Institute for Research on Learning
Introduction The '''Institute for Research on Learning''' (IRL) in Palo Alto, California was co-founded by John Seely Brown, then chief research scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center, and James Greeno, Professor of Education at Stanford University, with the support of David Kearns, CEO of Xerox Corporation in 1986 through a grant from the Xerox Foundation. It operated from 1986 to 2000 as an independent cross-disciplinary think tank with a mission to study learning in all its forms and sites.George Pake, who founded Xerox Palo Alto Research Corporation in 1970 became IRL's first director and moved with the institute first to Hanover Street, Palo Alto and then to Willow Place, Menlo Park. Greeno was Associate Director of IRL 1987-1991 and Acting Director for a few months during 1991.From 1992 to 1999   Peter Henschel was Executive Director.IRL was a nonprofit research organization that looked at learning in  schools, workplaces, and informal settings, using collaborative, multidisciplinary teams. Research questions were based in real-world problems and settings defined in partnership with people in schools and workplaces who championed these activities. The institute had a significant impact on education and knowledge management (among many other fields) not only in the US but globally through the development of the concept of a community of practice.
Social Approach to Learning The first group of researchers was recruited from Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, and from Xerox PARC, in disciplines including anthropology, computer science,  education, psychology, and linguistics.The institute developed its unique social approach to learning, expressed in the Seven Principles of Learning and in the conception of communities-of-practice. Its innovative view of learning, the use of qualitative methods and the coupling of research with design were path breaking in its time, inspired an enthusiastic following and have enriched organizational and educational discourses to this day.===IRL's Seven Principles of Learning===#Learning is fundamentally social.#Knowledge is integrated in the life of communities.#Learning is an act of membership.#Knowing depends on engagement in practice.#Engagement is inseparable from empowerment.#“Failure to Learn” is the normal result of exclusion from participation.#We already have a society of lifelong learners.
IRL’s Core Capabilities IRL defined its core capabilities as:*	Learning to see Learning*	Design for Learning *	Learning and Work Design*	Learning, Identity and DiversityIRL's projects were grouped into research settings:;Research of Learning in the Classroom:*Funding from Education Grants. (NSF, Hearst Foundation and others)*Researchers: Shelley Goldman, Ted Kahn, Jim Greeno, Jennifer Knudsen, Ray McDermott, Angela Booker, Karen Cole, Ralph Manak, Judit Moschkovich, Roy Pea, Tina Syer, and more. *Partners and clients: NSF, US Dept. of Education, Hearst Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Stanford University, Middle Schools in the Bay Area and more. *Research focused on Learning in the K 8- 12 classroom, with special emphasis on mathematics as the greatest hurdle to school success. Researchers developed alternatives to, and support of, traditional math modules by embedding mathematical topics in practical tasks (e.g. design of a building) executed in groups and with computers. ;Research on Learning in the Workplace:* Financed through corporate sponsorship. * Research projects for corporate clients. Research topics were co-developed with the corporate clients to have academic and corporate relevance. Results were shared with the client and a network of affiliates in the form of articles, reports and presentations. * Researchers: Libby Bishop, Melissa Cefkin, William Clancey, Chris Darrouzet, Gitte Jordan, Ted Kahn, Charlotte Linde, Patricia Sachs, Susan Stucky, Eric Vinkhuyzen, Etienne Wenger, Marilyn and Jack Whalen, Helga Wild, and more. * Partners and clients: e.g. Xerox Corporation, State Farm Insurance, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Nynex, Steelcase, Herman Miller, IDEO, Stanford University, and more. ;Research Initiative on Learning, Identity and Diversity:* Researchers: Penny Eckert, Charlotte Linde, working on social identity and memory through sociolinguistic analysis and the analysis of an organization's (his)tories.
History and Philosophy of IRL The chief scientist at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), John Seely Brown, psychologist by training, saw the computer revolution open up the possibility of dramatic changes in learning. He gained the support of David Kearns, CEO of Xerox Corporation, who encouraged the Xerox Foundation to grant a substantial amount of money to the creation of an institution to study learning and innovation in the context of the use of computers.The institute was to operate as an independent entity, even though it was incubated with the knowledge and the assistance of key people from Xerox PARC. It gradually weaned itself from dependence on the grant and earned its keep by the fruits of its research.The institute was named Institute for Research on Learning (IRL) and founded in 1988.Its first director was George Pake, a physicist from PARC. Its staff was composed of an inter-disciplinary group of researchers: recruited in part from PARC and from Stanford and UC Berkeley. Researchers came from the disciplines of education, linguistics, anthropology, computer science, and psychology. Of particular note, James G. Greeno, a senior educational psychologist, worked to define themes and guide research projects throughout IRL's history. This first generation of researchers developed the vision and methodology for the institute. They were inspired by anthropology's conception of learning as a social and cultural phenomenon and inspired by books like “Situated Learning” (Co-authors Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger were members of the institute).The institute adopted ethnography as its main research method, a factor that distinguished it in major ways from other thinktanks. Under this influence the initial image of learning as an individual's interaction with knowledge mediated possibly by computational tools made way for a vision of learning as apprenticeship. In apprenticeship the knowledge content could not be isolated from the learner's social status in a socio-cultural field: apprentices had to be received into a community – a guild, profession or team – and migrated within this group from the periphery towards greater and greater participation in the social and professional activities.The learning process was seen to be substantially one of interaction with the members of one's own community or group first and with related social groups and networks secondarily. From gaining access to a practice to learning how it is carried out by this group, to collaborating with peers on a shared task or agenda, and finally socializing others as an established member – all these were aspects of learning but also evidence of transformations of identity. They establish both the position of the learner and the content of what is to be learned as part of a social practice shaped by and shaping a material and institutional environment.IRL's social perspective opened up areas of learning where none had been suspected before. Learning was found to be present not just in schools and training camps, but also in clubs, midwifery, prisons, neighborhoods, in highly formalized as well as highly informal settings.In traditional schools and workplaces, social interaction was often frowned upon as an interruption of work proper. It was the institute's conviction and commitment to convince the public otherwise. The school part of the institute took on the key gatekeeper in Middle School, mathematics, and created social and practical learning substitutes for the individualized learning tasks in the school curriculum. For instance, instead of teaching fractions in the traditional manner through a series of manipulations of numbers, they developed collaborative design exercises that involved fractions in a practical context – designing a room layout and furniture – that taught students the relevance of fractions in maintaining proportions and gave them a grounded understanding as well as a practical use.The analogous research on the industry side consisted in ethnographic projects in organizations to uncover social forms of learning inside the workplace and to enhance what benefits they could bring to the corporation. These enhancements could relate to the spatial and institutional aspects of work: Several large projects were dedicated to designing work processes, strategies and workplaces in support of the social aspects of work. They could focus on furniture and technology, on organizational processes or on team building, orientation and training. What all had in common was the theoretical position of the institute – to treat a corporation as a social entity composed of individuals and communities formed around key practices or competencies. Communities-of-Practice were seen as building blocks for learning and identity formation and as holders of organizational know-how.During its twelve years of pioneering research, IRL had developed and disseminated many radical advances in social and cognitive science: the use of systematic ethnographic methods to study organizations, the social approach to learning, research projects with corporate clients, emphasis on communities and social networks as instrumental for innovation and organizational knowledge, and the awareness of the informal aspects of an organization. Furthermore, as venue for broad dissemination, in 1989, John Seely Brown and Roy Pea co-founded The Cambridge University Press book series ''Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive,  and Computational Perspectives'' - in over 30 years, close to 50 book titles were published to illuminate and contribute to research scholarship pursuant to the core themes and advances wrought by IRL and its knowledge networks.Throughout those twelve years the institute managed to keep itself afloat through national and other grants and specialized corporate projects. It hired researchers, developed a network of affiliates and corporate sponsors, conducted industry retreats, delivered reports and presentations, and contributed to journals and conferences. In 2000, as the dotcom bubble was bursting, funding for learning research projects became hard to come by. After the institute lost a major project at the end of its fiscal year, the decision was made to cease operations. A number of key educational projects and research staff were transferred into WestEd, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research, development, and service agency which also worked with education and other communities throughout the United States and abroad.After the institute closed, staff members and researchers dispersed, some back to universities, some to other research institutions such as WestEd noted above and to NASA Ames. Others returned to the corporate sector or made their way newly into the corporate world to work in the emerging field of business anthropology or Ethnographic practice in corporations.=== IRL Projects and Researchers (from Annual Reports) === Year  Project Topic  Funder  IRL research lead 1988  MediaWorks Project: Learning through Multimedia Composing Apple Advanced Technology Group  Roy Pea 1988  Cognitive Processes in Understanding and Using Scientific Diagrams NSF, Apple Computer  Roy Pea 1989  VideoNoter: Situating learning with multimedia analysis of human activities  Apple Computer, ACOT  Roy Pea 1992  Video Portfolios Project   Nat’l Brd Prof. Teacher Standards  1992  Thinking Practices Symposium   Carnegie Corporation, New York  Jim Greeno 1992  Synthesis Engineering Education Coalition  NSF, Stanford U./ Ctr for Design Research  1993  Gate Airlines Project  American Airlines  Gitti Jordan 1993  Instructional Design Environment   Apple, Motorola, NHI  1993  Middle-School Math-through–Applications  NSF, Hearst Fndtn   Shelley Goldman 1993  Fellowship program for Minorities  Carnegie Foundation  1993  Environments for Knowledge Worker Productivity  Steelcase  Charlotte Linde 1993  Work Practice and Design Project  Xerox Services  Gitte Jordan 1993  T-Helper Project	  NSF, Info, Robotics & Intelligent Systems  Bill Clancey 1994  Learning and Work Design  Nynex Sci & Technology  Bill Clancey, Gitti Jordan 1994  Learning, Identity and Diversity   Xerox Foundation  Penny Eckert, Etienne Wenger 1994  Gender Restructuring  in Pre-Adolescence  Spencer Foundation  Penny Eckert 1994  Institutional Memory  Xerox Fndnt  Charlotte Linde 1994  Core Competency Reconnaissance	  Congruity, Xerox  Etienne Wenger, E. Solomon-Grey 1994  Classroom Assessment for Math Learning  Hearst Fndtn, PacTell Fndtn, Telesis Fndtn  Shelley Goldman, Ray McDermott  1994  Rethinking Distance Learning  Sun Microsystems  Chris Darrouzet, Helga Wild, Ted Kahn 1994  Life of Engineering Teams  Sun Microsystems  Chris Darrouzet, Helga Wild 1994  Understanding Productive work	  Xerox Services, PARC  Gitte Jordan 1994  Bilingual conversations in Mathematics classrooms  Spencer Foundation  Judit Moschkovich 1994  Synthesis Project. Innovative Assessment for Engineering	  NSF, Stanford U.  Charlotte Linde 1994  Electronic Records Project  HMO, anonymous  Charlotte Linde 1994  Learning Multimedia and Telecommunications  NSF, PacBell, Bay Area Multimedia Alliance  Ted Kahn 1994  Research into the Reform of Education  NSF  Jim Greeno 1994   Workplace as Learning Spaces: Work Practice and Design Project Xerox Corporation, PARC  Gitte Jordan 1995  Technology in Support of Flatter Organizations  Talegen Holdings, PARC  Gitte Jordan 1995  Productivity Partnership  Member-sponsored	 Ted Kahn, Jeff Kelly 1995  Understanding Organizational Learning across Institutions  Insurance companies  Charlotte Linde 1995  Innovation as Learning  Congruity, Raychem, National Semiconductors  Etienne Wenger 1995  Broad Alliance for Multimedia Technologies and Applications (BAMTA)   NASA Ames, multiple companies  Ted Kahn 1996  Alternative Officing in a Sales Office: Informal Learning & Space  Sun Microsystems  Chris Darrouzet & Helga Wild 1996  Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project  US Dep. of Ed, SRI, Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network  Ted Kahn, Ralph Manak, Tina Syer 1996  Classroom Assessment for Math Learning  Hearst Fndtn, NSF, Pacific Telesis Fndnt, anonymous donor  Shelley Goldman & Ray McDermott 1996  Fifth Dimension Project: A Learning Community of After-School Clubs	 Mellon Foundation  Jim Greeno, Ray McDermott, Mizuko Ito 1996  Gender Re-Structuring in Preadolescence: Learning, Identity and Diversity Spencer Foundation  Penny Eckert 1996  A Conversation for Learning for the 21st Century  AT&T Foundation, Institute for the New California   Ted Kahn 1997  Learning in and for Participation in Work & Society  US Dep. of Education (OERI)  Susan Stucky and Jim Greeno 1997  Learning, Multimedia and Telecommunications  NASA, BAMTA member contributions  Ted Kahn 1997  Learning Network Planning  AT&T Foundation  Shelley Goldman and Karen Cole 1997  Mathematical Discourse in Bilingual Settings  NSF  Judit Moschkovich 1997  Multimedia Makers, MediaWorks, DesignNet  NASA, PacBell, BAMTA  Ted Kahn 1997  School-to-Career: Workplace Life skills  Connecticut Ctr for Ed'l and Training Technology Shelley Goldman, Ted Kahn, Ray McDermott 1997  Teacher Professional Development  AT&T Fndtn., NSF, Arthur Andersen & Co, San Mateo County Office of Education Ralph Manak 1997  Affordances of Remote Communication Technologies  Xerox PARC  Gitte Jordan 1997  BRAHMS: Agent-based holistic modeling  Nynex Science & Technology Inc.Bill Clancey 1997  Workplace Assessment: New Sun Campus  Sun Microsystems  Chris Darrouzet & Helga Wild 1997 and on  Broadening Access: Research for Diverse Network Communities	  NSF 	Charlotte Linde & Mizuko Ito 1997  Building Environments for Learning and Innovation  HP Corporation  Helga Wild 1997  Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity  Xerox Fndtn  Etienne Wenger 1997  Customer-driven arrival time  Xerox Corp.  Jack Whalen 1997  Developing and Implementing Integrated Customer Services  Xerox Corp.  Marilyn Whalen 1997  Enhancing Success of Xerox's Sales Representatives	   	Xerox Corp.  Melissa Cefkin 1997  From Training to Learning: Demonstrating Innovation at Xerox   Xerox Corp.  Marilyn Whalen 1997  Institutional Memory	  Xerox Fndtn  Charlotte Linde 1997  Insurance Agent Learning Project	  Insurance Company	  Chris Darrouzet & Charlotte Linde 1997  Learning, Identity & Diversity  Xerox Fndntn  	Penny Eckert, Etienne Wenger 1997  Learning Strategy  Nynex Sci & Technology  Pat Sachs 1997  Phased Interactive Learning 	Xerox Corp. 	Jack & Marilyn Whalen  1997  RepTool Project: Building a Tool for the Learning Organization  Nynex Science & Technology  Gitte Jordan 1997  Design Strategy for Learning & Innovation Environments  Steelcase Inc. and HP  Helga Wild 1998  Primes  NSF  Angela Booker 1998  Middle-School Math: A Curriculum that works	  NSF  Shelley Goldman & Jennifer Knudsen 1998  MMAP Implementation Project  U. of Missouri  Shelley Goldman & Jennifer Knudsen 1998  Creating Assessment Systems  Bay Area School  Karen Cole 1998  Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project  US Dep Education  Ralph Manak, Karen Cole 1998  Research-based Website Design  P International  Karen Cole 1998  New Hire Learning and Development: Xerox Sales	   Xerox Corp.	 Melissa Cefkin 1998  Adapting Practice across Country and Cultural Boundaries  European financial group Susan Stucky 1998  Institute for Women & Technology  Xerox PARC  Penny Eckert 1998   Managing Innovation in a large dispersed Organization    Insurance Co.   Charlotte Linde, Chris Darrouzet, Libby Bishop 1998    Re-Introducing Mentoring and Learning on the job  Insurance Co.    Charlotte Linde, Chris Darrouzet, Libby Bishop 1998   Training, Motivating and Managing the Independent Professional  Insurance Co.  Charlotte Linde, Chris Darrouzet 1998   Work Practice Apprenticeship    Xerox Corp.   Pat Sachs 1998    Integrative Study    US Dep. Education    Susan Stucky 1998    Social Ecology Project    Steelcase Inc.	    Helga Wild 1998   Creating a Learning Strategy    VA     	August Carbonella & Melissa Cefkin 1998    Advanced Seminar in Learning, Technology and Design    Stanford U., School of Education   Shelley Goldman 1998   CapitalWorks Developing a Learning Effectiveness Index     CapitalWorks, Centrobe, Cisco, IBM, Nortel Networks   Melissa Cefkin, Ted Kahn, Jeff Kelley,  1998   Evaluation Framework for NASA's Outreach programs     NASA   	Charlotte Linde 1998   Biodiversity Education through Mountain Lake Rehabilitation    CA Academy of Sciences    	Shelley Goldman 1998   Learning to be Adolescent. Part of IRL's Learning, Identity & Diversity Initiative     IRL   	Penny Eckert 1998    Video Interactives for Teacher analysis and learning     NSF  Pam Briskman 1999   PRIMES: Parents Rediscovering Math and Engaging Schools     NSF    Angela Booker 1999    Revising Educational Strategy in a Major Computer Company   Anonymous    Chris Darrouzet 1999    Intellectual Capital in a Global Financial Firm    Zurich Financial   Susan Stucky 1999  Xerox Work Practice – Building Xerox's Expertise      Xerox Corp.   Melissa Cefkin
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