Learning is an inherently social and collaborative activity in which individual learning processes are interdependent and dynamically interlinked with each other: the output of one learning process is input to the next. If we have a look at this phenomenon from a macroscopic perspective, we can observe a knowledge flow across different interlinked individual learning processes. The knowledge becomes less contextualized, more explicitly linked, easier to communicate, in short: it matures. The knowledge maturing process theory structures this process into five phases (based on experiences from several practical cases, [Schmidt 2005, Schmidt & Maier 2007]):

Figure 1: The Knowledge Maturing Process

• Expressing ideas. New ideas are developed by individuals from personal experiences or in highly informal discussions. The knowledge is subjective and deeply embedded in the context of the originator. The vocabulary used for communication or in private notes is vague and often restricted to the person expressing the idea.
• Distributing in communities. This phase accomplishes an important maturing step, i.e. the development of common terminology shared among community members, e.g., in discussion forum entries, blog postings or wikis.
• Formalizing. Artefacts created in the preceding two phases are inherently unstructured and still highly subjective and embedded in the context of the community. In this phase, purpose-driven structured documents are created, e.g. project reports or design documents or process models in which knowledge is desubjectified and the context is made explicit.
• Ad-hoc learning. Documents produced in the preceding phase are not well suited as learning materials because no didactical considerations were taken into account. Now the topic is refined to improve comprehensibility in order to ease its consumption or re-use. The material is ideally prepared in a pedagogically sound way, enabling broader dissemination, e.g. service instructions or manuals.
• Formal training. The ultimate maturity phase puts together individual learning objects to cover a broader subject area. As a consequence, this subject area becomes teachable to novices. Tests and certificates confirm that participants of formal training have achieved a certain degree of proficiency.

Scope of knowledge maturing: from individual to organization

Knowledge assets and the three stands of MATURE

References

Ronald Maier, Andreas Schmidt:
Characterizing Knowledge Maturing: A Conceptual Process Model for Integrating E-Learning and Knowledge Management
In: Norbert Gronau (eds.): 4th Conference Professional Knowledge Management - Experiences and Visions (WM '07), Potsdam, GITO, 2007, pp. 325-334

Andreas Schmidt:
Knowledge Maturing and the Continuity of Context as a Unifying Concept for Knowledge Management and E-Learning
In: Proceedings of I-KNOW 05, Graz, Austria, 2005