(Re) Interpreting Action, Learning, and Experience: Integrating Action Learning and Experiential Learning for HRD

• Published in: Human resource development quarterly 2015-03, Vol.26 (1), p.81-107
• Main Authors: Yeo, Roland K., Marquardt, Michael J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Action learning; Cognitive psychology; Comparative analysis; context; critical reflection; Experiential learning; HRD; mental models; Organization development; Organizational learning; Studies
• ISSN: 1044-8004; 1532-1096
• DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21199

This article provides a comparative analysis and critique of action learning (AL) and experiential learning (EL), identifying emerging conceptual perspectives that contribute to human resource development (HRD). By integrating AL and EL, we gain a deeper understanding of action, learning, and experience, and how they are enacted based on the interplay of contextual, experiential, and action orientations. Through an integrative framework, we demonstrate that the interplay of cognition, behavior, and context offers insight into how and why learning occurs at multiple levels. The framework also recognizes the underlying dialectical forces that both reinforce and contradict schema selection and action framing. Tensions that facilitate and inhibit the grasping and transformation of experience create the context for actors to translate ‘knowing’ into ‘becoming’. Critical pathways that connect different phases of the learning cycle into coherent patterns of organizing offer some implications for HRD research and practice.