Reflective Learning in Practice

Citation

(2003), "Reflective Learning in Practice", Education + Training, Vol. 45 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2003.00445dae.001

Reflective Learning in Practice

Reflective Learning in Practice

A. Brockbank, I. McGill and N. Beech (Eds)Gower2002ISBN: 0 566 08377 9

At the outset of this book, the authors argue that the idea of the learning organisation continues to "stimulate the imagination" and encourage "new approaches" to learning and development at work. However, this is not just another text which attempts to prescribe the learning organisation and identify the way forward. Rather, and entirely in keeping with its title, it is a more reflective piece; one which seeks to lay the basis for the reader to draw insight from detailed accounts of innovative and interesting learning and development practice.

Reflective learning is regarded as the key criteria for each of the case studies which are drawn. The authors explain vividly that they are attempting to get into the "black box" of the appropriate conditions to create and support reflective learning. Necessarily, therefore, the first part of the book is devoted to setting the scene of reflective learning in a theoretical context. This is concise yet accessible. It is interesting, though, that the editors conclude this section with a chapter that highlights the key themes which they interpret are reflected in the case contributions which follow. Admittedly they are posed as questions – e.g. Should time and space be provided for learning? Who owns the learning? How do emotions relate to learning? – but my preference would have been for these to follow the cases. This would have enabled the reader to play a more active role in thinking about the cases themselves and then engaging with the editors' interpretation.

Nevertheless, the real strength of the book is the richness of the stories of learning which are provided as the essential "data". These follow a "grounded" approach and provide an open and honest account of the learning processes in the organisations concerned. A total of 16 cases are presented. Half report on learning innovations which had some "programmed" element at the centre. So, for example, from Heywood we have an account of Pearl Assurance's "Better by miles" programme. Heywood's story is characterised as a "tale of two companies" (in fact the same company but one pre- and one post-programme). The story of how Allied Distillers embarked on a programme of change, underpinned by learning, is told by Beech, Cairns and Robertson. In this organisation there was a perceived need to achieve an effective mix of formal and informal learning, with an emphasis on "learning through doing". The authors note the need for perseverance; the radical changes achieved did not happen overnight. Elsewhere, cases report on successful collaborations with acedemia; for example, Muskett's account of Sainsbury's work with Manchester Metropolitan University.

The cases in Part 3 are more challenging and diverse. Here are organisations who share a common aim of enabling reflective learning to become a key process within the organisation, but where the means to achieve this are varied. Binns and McGill, for example, report on action learning in the London Borough of Ealing. They focus usefully, on what it was in the action learning process that enabled them to "transfer the learning into their working practice". Elsewhere in Part 3 there is a fascinating account by Sang (an independent consultant) of how he made "values" central to a series of learning innovations in Scottish Health/Health Education organisations. The risks and the difficulties are accurately portrayed as well as the potential rewards.

Overall, the book demonstrates the value of recognising that learning in organisations is complex – "everything is related to everything else" – but at the same time the importance of challenging and engaging with this complexity head-on. This the editors succeed in doing by effectively bringing the theory and practice of reflective learning together. There are no quick fixes here but a wealth of "food for thought".