He sought to offer an approach to an epistemology of practice based on a close examination of what a (small) number of different practitioners actually do. (1968) The Active Society. Newman 1999 analysis of Schon’s ‘epistemology of reflective practice’), as far as I know, his work has not been approached in its totality. His first book, Displacement of Concepts (1963) (republished in 1967 as Invention and the Evolution of Ideas) dealt with ‘the ways in which categories are used to examine “things” but are not themselves examined as ways of thinking’ (Parlett 1991, quoted in Pakman 2000). Practitioners build up a collection of images, ideas, examples and actions that they can draw upon. The opportunity for learning, Donald Schon suggests, is primarily in discovered systems at the periphery, ‘not in the nexus of official policies at the centre’ (ibid. The impact of Donald Schon’s work on reflective practice has been significant – with many training and education programmes for teachers and informal educators adopting his core notions both in organizing experiences and in the teaching content. What is the nature of the process by which organizations, institutions and societies transform themselves? Usher, R. et al (1997) Adult Education and the Postmodern Challenge, London: Routledge. He argues for formulating projective models that can be carried forward into further instances (a key aspect of his later work on reflective practice). The Athenian was educated by culture, by paideia. First, the distinction between reflection in and on action has been the subject of some debate (see Eraut 1994 and Usher et al 1997). (Smith 1994: 150). Donald Schon’s next book Technology and Change, The new Heraclitus (1967) developed out of his experience as an organizational consultant and received considerable critical acclaim. He was also a student at the Sorbonne, Paris and Conservatoire Nationale de Music, where he studied clarinet and was awarded the Premier Prix. (1933) How We Think, New York: D. C. Heath. Despite his admiration for Boyer, Schön was not enthusiastic about the prospects for change in higher education. world of practitioners Schön (1983) noticed a tendency of what he labelled ‘technical rationality’, the idea that practice should strictly follow positivistic notions of natural scientific measurement and method. Schön develops many of the themes that were to be such a significant part of his collaboration with Chris Argyris and his exploration of reflective practice. Practitioners are able to describe how they ‘think on their feet’, and how they make use of a repertoire of images, metaphors and theories. During his later years Donald Schon also developed an interest in software design and, in particular, the role of computers in designing, and the uses of design games to expand designing capabilities. Add to My Bookmarks Export citation. While his critical analysis of systems theory substitutes responsive networks for traditional hierarchies, his theory of governance remains locked in top-down paternalism. Exhibit 1: Donald Schon on learning and the loss of the stable state. Second, they give a new twist to pragmatic learning theory: Unlike Dewey’s, Lewin’s or Kolb’s learning cycle, where one had, so to speak, to make a mistake and reflect upon it… it is now possible… to learn by simply reflecting critically upon the theory-in-action. Schön proceeds to criticize Simon and feature his own theory of design thinking. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He graduated from Yale in 1951 (Phi Beta Kappa), where he studied philosophy. Going back to books like Beyond the Stable State pays great dividends. What is interesting to me is the part about how the technical rationality often leads to the "mystique of technical expertise", the sort of wizardry some folks impose on others, showing that "they know (and you don't)". Note: I have used Donald Schon rather than Donald Schön (which is the correct spelling) as English language web search engines (and those using them!) Some features of the site may not work correctly. There have also been no psychological elaborations of the psychological realities of reflection in action (Russell and Munby 1989). It may well be that this failure to attend to method and to problematize the production of his models and ideas has also meant that his contribution in this area has been often used in a rather unreflective way by trainers. Pakman (2000:3) goes on to comment: The interest in metaphor expressed in that book, would grow years later toward his elaborations on “generative metaphor,” and its role in allowing us to see things anew. The Action Turn: toward a transformational social science, From Knowledge to Wisdom: A Revolution in the Aims and Methods of Science. The business firm, representing the whole functional system, must now learn to effect the transformation and diffusion of the system as a whole. social scientist and consultant examines five professions - engineering, architecture, management, psychotherapy, and town planning - to show how professionals really go about solving problems. Finger, M. and Asún, M. (2000) Adult Education at the Crossroads. In many respects, Donald Schon is using a distinction here that would have been familiar to Aristotle – between the technical (productive) and the practical. The notion of repertoire is a key aspect of this approach. Interestingly, though, it is difficult to find a sustained exploration of his contribution as a whole. Perspectives on learning. One way of making sense of this is to say that there is split between theory and action. Working from 1957-63 as senior staff member in the industrial research firm Arthur D. Little, Inc., Donald Schon formed the New Product Group in the Research and Development Division. Here we can see Donald Schon’s attention moving toward some of the themes that emerged in The Stable State. 355 + xvii pages. Vol. To this end Argyris and Schon (1974) initially looked to three elements: Governing variables: those dimensions that people are trying to keep within acceptable limits. Yet for all his talk of networks and the significance of the ‘periphery, Donald Schon’s analysis falters when it comes to the wider picture. technical rationality Scho, n argues ha, s led to an undervaluin ogf the practical knowledge o f action tha its central to the work of practitioners Thi. Valli (1990, 1997) also refers to the first level as technical rationality but differs by positing that technical rationality is a nonreflective level. of technical rationality. There is a clear relationship between reflection in and on action. The business firm, Donald Schon argues, is a striking example of a learning system. However, what Schön saw as the problem was not undue reliance on applied science, but a more general "positivist epistemology of practice"13 that led precisely to the kind of technical rationality advocated by Simon. However, with technical change continuing exponentially its pervasiveness and frequency was ‘uniquely threatening to the stable state’ (ibid. Usher et. Husén, T. (1974) The Learning Society, London: Methuen. Under the Kennedy administration, he was appointed director of the Institute for Applied Technology in the National Bureau of Standards at the US Department of Commerce (he continued there until 1966). : 45-6). (Schon 1973: 75). From technical rationality to reflection-in action. He was part of the first wave of thinkers around the notion (other key contributors include Robert M. Hutchins 1970; Amitai Etzioni 1968; and Torsten Husen 1974). We must become able not only to transform our institutions, in response to changing situations and requirements; we must invent and develop institutions which are ‘learning systems’, that is to say, systems capable of bringing about their own continuing transformation. Schon’s great innovation at this point was to explore the extent to which companies, social movements and governments were learning systems – and how those systems could be enhanced. (1967) Invention and the evolution of ideas, London: Tavistock (first published in 1963 as Displacement of Concepts). Technical-rationality is a positivist epistemology of practice. What are the characteristics of effective learning systems? First, their introduction of the notion of ‘theory in action’ gives greater coherence and structure to the function of ‘abstract conceptualization’ in Kolb’s very influential presentation of experiential learning. In 1953 he began to teach Philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles. Newman, S. (1999) Philosophy and Teacher Education: A Reinterpretation of Donald A. Schon’s Epistemology of Reflective Practice, London: Avebury, Pakman, M. (2000) ‘Thematic Foreword: Reflective Practices: The Legacy Of Donald Schön’, Cybernetics & Human Knowing, Vol.7, no.2-3, 2000, pp. And while there is good deal of rhetoric around the notion of the learning society, as Stuart Ranson has convincingly argued, it is Donald Schon’s work on learning systems that still provides the most thorough theoretical treatment. Belief in the stable state, he suggests, is belief in ‘the unchangeability, the constancy of central aspects of our lives, or belief that we can attain such a constancy’ (Schon 1973: 9). The focus for his doctoral dissertation (1955) was John Dewey’s theory of inquiry – and this provided him with the pragmatist framework that runs through his later work. Donald Schon was born in Boston in 1930 and raised in Brookline and Worcester. Significantly, he was also an accomplished pianist and clarinettist – playing in both jazz and chamber groups. Donald Schon looks to a more ‘existentially’-oriented approach. Such learning may then lead to an alteration in the governing variables and, thus, a shift in the way in which strategies and consequences are framed. The Reflective Turn. Throughout the research, particular attention is given to Schön’s conceptual term, “technical rationality”, which, as a phenomenon reflects instances where action flows from the basis of a preset thought-model. But while Dewey and Schon both address the same questions, and both reject the same wronganswers, they offer different, and competing, rightones.1 Dewey (1902, 1904, 1938) shares with the technical rationalists a commitment to science as the method of reflection, but rejects technical often have difficulties with umlauts). : 166). Schon's view, it will be recalled, is that Technical Rationality presents us with a view which is at odds with our experience. Third, it could be argued that while Donald Schon is engaged here in the generation of formal theory – ‘what we do not find in Schon is a reflection by him on his own textual practice in giving some kind of account of that he does of reflection-in-action and the reflective practicum… He does not interrogate his own method’. An alternative response is to question to governing variables themselves, to subject them to critical scrutiny. cit.). He then proceeds to build the case for a concern with learning (see inset). cit.). It is sufficient to readjust the theory through double-loop learning (ibid. It is here that the full importance of reflection-on-action becomes revealed. Learning can also be social: A social system learns whenever it acquires new capacity for behaviour, and learning may take the form of undirected interaction between systems… [G]overnment as a learning system carries with it the idea of public learning, a special way of acquiring new capacity for behaviour in which government learns for the society as a whole. He later became Ford Professor Emeritus and senior lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning. In a similar fashion, his work with Chris Argyris still features very strongly in debates around organizational learning and the possibilities, or otherwise, of learning organizations. Schools: rethinking their purposes, practices and principles. What is sanctuary? Examines the move from technical rationality to reflection-in-action and examines the process involved in various instances of professional judgement. Workers may write up recordings, talk things through with a supervisor and so on. Technical rationality is a useful model for practice when situations are simple and straightforward and where the same solution can be expected to work in every instance. Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. of technical rationality and that such a view was insufficient. While he was there he began a very fruitful collaboration with Chris Argyris. As such they have suffered from being approached in ways that would have troubled Donald Schon. We test out our ‘theories’ or, as John Dewey might have put it, ‘leading ideas’ and this allows to develop further responses and moves. Schon Shock: a case for refraining reflection‐in‐action? The focus for his doctoral dissertation (1955) was … • Schön makes two kinds of critics to the technical rationality: – On the Applicability of … ‘The two essential facts are… the increasing proportion of free time and the rapidity of change. It involves looking to our experiences, connecting with our feelings, and attending to our theories in use. The picture of Donald Schon is reproduced here according to the terms of the Free Art Licence and sourced from Wikipedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_schon_pic.jpg. (Schon 1973: 57). While it is Donald Schon’s work on organizational learning and reflective practice that tends to receive the most attention in the literature, his exploration of the nature of learning systems and the significance of learning in changing societies has helped to define debates around the so called ‘learning society’. ‘Abstract conceptualisation now becomes something one can analyse and work from’ (Finger and Asún 2000: 45). Landmark statement of ‘double-loop’ learning’ and distinction between espoused theory and theory-in-action. A very influential book (following Schön’s 1970 Reith Lectures) arguing that ‘change’ is a fundamental feature of modern life and that it is necessary to develop social systems that can learn and adapt. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation. It entails building new understandings to inform our actions in the situation that is unfolding. In addition those consequences can be for the self, and/or for others. We have to think things through, for every case is unique. Influential book that examines professional knowledge, professional contexts and reflection-in-action. Schon, D (2002) From technical rationality to reflection in action. This involves the way they plan, implement and review their actions. The description of what he calls Technical Rationality is a pathetic lie: Schon claims that technically rational scientists and engineers first decide on what the results should be, and then set out to obtain them. To see this site as that one is not to subsume the first under a familiar category or rule. He suggests that the movement toward learning systems is, of necessity, ‘a groping and inductive process for which there is no adequate theoretical basis’ (op. We must make the capacity for undertaking them integral to ourselves and to our institutions. © Mark K. Smith First published July 2001. The role of experience in developing teachers professional knowledge’ in D. A. Schön (ed.) (Schon 1973: 109). Donald Schon, like John Dewey (1933: 123), saw this as central to reflective thought. Dewey, J. What is significant is that Schön presents Simon's theory of design as diametrically the opposite of his own theory of design, which plays up reflection-in-action. Inside the Learning Society, London: Cassell. In turn, things can be left and returned to. He was invited to give the 1970 Reith Lectures in London. In this ‘dynamic conservatism’ has an important place. Schön, D. A. An analysis of issues and programs, New York: Teachers College Press. From 1990-92, he served as chair of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. 5–8. Public and private learning in a changing society, Harmondsworth: Penguin. Donald Alan Schon (1930-1997) trained as a philosopher, but it was his concern with the development of reflective practice and learning systems within organizations and communities for which he is remembered. Chapter 3, From technical rationality to reflection-in-action . However, we can draw on what has gone before. Indeed Donald Schon may well have failed to clarify what is involved in the reflective process – and there is a problem, according to Eraut, around time – ‘when time is extremely short, decisions have to be rapid and the scope for reflection is extremely limited’ (1994: 145). Add to My Bookmarks Export citation. : 64). The space afforded by recording, supervision and conversation with our peers allows us to approach these. We must learn to understand, guide, influence and manage these transformations. al. Chapter 2: From technical rationality to reflection-in-action. However, Schön points out, “Increasingly we have become aware of the importance of complexity, uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and value conflict, which do not fit the model of Technical Rationality. Donald Schon creates, arguably, ‘a descriptive concept, quite empty of content’ (Richardson 1990: 14). Donald Schon was born in Boston in 1930 and raised in Brookline and Worcester. (Usher et. The loss of the stable state means that our society and all of its institutions are in continuous processes of transformation. Being able to reproduce codified knowledge was no … Schön, D. (1987) Educating the Reflective Practitioner, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. However, such processes cannot be repeated in full for everything we do.
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