Fiore, S. M., & Salas, E. (2007). Problems and possibilities: Strategicially pursuing a science of learning in distributed environments. In S. M. Fiore & E. Salas (Eds.), Toward a science of distributed learning (pp. 237-264). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11582-011
Strategic thinking in science must necessarily first be conceptualized from a macro-level perspective. Because of this, we outline our ideas through the lens of science policy and discuss how strategic thinking needs to drive scientific funding if we are to truly address the societal needs associated with understanding learning. Toward this end, we describe how the scientific community can pursue a model of strategic science developed through the integration of concepts that have emerged in science policy debates and discussions over the past 10 years. We divide this chapter into two primary sections. First, we summarize some of the broader scientific issues that have been circulating in policy debates so that we can inform readers of the types of ideas that will eventually affect scientific endeavors. Then we outline our conceptualization of a strategic science space where we have integrated a set of concepts that can guide science to better address the complex problems we are facing in the 21st century. This sets the stage for our second part, in which we then discuss the contributions to this volume within the context of our strategic science space to illustrate how the ideas presented in these chapters can be conceptualized as laying the foundation for a science of learning in distributed environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)