Action Learning: A Comprehensive Overview
Every educator dreams of students who are well-behaved, engaged, and attentive. Brain science suggests that movement is crucial for enhancing brain function and activity, especially in children who spend a significant portion of their day sitting. This article explores how Action Learning, including the Action Learning Academy definition, can be applied to various settings to foster engagement, improve problem-solving skills, and promote continuous learning.
Foundations of Action Learning
The Action Learning Academy Approach
The Action Learning Academy focuses on addressing developmental gaps that may hinder learning. Research indicates that critical brain development stages are best learned early in life, typically between 2.5 and 6 years of age. The academy's framework is built upon twelve foundations and their developmentally appropriate progressions. Facilitators are trained to identify and address developmental gaps that may be impeding a student's learning progress.
Building on Foundational Skills
To enhance classroom engagement, reduce negative behaviors, and improve academic success, understanding the benefits of these twelve foundations is essential. For instance, a student struggling with cross-lateralization skills may face difficulties in placing words on a page, reading from left to right, and writing patterns in sequence. Similarly, a child with reading difficulties may struggle with crawling. The Action Learning Academy helps educators understand the connections between these concepts, providing students with the necessary tools to excel.
Creating Successful Learning Environments
Action Learning Academies provide children with learning environments that promote academic success and lifelong achievement. By leveraging brain-based research, these academies design unique learning environments that prepare the brain for learning, starting from early developmental stages and continuing into adulthood. The training offers techniques and tools that can be immediately implemented, including simple brain breaks and specific movements to enhance brain function in K-12 environments.
Core Principles of Action Learning
Action learning combines self-development with action for change. The motivation to act and learn is both personal and political, driven by a critique of the current state and a desire for improvement. This process also transforms the individual involved.
Read also: The Evolution of Student Activism
Primacy of Action and Reflection
Action learning emphasizes learning by doing and reflecting on the outcomes. It prioritizes the perspectives of individuals facing the problems and maintains a degree of skepticism toward expert advice. Action Learning is an approach to problem solving that involves taking action and reflecting upon the results.
The Role of Questioning
Questioning is a fundamental component of Action Learning, designed to create insight into observations, perceptions, and feelings. Questions can be categorized as open or closed. Open questions encourage respondents to expand on their answers, while closed questions limit responses to a specific set of options. The art of asking the 'right question' at the right time is key to obtaining necessary information and fostering effective problem-solving.
Action Learning Formula
The traditional Action Learning formula involves Action, Learning, Questioning and Reflection. Questioning is intended to create insight into what people see, hear or feel, and may be divided into multiple categories of question, including open and closed questions. The International Management Centres Association and Michael Marquardt have both proposed an extension to this formula with the addition of R for "reflection". Action Learning purports that one of the keys to effective problem solving is asking the 'right question'.
Historical Context and Evolution
Reginald Revans and the Origins of Action Learning
Action learning originates with Reginald Revans (1907-2003), who was variously an Olympic athlete, a student of nuclear physics, an educational administrator, and a professor of management. Revans' philosophy is rooted in pragmatism and a humanistic view of human potential, emphasizing the importance of addressing real-world problems in real-world settings. He drew inspiration from John Dewey's pragmatism and Mary Parker Follett's critique of hierarchical structures, advocating for collaborative relationships and valuing knowledge from all sources.
Developments and Adaptations
Since the 1940s, Revans' original training model has undergone several developments to accommodate specific needs.
Read also: Comprehensive UCLA Guide
Action Reflection Learning (ARL)
One such adaptation is Action Reflection Learning (ARL), which originated in Sweden in the 1970s. The MiL model and ARL evolved as practitioners responded to diverse needs and restrictions-MiL practitioners varied the number and duration of the sessions, the type of project selected, the role of the Learning Coach and the style of their interventions.
The World Institute for Action Learning (WIAL) Model
The World Institute for Action Learning (WIAL) model, developed by Michael Marquardt, Skipton Leonard, Bea Carson and Arthur Freedman, starts with two simple "ground rules" that ensure that statements are related to questions, and grant authority to the coach in order to promote learning.
Executive Action-Learning (EAL) Model
The action learning model has evolved from an organizational development tool led by learning and development (L&D) managers to organizational alignment and performance tool led by executives, where CEOs and their executive teams facilitate action-learning sessions to align the organizational objectives at various organizational levels and departments. One such example is the Executive Action-Learning (EAL) Model which originated in the United States in 2005.
Application and Implementation
Action Learning is applied by using the Action Learning question method to support organizational development. It is practiced by a wide community of businesses, governments, non-profits, and educational institutions. Organizations may also use Action Learning in the virtual environment. This is a cost-effective solution that enables the widespread use of Action Learning at all levels of an organization.
Action Learning in Government
Robert Kramer pioneered the use of Action Learning for officials in the United States government, and at the European Commission in Brussels and Luxembourg. The influence of Revans's Action Learning Formula can be seen today in many leadership and organization development initiatives in corporate training and executive education institutes.
Read also: Unlock Scholarship Opportunities
Challenges and Considerations
Balancing Action and Reflection
An ongoing challenge of Action Learning has been to take productive action as well as to take the time necessary to capture the learning that result from reflecting on the results of taking action. Usually, the urgency of the problem or task decreases or eliminates the reflective time necessary for learning.
The Role of the Coach
There is controversy, however, about the need for an Action Learning coach. Revans was skeptical about the use of learning coaches and, in general, of interventionist approaches. He believed the Action Learning set Action Learning on its own. He also had a major concern that too much process facilitation would lead a group to become dependent on a coach or facilitator. Nevertheless, later in his development of the Action Learning method, Revans experimented with including a role that he described as a "supernumerary" that had many similarities to that of a facilitator or coach.
Self-Managed Action Learning
Self-managed action learning is a variant of Action Learning that dispenses with the need for a facilitator of the action learning set, including in virtual and hybrid settings. There are a number of problems, however, with purely self-managed teams (i.e., with no coach). It has been noted that self-managing teams (such as task forces) seldom take the time to reflect on what they are doing or make efforts to identify key lessons learned from the process.
Action Learning in Leadership Development
Action Learning is effective in developing a number of individual leadership and team problem-solving skills, and has become a component in many corporate and organizational leadership development programs. The strategy is advertised as being different from the "one size fits all" curricula that are characteristic of many training and development programs.
LeadingAge Leadership Academy
The Leadership Academy was launched in response to members seeking new ways to strengthen the future of their organizations. Together, these individuals have been driving innovation and excellence since 2007-serving on state and national boards, sharing their expertise at conferences nationwide, and stepping into leadership roles that help shape the future of our field. Action Learning Projects have been a cornerstone of the Larry Minnix Leadership Academy since its inception nearly 20 years ago.
Eligibility and Requirements
Any individual who works for a LeadingAge provider member organization is eligible to apply, irrespective of professional experience, type or level of position. Participation in the program is contingent upon employment by a LeadingAge provider member. Attendance at all in-person and virtual program gatherings is required as is the completion of all projects, assignments, and readings.
Financial Support
LeadingAge seeks to eliminate barriers to participation by making financial support available to sponsoring organizations that are unable to cover the full participant fee. Partial scholarships (up to 50% of program fee) are available to individuals with a demonstrated financial need or hardship and a commitment to ongoing professional (and personal) development.
tags: #action #learning #academy #definition
