Action learning at its most basic is learning by doing. It was created by Professor Reg Revans in the 1940s as a means to improve coal production in the United Kingdom. Revans observed that learning had two components. Learning garnered from authorities, such as academic theory and concepts, and learning from student questioning of their own experience. Without both learning components, Revans asserted, learning was incomplete. Thus, practice, reflection and doing began to garner as much attention as abstract models.

Action learning, as a management education concept, has come to incorporate the creation of situations through which students can solve real problems and thus learn by doing. Much of its interest has come about to redress what is seen by many as a flaw in management education, specifically the opportunity to practice.

Currently a great deal of attention is surrounding action learning in the context of executive development. Company based action learning projects, through which teams of managers work on issues of strategic importance within their corporation, are threaded through executive education curricula. Clearly, action learning has become a dominant learning vehicle in non-degree programs. However, it is also becoming increasingly important in degree programs.