October 27, 2004

Joy Amulya, Center for Reflective Community Practice, MIT

Learning from Practice: Understanding the Problem and Advancing the Method

Abstract

The problem of how people learn from practice is a well-established one. Whether we are talking about teachers, doctors, activists, or even students and researchers, there are a host of fascinating and important questions related to the construction of learning from experience and action. How much of the knowledge generated from practice is tacit vs. conscious? How conscious are any of us of the learning process itself? How much individual difference is there in the degree and nature of what is learned from practice, and what might be responsible for those differences?

Most importantly for those of us who see practice-generated knowledge as a critical resource for advancing theory and practice, what kinds of approaches are most effective for supporting practitioners to excavate and articulate their learning? I have been working on this question for a number of years, most recently with community-based practitioners. In this talk, I will present the reflective learning methodology used in this work as well as several emerging challenges.

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