Guidelines for assessing progress of learning in complex domains

The question of assessing the progress of learning in complex domains is in itself a particularly complex one. In the first part of this paper we explore a number of the dimensions of this complexity as a context for posing the question how can university students be equipped to deal with the complex conditions of modern life? The paper then asks what kinds of measures can be used to gauge progress along the myriad of pathways that learners may take to achieve greater understanding. The context of this paper is flexible learning in university education vocational programs. Given this complex learning environment a number of questions arise: what lines of inquiry and what investigative tools, might allow us to honour and harness, rather than reduce and stultify, this complexity? In exploring complex domains we are seeking to highlight the learner's or meaning maker's experience of complexity. We argue that the only way to produce sensitive measures of progress of learning in complex domains is for teachers to appreciate the subtleties and depths of the changes that may occur during learning and not just measurable outcomes. The way to help students deal with the complex conditions of modern life is to teach for complexity consciousness and capability