Expanding the Self: The Intelligent Complex Adaptive Learning System (ICALS): A New Theory of Adult Learning

We live in unprecedented times; indeed, turbulent times that can arguably be defined as ushering humanity into a new Golden Age, offering the opportunity to embrace new ways of learning and living in a globally and collaboratively entangled connectedness. In this shifting and dynamic environment, life demands accelerated cycles of learning experiences. Fortunately, we as a humanity have begun to look within ourselves to better understand the way our mind/brain operates, the amazing qualities of the body that power our thoughts and feelings, and the reciprocal loops as those thoughts and feelings change our physical structure. This emerging knowledge begs us to relook and rethink what we know about learning, providing a new starting point to expand toward the future. This book is a treasure for those interested in how recent findings in neuroscience impact learning. The result of this work is an expanded experiential learning model, the Intelligent Complex Adaptive Learning System, which adds a fifth mode of Social Engagement to Kolb’s concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation, with the five modes undergirded by the power of Self in an ever-shifting environment. A significant conclusion is that, should they desire, adults have much more control over their learning than they may realize.