Leadership by Learning Design: embrace complexity where it exists
There is a mismatch between established practice in learning design and the increasingly complex nature of the challenges the world is facing. This article connects learning design to complexity science so learners can be better equipped to create a thriving future. Learning Design methods have tra...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE)
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education |
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| Online Access: | https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/1372 |
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| author | Ray O'Brien Samuel Mann Richard Mitchell |
| author_facet | Ray O'Brien Samuel Mann Richard Mitchell |
| author_sort | Ray O'Brien |
| collection | DOAJ |
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There is a mismatch between established practice in learning design and the increasingly complex nature of the challenges the world is facing. This article connects learning design to complexity science so learners can be better equipped to create a thriving future. Learning Design methods have traditionally leant heavily upon the reduction of learning into consumable units of knowledge, skill, or understanding, that constructively align to create higher-level learning. Those structured and predetermined outcomes assume a level of order and predictability that is not applicable to all contexts, and even less applicable the more volatile, unpredictable, rapidly changing our world becomes. This practice places the learning designer as passive and complicit in perpetuating those challenges. Learning design can lean upon complexity science to treat learning as a complex adaptive system of interrelated and co-dependent parts. When the Anthro-complexity approach of the Cynefin Framework is applied to the design of learning experiences for climate action and decolonisation, this sense-making framework identifies opportunities to change praxis so that the learners are better prepared to address wicked problems in an increasingly complex world. These are changes that learning designers need to lead in an ethical and considered fashion.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2c99f3fe442f4396b1ea372a074652c4 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1759-667X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education |
| spelling | doaj-art-2c99f3fe442f4396b1ea372a074652c42025-08-20T03:20:47ZengAssociation for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE)Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education1759-667X2025-06-013610.47408/jldhe.vi36.1372Leadership by Learning Design: embrace complexity where it existsRay O'Brien0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6062-7719Samuel Mann1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1118-7363Richard Mitchell2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3988-8735Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka- University of Otago,Otago PolytechnicOtago Polytechnic There is a mismatch between established practice in learning design and the increasingly complex nature of the challenges the world is facing. This article connects learning design to complexity science so learners can be better equipped to create a thriving future. Learning Design methods have traditionally leant heavily upon the reduction of learning into consumable units of knowledge, skill, or understanding, that constructively align to create higher-level learning. Those structured and predetermined outcomes assume a level of order and predictability that is not applicable to all contexts, and even less applicable the more volatile, unpredictable, rapidly changing our world becomes. This practice places the learning designer as passive and complicit in perpetuating those challenges. Learning design can lean upon complexity science to treat learning as a complex adaptive system of interrelated and co-dependent parts. When the Anthro-complexity approach of the Cynefin Framework is applied to the design of learning experiences for climate action and decolonisation, this sense-making framework identifies opportunities to change praxis so that the learners are better prepared to address wicked problems in an increasingly complex world. These are changes that learning designers need to lead in an ethical and considered fashion. https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/1372complexity scienceCynefinLearning DesignSustainable Development Educationclimate change |
| spellingShingle | Ray O'Brien Samuel Mann Richard Mitchell Leadership by Learning Design: embrace complexity where it exists Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education complexity science Cynefin Learning Design Sustainable Development Education climate change |
| title | Leadership by Learning Design: embrace complexity where it exists |
| title_full | Leadership by Learning Design: embrace complexity where it exists |
| title_fullStr | Leadership by Learning Design: embrace complexity where it exists |
| title_full_unstemmed | Leadership by Learning Design: embrace complexity where it exists |
| title_short | Leadership by Learning Design: embrace complexity where it exists |
| title_sort | leadership by learning design embrace complexity where it exists |
| topic | complexity science Cynefin Learning Design Sustainable Development Education climate change |
| url | https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/1372 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT rayobrien leadershipbylearningdesignembracecomplexitywhereitexists AT samuelmann leadershipbylearningdesignembracecomplexitywhereitexists AT richardmitchell leadershipbylearningdesignembracecomplexitywhereitexists |