Suggestions for New Research on Experience-Based Learning

摘要

McCall (2010) sends mixed messages aboutthe status of research on experience-basedlearning. He conveys a quite positiveview of what is known about learningfrom experience by contending that moreresearch investigating what makes experi-ences developmental is not needed, char-acterizing a prior study as "definitive,"and making assertions such as "more thanenough is known to do a pretty goodjob of putting experience to work" and"we have the tools to support learningfrom experience." On the other hand,McCall concludes by outlining three areaswhere further research is "crucial." In myview, McCall best captures where we arein understanding experience-based learn-ing when he states "The difficulty comesin determining whether or not a specificperson will actually learn what the experi-ence offers." Much has been learned abouthow leaders learn from their experience,but more knowledge is needed to confi-dently predict when and what a particularperson will successfully learn from a spe-cific experience. Without this knowledge,practitioners' ability to help organizationsdevelop talent by methodically assigningexperiences to leaders is limited.