Reflective Practice: An Approach for Expanding Your Learning Frontiers

Diagram of a cycle including socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization.

The SECI Cycle of knowledge generation, developed by Ikujiro Nonaka, was discussed in Session 3 and includes concepts of tacit and explicit knowledge that were used throughout the course. (Diagram by Sebastiao Ferreira.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

11.965

As Taught In

January IAP 2007

Level

Graduate

Cite This Course

Course Description

Course Features

Course Description

The course is an introduction to the approach of Reflective Practice developed by Donald Schön. It is an approach that enables professionals to understand how they use their knowledge in practical situations and how they can combine practice and learning in a more effective way. Through greater awareness of how they deploy their knowledge in practical situations, professionals can increase their capacities of learning in a more timely way. Understanding how they frame situations and ideas helps professionals to achieve greater flexibility and increase their capacity of conceptual innovation.

The objective of the course is to introduce students to the approach and methods of reflective practice by raising their awareness about their own cognitive resources and how they use them in their practice. The course will introduce theories of learning, knowledge generation, framing and reframing, theories of action, reflection-in-practice, and conceptual innovation, and provide students with opportunities to experiment with these theories in real life through practical exercises in which they reflect on real situations that they have faced in their past professional experience. Through these practical exercises, students will have the opportunity to reflect on their thinking capacities in the context of their practice.

Related Content

Ceasar McDowell, Claudia Canepa, and Sebastiao Ferriera. 11.965 Reflective Practice: An Approach for Expanding Your Learning Frontiers. January IAP 2007. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


For more information about using these materials and the Creative Commons license, see our Terms of Use.


Close