Understanding Action Learning

“The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies,
can continue growing as we continue to live.

—Morris Adler

“You cannot open a book without learning something.”

—Confucius

This appendix is intended to provide additional understanding about some of the topics discussed in the preceding chapters.¹ It presents information and views from a number of theorists and authors and should be useful to readers wishing to delve further into the theory behind Action Learning (AL). We first discuss theory in more depth that informs the schools of AL (Table 55).

In the Tacit school of AL the focus is primarily on action and results achieved through the project. The Tacit school is characterized by the assumption that learning will take place naturally as carefully selected participants work together, participate in team building, and are provided with information by experts both from within and external to the company.² Attention is usually not paid to how this learning happens, which makes the learning primarily tacit and incidental.³

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