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There are different schools of thought about this therefore the term 'Action Learning' can mean different things to different people. We base our view on the original ideas of Reg Evans, the pioneer of this approach.
Definition of Action Learning -
"Action Learning is a means of development, intellectual, emotional or physical that requires its subjects through responsible involvement in some real, complex and stressful problem, to achieve intended change to improve their observable behaviour henceforth in the problem field" (Revans, 1982; cited by Marsick and O'Neil, 1999).
"Action Learning is an approach to the development of people in organizations which takes the task as the vehicle for learning. It is based on the premise that there is no learning without action and no sober and deliberate action without learning … The method … has three main components - people, who accept the responsibility for taking action on a particular issue; problems, or the tasks that people set themselves; and a set of six or so colleagues who support and challenge each other to make progress on problems" (Pedler, 1991; cited by Marsick and O'Neil, 1999).
This suggests that 'Action Learnng' involves individuals coming together to learn from one another, each tackling their own problem and actually implementing their own solution. In effect, the individual is learning through doing in a way that has purpose and meaning for them.
