Engeström, Yrjö , (2001) ‘Expansive Learning at Work: toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization’, Journal of Education and Work, 14:1, 133 -156
“Gregory Bateson’s (1972) theory of learning is one of the few approaches helpful for tackling this challenge. Bateson distinguished between three levels of learning. Learning I refers to conditioning, acquisition of the responses deemed correct in the given context—for instance, the learning of correct answers in a classroom. Bateson points out that wherever we observe Learning I, also Learning II is going on: people acquire the deep-seated rules and patterns of behavior characteristic to the context itself. Thus, in classrooms, students learn the ‘hidden curriculum’ of what it means to be a student: how to please the teachers, how to pass exams, how to belong to groups, etc. Sometimes the context bombards participants with contradictory demands: Learning II creates as double bind. Such pressures can lead to Learning III where a person or a group begins to radically question the sense and meaning of the context and to construct a wider alternative context. Learning III is essentially a collective endeavor. As Bateson points out, processes of Learning III are rare and dangerous:”
BATESON, G. (1972) Steps to an Ecology of Mind (New York, Ballantine Books).