This paper provides a review of the use of action learning in healthcare organisations, or by healthcare professionals, in the past decade, as evidenced in peer-reviewed journals. Action learning has a long history in healthcare and is perhaps particularly suited to an environment where wicked problems abound, where professional development is…

This case study measures the impact on elements of schools' professional environment after school leaders participated in eight action learning (AL) sessions over one summer. The guiding research question asks, What, if any, impact on a building level administrator's leadership practices result after their participation in an Action Learning…

This account of practice is about the 'Scale Up' programme, an attempt by an external consultant and their client to implement a model of Action Learning in an academic environment. It tells the story of establishing an Action Learning programme for local business leaders in collaboration with an academic business school. The programme involved…

This study applies an action learning research (ALR) methodology to develop and implement an electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) for learning and assessment in clinical placements of undergraduate nursing students for the first time in Morocco. Alpha, beta, and gamma systems of ALR were adopted. Twenty-two action learning groups (ALG) was…

Peer researchers (PRs) are research team members who share traits (e.g. gender, age, sexual orientation, diagnosis, income, housing situation, etc.) with study participants. Participatory methods and some fields (e.g. HIV/AIDS) expect PRs to be equitably involved in a project. Moreover, in Canada, there is a current impetus to include 'the…

This paper presents a case study based on the evaluation of the two VAL (virtual action learning) sets. We report participants learning both leadership and the VAL process based on the basis of telephone interviews. We conclude that what is learned about leadership is connected with how learning takes place and suggest that the content and process…

This account of practice encompasses a pilot virtual action learning programme with a small group of learners. This was an 18-month extension to the one-week Leadership Open Programme that the participants had previously completed at the Business School. It includes insights from an evaluation study completed in early 2016. It considers in…

The paper examines the benefits claimed for action learning at individual, organisational and inter-organisational levels. It goes on to identify both generic difficulties in evaluating development programmes and action learning specifically. The distinction between formative and summative evaluation is considered and a summative evaluation…

This account of practice outlines how action learning was used as the key component of a leadership development initiative for managers in an acute hospital setting. It explains how the initiative was conceived, why action learning was chosen and how action learning principles were incorporated. Insights into the outcomes and considerations for…

Action learning is often used as an element of leadership development programmes. The intention is to support classroom learning with an experiential thread which runs throughout the life of the programme. Action Learning Associates (ALA) has been working with an international organisation for three years to deliver the global "First Line…

During my first year of practice as a new action learning facilitator undertaking an "ILM Level 5 Certificate in Action Learning Facilitation", an innovative Individual Service Fund pilot was launched by "Certitude", the organisation for which I work. The aim of this pilot was to enable people with learning disabilities and…

What is an action learning set (ALS)? An ALS is a regular, action focused peer discussion group, generally facilitated, to address work place issues. Methods of undertaking ALS: methods are flexible within a range of approaches according to the group's developing needs. Benefits of ALS: builds trust, professional development, enables action,…

In this paper we evaluate an action learning-based, leadership development programme designed for founders and leaders of growth-oriented, entrepreneurial small to medium-sized enterprises. Based on in-depth, qualitative interviews with participants on one cohort, undertaken two years after completion of the seven-month programme, we demonstrate…

Public health is a major focus of government policy worldwide and an expanding area of practice that includes an array of professionals and disciplines. Since the 1980s "empowerment" of individuals and communities to gain greater control over the factors that influence their health has become the focus of many national and local policies…

Action learning is being increasingly utilised as a strategy to underpin practitioner focused development and research projects in healthcare generally and nursing in particular. Whilst facilitators of and participants in action learning have a variety of resource materials to guide their practice and participation, there continue to be few…