Action Learning Across a University Community

Abstract

This article identifies the domains of applicability of action learning within courses of Higher Education and explores factors affecting the spread of this approach to learning across subjects in a university. Action learning was developed as a method for management learning and development. It had made slow progress in universities, even within the business schools and departments of management. At one university, however, action learning is being used on 27 courses across all six faculties of the university. Our purpose in this article is to explore the phenomenon of the singular receptivity of the university to action learning and to reflect on the conditions that have encouraged its widespread use at this institution. The main conclusion is that the adoption of this innovation within the university can be explained more convincingly in experiential than cognitive terms, which has implications for the adoption of other innovations in learning and teaching.