"Action learning is a means of development, intellectual, emotional
or physical, that requires its subject, through responsible involvement
in some real, complex and stressful problem, to achieve intended change
sufficient to improve his observable behaviour henceforth in the problem
field.
The learning achieved is not so much an acquaintance with
new factual knowledge nor technical art conveyed by some authority such
as an expert or a teacher (although such fresh acquaintance is not
ruled out), as it is the more appropriate use, by reinterpretation, of
the subject's existing knowledge, including his recollections of past
lived experiences. This reinterpretation is a social process, carried on
among two or more learners who, by the apparent incongruity of their
exchanges, frequently cause each other to examine afresh many ideas that
they would otherwise have continued to take for granted, however false
or misconceived.
Action learning particularly obliges subjects
to become aware of their own value systems, by demanding that the real
problems tackled carry some risk of personal failure, so that the
subjects can truly help each other to evaluate in what they may
genuinely believe.
Action learning demands real-time and hence
observable activity on the subjects' parts, and thus tests whether the
subjects are committed to what they can, in other conditions, merely
asseverate.
Reference
Revans, R.W. (1981) ‘The nature of action learning’, Omega, 9 (1), pp. 9-24, Science Direct [Online]. Available from: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/10.1016/0305-0483(81)90061-X (Accessed: 11 November 2010).