LEARNING MANAGEMENT THEORY: HOW EXPERTS FOSTER LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE ENVIRONMENTS

In this article I introduce learning management theory (LMT) as a framework for the study and design of learning in higher education and professional practice environments. LMT’s unit of analysis is an “expertise-driven skill unit” composed of one or more individuals of various degrees of expertise, their artifacts, and the practices by which the former engage the later. Examples of expertise-driven skill units are a teacher engaged with his/her students in the physical or virtual classroom, a team of software design engineers, or a scientist and her assistants at the research lab. LMT describes learning and knowledge development in these expertise-driven skill units in terms of a set of complementary concepts: 1. the temporal dimensions of learning, 2. expertise-driven learning practices, 3. design principles for learning, and 4. tools for learning. LMT concepts are derived from a “complexity assumption” to learning in complex professional domains that allows for complementary perspectives on the phenomenon. LMT offers not only an innovative didactic and pedagogical approach for learning and development but also a methodology for the design and continuous improvement of learning in higher education and professional practice environments. Because of its focus on experts and the expertise-driven skill units in which they participate, LMT dissolves the dichotomy between learning in the physical or virtual classroom and learning in professional practice, gives experts and novices a formative common platform for learning and development, and opens new directions for research and design. The paper illustrates how the framework supports a professional development program for higher education professors currently being implemented by various universities.