About

Victoria J Marsick is a Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she also serves as Co-Director of the J.M. Huber Institute and Program Director of Adult Learning. Her scholarly interests include informal workplace learning, team learning, action learning, strategic organizational learning, and knowledge management, with a focus on learning organizations and international models of management. She holds a B.A. from Notre Dame University, an M.I.P.A. from the Maxwell School, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Her work emphasizes understanding and facilitating learning in organizational and workplace settings, contributing to the fields of adult education and organizational development.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Pedagogy
• Engineering
• Artificial Intelligence
• Knowledge management
• Epistemology
• Social Science
• Management
• Medicine
• Social psychology
• Engineering ethics
• Political Science
• Philosophy
• Applied psychology
• Cognitive science
• Public relations
• Psychotherapist
• Medical education

Selected publications

• Additional Data

  aperio · 2026-01-06

  otherOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Seeing Learning Differently

  2026-02-19

  book-chapter

  The chapter introduces the concept of the book. It develops the argument that, in the face of the significant societal changes currently occurring, adult learning must be seen differently. In particular, we need to widen our view of it from teaching in adult education to learning in various social situations. The empirical contributions of the book focus on learning during biographical transitions and in the context of work. The authors also discuss theoretical perspectives that help us to better understand the nexus of the various aspects of the situatedness of adult learning.

  PublisherDOI

• PFA Measure (1.0)

  aperio · 2026-01-06

  otherOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• “Thinking Out Loud” and “Pivoting on the Fly”—An Empirical Review and Critical Incident Study of How Physicians Engage in Incidental Learning Amidst Complexity

  Human Resource Development Quarterly · 2026-05-11

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT This study explores incidental learning among physicians navigating uncertainty during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Using a constructivist research design, we conducted a literature review of 13 empirical studies on incidental learning in complexity and analyzed critical incident interviews with 12 emergency medicine and intensive care physicians, using a combined deductive‐inductive coding approach. We illustrate how incidental learning in complexity operates through five key tensions: evidence‐based protocols versus intuitive responses, instability versus stability‐seeking, individual expertise versus collaborative input, professional confidence versus acknowledged vulnerability, and cognitive demands versus emotional management. Physicians employed strategies including “thinking out loud” to convert tacit insights into actionable knowledge, pattern recognition under ambiguous conditions, and collaborative cross‐checking to navigate patient care without established protocols. These findings challenge existing process models of incidental learning by demonstrating non‐linear, tension‐driven forms of learning. The study contributes to HRD theory by revealing how incidental learning functions as an accelerator for innovative thinking and adaptive decision making when traditional evidence‐based approaches prove insufficient.

  PublisherDOI

• Collaboratively researching adult learning: an epilogue

  Universität Zürich, ZORA · 2026-03-02

  book-chapterOpen access

  With the transition from modernity to late “liquid modernity”, it has become clear that personally worthwhile and societally significant learning arises from beyond what happens within schools, universities, or adult education institutions, or what occurs in individuals’ minds alone. Learning is a phenomenon that occurs through the complex interactions between individuals and their society in various ways. The aim of this volume is to approach and appraise this learning from a perspective that accommodates and acknowledges the range of ways in which adults learn and develop through their engagements with their (changing) social environments. Working on this task, the focus is on the nexus of life course, work, and transitions. That implies firstly that learning – both in and beyond formal settings – is seen as a phenomenon arising throughout the lifetime and, secondly, especially for adults, that many of the learning processes are related to paid and unpaid work and working life. Thirdly, transitions involve learning related to movements, whether in the context of societal transformation, workplace changes, individual career development, and life circumstances and phases. Having set this focus, the subject of understanding learning in liquid modernity still is the broad and ambitious aim of this volume.

  PublisherDOI

• Navigating Complexity and Thriving in Liminal Spaces Through Learning-Based Work

  2026-02-19

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  The increasingly dynamic interplay between work and learning calls for new perspectives on the role and purpose of learning in the workplace. Historically, workplace learning (formal and informal) typically focused on developing knowledge and skills to improve performance based on predetermined standards or competencies linked to organisational goals. While traditional training emphasised consistency, today’s rapidly changing, complex environments require adaptive innovations that often call for generative learning to address emerging challenges and opportunities. Such learning is motivated by hyper-awareness of environmental shifts and characterised by iterative cycles of experimentation described here as learning-based work that precedes and feeds change. Under the right conditions, experimentation can open liminal spaces for learning and help the organisation face uncertainty. However, to take full advantage of new possibilities, the organisation must change to support the fledgling growth of new forms of learning. In this chapter, we draw on complexity science and our own earlier work to introduce and examine five principles that we hypothesise as core components of learning-based work. Using insights from our work on complexity, we show how liminal learning communities can be nurtured and supported. Finally, we explore implications for organisational supports and barriers to such learning and offer critical cautions.

  PublisherDOI

• Collaboratively Researching Adult Learning

  2026-02-19

  book-chapter

  With the transition from modernity to late “liquid modernity”, it has become clear that personally worthwhile and societally significant learning arises from beyond what happens within schools, universities, or adult education institutions, or what occurs in individuals’ minds alone. Learning is a phenomenon that occurs through the complex interactions between individuals and their society in various ways. The aim of this volume is to approach and appraise this learning from a perspective that accommodates and acknowledges the range of ways in which adults learn and develop through their engagements with their (changing) social environments. Working on this task, the focus is on the nexus of life course, work, and transitions. That implies firstly that learning – both in and beyond formal settings – is seen as a phenomenon arising throughout the lifetime and, secondly, especially for adults, that many of the learning processes are related to paid and unpaid work and working life. Thirdly, transitions involve learning related to movements, whether in the context of societal transformation, workplace changes, individual career development, and life circumstances and phases. Having set this focus, the subject of understanding learning in liquid modernity still is the broad and ambitious aim of this volume.

  PublisherDOI

• Additional Program Information

  aperio · 2026-01-06

  otherOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Adult Education in Changing Times

  2026-02-19

  book
  PublisherDOI

• The PFA Transparency Matrix

  aperio · 2026-01-06

  otherOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Karen E. Watkins

  University of Georgia

  82 shared

• Judy O’Neil

  University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

  25 shared

• Lyle Yorks

  20 shared

• Martha A. Gephart

  Columbia University

  15 shared

• Henriette Lundgren

  11 shared

• Dimitrios Papanagnou

  9 shared

• R.F. Poell

  Tilburg University

  7 shared

• Elizabeth Kasl

  7 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Notre Dame University

• Other

  Maxwell School

• Ph.D.

  University of California at Berkeley