Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Sources to chapter quotations
- Why this book on teaching management?
- 1 Fundamental elements in teaching
- 2 Levels of learning: one, two, and three
- 3 Adult learning theory: it matters
- 4 Planning a course: trips and tips
- 5 Planning a class: no detail is too small
- 6 Lecturing: the possibilities and the perils
- 7 Managing discussions
- 8 Case method: fostering multidimensional learning
- 9 Role-playing
- 10 Case writing: crafting a vehicle of interest and impact
- 11 Case teaching notes: getting from here to there
- 12 Action learning
- 13 Experiential methods
- 14 Enhancing the conversation: audiovisual tools and techniques
- 15 Executive education: contributing to organizational competitive advantage
- 16 Using technology to teach management
- 17 Counseling students
- 18 Evaluating students: the twin tasks of certification and development
- 19 Teaching evaluations: feedback that can help and hurt
- 20 Research presentations
- 21 Managing a degree program: behind the ‘glory’
- 22 Managing a nondegree client program: an overview
- 23 Dealing with the press
- 24 Managing yourself and your time
- 25 Using teaching portfolios and course portfolios
- 26 Conclusion: is this on the exam?
- Index
12 - Action learning
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Sources to chapter quotations
- Why this book on teaching management?
- 1 Fundamental elements in teaching
- 2 Levels of learning: one, two, and three
- 3 Adult learning theory: it matters
- 4 Planning a course: trips and tips
- 5 Planning a class: no detail is too small
- 6 Lecturing: the possibilities and the perils
- 7 Managing discussions
- 8 Case method: fostering multidimensional learning
- 9 Role-playing
- 10 Case writing: crafting a vehicle of interest and impact
- 11 Case teaching notes: getting from here to there
- 12 Action learning
- 13 Experiential methods
- 14 Enhancing the conversation: audiovisual tools and techniques
- 15 Executive education: contributing to organizational competitive advantage
- 16 Using technology to teach management
- 17 Counseling students
- 18 Evaluating students: the twin tasks of certification and development
- 19 Teaching evaluations: feedback that can help and hurt
- 20 Research presentations
- 21 Managing a degree program: behind the ‘glory’
- 22 Managing a nondegree client program: an overview
- 23 Dealing with the press
- 24 Managing yourself and your time
- 25 Using teaching portfolios and course portfolios
- 26 Conclusion: is this on the exam?
- Index
Summary
One must learn by doing, for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.
– AristotleThere can be no action without learning and no learning without action.
– Reginald Revans, “Father” of Action LearningAction 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.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Teaching ManagementA Field Guide for Professors, Consultants, and Corporate Trainers, pp. 201 - 211Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006