities of practice
« the process of social learning that
occurs and shared sociocultural
practices that emerge and evolve
when people who have common
goals interact as they strive
towards those goals. »
Lave, J & Wenger E, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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CoP: Creation of Value
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Learning
Application
Creation of Value (now what)
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Exchange
Trust
Resilience
Learning
How to become a Learning Organization?
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What is a Learning Organization?
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An organization that is continually
expanding its capacity to create its
future
Adaptive learning (survival) is
joined with generative learning
(creation)
Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline, New York, 1990
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If I had a Learning Organization?
1.
2.
3.
What policies, events, or aspects of
behavior in this new organization help it
thrive and succeed?
How do people behave inside the
organization? How do they interact with
the outside world?
What are some the differences between
the ideal organization and the
organization for which you work now?
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Five Disciplines of
Learning Organizations
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1. Systems Thinking
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Conceptual
framework –
knowledge and
tools that help
make full
patterns clearer
and see how to
make change
effectively
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2. Personal Mastery
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Continually
clarifying and
deepening
personal vision,
focusing energies,
developing
patience, and
seeing reality
objectively
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3. Mental Models
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Deeply ingrained
assumptions,
generalizations,
pictures/images
that influence how
we understand the
world and how we
take action.
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4. Building Shared Vision
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“Pictures of the
future”
Genuine vision
help people excel
and learn – not
because they are
told to but
because they want
to
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5. Team Learning
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Starts with
dialogue –
suspend
assumptions and
“think together”
Individuals grow
more rapidly than
they could
otherwise
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Thinking Ecologically?
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Current experience
Complexity and Emergence
Supports needed?
Practice and reflection
Trust and resilience
Outputs, outcomes, impacts
Images of the future
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