Action learning: developing critical competencies for knowledge era workers

For most of the twentieth century, the goal in education was the generation and dissemination of information. With the rise of technology and unlimited access to information, it is the ability to apply knowledge and learn from experience that is the new priority for employee development. Action learning, with its emphasis on action and reflection, provides an effective means to develop the learning competencies our new world requires. This article describes the action learning process used in a Fortune 500 company and highlights the findings of a learning competencies evaluation survey.     

Action learning and organisation development: overlapping fields of practice

This paper explores the relationship between action learning and Organisation Development (OD). It proposes that they are overlapping fields of practice, with interesting similarities and differences. Both fields of practice are experienced as challenging to conventional ways of viewing organisations and people but are also subject to increasing challenge themselves and both aspects are examined. Two accounts of practice are included, which cast light on action learning and OD and some preconditions for a more fruitful future relationship between the two fields are proposed.     

Action learning and critical thinking: a synthesis of two models

Recent scholarship and the news media have identified a lack of critical thinking and ethical behavior in the business world. These deficiencies have led to faulty decision-making, ineffective planning, and frequent organizational dysfunction. This situation has focused attention on both practitioners in the field of business and on the university programs that educate them. A number of upper-tier universities have begun to address these important issues by exploring ways of revising their Master of Business Administration programs to place greater emphasis on their graduates' ability to think critically and consider ethical implications before and after taking action. The authors propose a potential means of addressing these issues in both the business and academic environments through a synthesis of two well-established models based on the constructs of critical thinking and action learning. This synthesis has the potential to produce symbiotic and synergistic effects that may provide educators and practitioners with a new tool for encouraging critical thinking and ethical behavior. The implications for future research and practice are also discussed.     

Action learning for professionals: a new approach to practice

Following on from the article ‘Building Capacity in Social Care: An Evaluation of a National Programme of Action Learning Facilitator Development’ (Abbott, C., L. Burtney, and C. Wall. 2013. Action Learning: Research & Practice 10 (2): 168–177), this article describes how action learning is being introduced in Cornwall Council, UK and explores the relationship between social work and action learning in practice. In essence social work needs to perform well and achieve positive outcomes for users of its services. Cornwall Council's Children's Social Work and Psychology Services is introducing action learning for professionals as a new approach to practice.     

Action Learning Circles: action learning in theory and practice

ABSTRACT

This paper is a commentary on how action learning circles can be effectively used (to offer experiential and emancipatory learning for students. The focus is on the preparation of students for health care education, and its value in the context of professional client‐based teaching and learning. The concept of action learning is described, and its role in promoting learning from practice explored using student and teacher evaluation evidence. An outline of the use of action learning circles in practice and the subsequent learning is analysed using evaluation data to inform our discussion, which gives the perspective of both learner and teacher.     

Action learning and constructivist grounded theory: powerfully overlapping fields of practice

This paper considers the shared characteristics between action learning (AL) and the research methodology constructivist grounded theory (CGT). Mirroring Edmonstone's [2011. “Action Learning and Organisation Development: Overlapping Fields of Practice.” Action Learning: Research and Practice 8 (2): 93–102] article, which explored the relationship(s) between AL and organisation development, a case is made that AL and CGT are powerfully overlapping fields of practice. An account of practice is included to provide a contextual explanation of the ‘overlap’, and a new methodological praxeology is proposed to the field of practice/practitioner-focused research.     

Action learning in postgraduate executive management education: an account of practice

The merits of action learning as a change tool and enabler of deep learning are well recognised. However, there is a gap in the literature of participants’ stories regarding their experiences on accredited postgraduate executive programmes underpinned by an action learning philosophy. The following account of practice addresses this gap and recounts participant experiences, in their own words, combined with my insights into these learning experiences of a Master of Business Studies. While the programme is underpinned by an action learning philosophy, it does not discount programmed learning. However, programmed learning is not privileged over the executives’ own experiences and knowledge of their own problems; they are seen as the experts. Throughout the programme, the participants are members of an action learning set in which they address real problems in their own organisations, problems on which they can take action. This account examines the experiences, as told by the executive participants, and so provides rich and in-depth insights into their learning experiences. It provides an opportunity for educators to appreciate the depth and richness of learning and change which can occur as a consequence of adopting an action learning approach on such programmes. Furthermore, this account provides evidence of how action learning can contribute and be an enabler to the development of executives as reflective and critical practitioners able to better face an ever more complex and challenging world.     

Student accounts of action learning on a DBA programme: learning inaction

This account of practice sets out the action learning experience of three doctoral students on the same Doctoral Programme in Business Administration at a UK university. It also include the sense-making of a fourth member of the set. It explores the tension between their area of work and their engagement in the action learning process and, in so doing, contributes to the ongoing debate about the relative priority of learning and problem-solving in action learning. The account narrates the students’ personal accounts of their involvement with the action learning set (ALS), what they felt worked and what did not before reflecting on their personal contributions as hybrid practitioner-learners. Insights into the experience are offered up to illuminate the function and purpose of the ALS within a management education programme.     

Action learning: cultural differences

The article describes the experience of forming a set in a higher education institution and offers some observations and insights gained from the perspectives of the role of the set adviser, cultural differences and the challenges of attempting to align theory, practice and experience.     

Cultivating critical thinkers: Exploring transfer of learning from pre-service teacher training to classroom practice

This study explores the transfer of critical thinking skills and dispositions from pre-service teacher training to classroom practice and student achievement in the cases of two graduates from a course on critical thinking-integrated instruction. Two 7th and two 8th grade classes were randomly assigned as experimental (CT-integrated instruction), or comparison (traditional instruction) groups. Empirical results demonstrated that, in these two cases, the teachers successfully developed CT-integrated instruction for effectively fostering students' CT skills and dispositions, while improving student achievement. Future research should include larger and more representative samples to avoid bias and reliably evaluate CT-based teacher training initiatives.     

行动学习：—种革命性的学习理念与方法

时代呼唤新的学习方式 我相信，在过去的岁月中，你已经参加了若干次培训，你曾为新奇的理念所折服，也曾为激情的言语所打动。一瞬间，你感觉自己仿佛焕然一新，实现梦想近在咫尺……然而时光流逝，激情褪去，理念淡忘，行为依旧，结果仍然如初。如果没有引发一个人行为上根本而持久的改变，培训效果就几乎等于零。     

Action learning: the possibility of differing hierarchies in learning sets

This paper presents the proposition that a variety of differing hierarchies exist in an action learning set at any one time, and each hierarchy has the potential to affect an individual's behaviour within the set. An interpretivist philosophy underpins the research framework adopted in this paper. Data were captured by means of 11 in-depth interviews that formed part of wider research into set members' perceptions of what makes an effective action learning set. The interviewees were all former students of the researcher and her colleagues. The research draws upon grounded theory as a dominant research paradigm and uses thematic analysis to interpret the research findings. The findings of the research serve to simply illustrate that there is the potential for a variety of differing hierarchies to exist in an action learning set at any one time. Some of the hierarchies may exist for the full duration of the set; others are somewhat ephemeral. The findings from this research also present themselves as points of consideration for academics and practioners who have used or are about to use action learning as a learning vehicle.