This paper poses the question 'What can we learn from the person-centred counselling literature which could be used by the action learning facilitator to help benefit the set?'. This question may be particularly important to facilitators seeking new ways to run their sets and to facilitators who would like to introduce a more humanistic and less…

The case for the notion of action learning research has been posed and explored in several publications over the past few years. There is no tradition within action learning of understanding it as an approach to research. Within some academic circles, there has been a focus on the "action turn," the development of the notion of actionable…

The idea of reflection is central to the theory and practice of learning--especially learning which is grounded in past or current experience. This paper proposes a working definition of reflection and reviews its origins and recent developments. The author also provides an account of "critical reflection", including its rationale and…

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…

Here, we argue that action learning (AL) has been evolving into different variations, whose respective advocates appear to concentrate on one of the several components inherent in Revans' formulation of AL as L = P + Q. They do this--sometimes inappropriately--to the virtual or relative exclusion of other aspects, and this has consequences for the…

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…

This paper seeks to improve our understanding of the emotional and political dynamics that are generated (and too often avoided) in action learning. The idea at the centre of the paper is a distinction between "learning-in-action" and "learning inaction". The phrase "learning-in-action" represents the value of action…

This paper explores how students made sense of the learning that occurred within a Masters educational programme (an MA in Human Resource Development), a programme informed by the ideals of critical action learning and critically reflective practice. Theoretically the paper develops links between communities of practice theory and critical action…

The action learning set (ALS) is an often-used tool in practice development to facilitate group reflection. As such, its use evolves in the hands of the participants as they become more comfortable with the process and as trust develops amongst group members. This paper aims to discuss the journey of one ALS over a 2-year period. It seeks to…

A purposive sampling and analysis of ten case histories of action learning in the US suggests that applications tend to be partial, hierarchical, and leader controlled, thus running counter in several significant ways to the gold standard of Revans' action learning theory and egalitarian rules of engagement. Using critical markers to inspect the…

The purpose of action learning is to learn through devising solutions and strategies in response to problems and implementing them through deliberative action. To understand the relation between action and learning, learners and facilitators need sufficient understanding of both concepts, but they are handicapped by lack of adequate theory and…

Action learning programmes are supposed to result in both personal and organizational development. However, organizational development can be negligible because, as the term implies, a connection must be secured between what has been learned by action learning participants and other members of an organization. Here, the facilitation and analysis…