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The purpose for this study is to publish the author’s dissertation research.

The qualitative study used stimulated recall (Gass and Mackey, 2000) of critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954) in a structured reflection interview (Johns, 1994) to study executives’ “reflection-in-action and on action” business practices. All of the participants (60 people from 10 organizations, aged from 38 to 68) were experienced executives. Each brought an average of over 15 years of leadership and industry experience to their understanding of and experience with these phenomena. The results were analyzed using Miles and Huberman (1994) qualitative data analysis methods.

Three research questions guided this study: How do executives describe, understand and utilize reflection-in-action in their work practices? The study participants were interviewed soon after an experience, meeting with subordinates and a discussion of two critical incidents representing their reflection-in-action to isolate and illuminate the instant and better understand this often subconscious process of reflection-in-action; How do executives describe, understand and use reflection-on-action in their working life? Here the study participants were asked to describe a recent change initiated by reflection-on-action to better understand that process and how it moves from reflection-on-action to action-on-reflection: the initiation of the new action or change; How do executives learn and develop their reflective practices? The participants were asked to describe how they learned, developed and sustained their reflective practices to better understand the nature and development of reflective practice on all levels: in-action, on-action and cyclically. The results of my research included four areas of analysis: reflection as emotional interaction, reflection as development, reflection as a system and reflection as a frame of knowing.

In this doctoral work, the author attempted to show that reflection contributes to improved performance. What the author also learned was that there is a positive relationship between reflection and building supervisor/employee relations, especially within teams. The author also learned that as you reflect, there are a lot of emotions involved. This is largely, in the author’s opinion, where there is a results focus and during performance conversations. The importance of this is that people grow and change when this happens. There is a definitive link. This was the author’s hypothesis and was proved.

The aim of this paper is to present an interview and postscript that examine the specific meaning, rationale, conceptual framework, assessment and teaching of critical reflection in and on professional development in management and higher education from an action research perspective.

This article is presented in the new genre of PIP (Zuber-Skerritt, 2009): Preamble – Interview – Postscript. The Preamble (P) sets out the background, purpose, structure and conduct of the interview (I), which addresses six probing questions and is followed by a Postscript (P) that reveals additional comments and reflections on the interview, and identifies learning outcomes and implications.

Reflective practice is essential for a deep approach to learning, research and professional development and it is a driving force to enable learners to be adequately equipped for constant and complex change in today's and tomorrow's turbulent world.

The article is positioned to inspire further R&D in the current debate on urgently needed radical and rapid change in higher education for the twenty-first century.

As well as the article's practical suggestions about why and how to develop reflective learning/practice, the PIP conceptual model applied in this article offers a useful practical approach for researchers to explore self-ethnography through interviews.

Two conceptual models illustrate the essence of this article, providing practical help to academics and other professionals to advance reflective practice in research and learning.

Reports part of a grounded theory study in which 15 facilitators, already experienced in conventional meetings, were trained to become facilitators of face‐to‐face electronic meetings. Presents a model ‐ “Active reflection” ‐ of the reflective practice processes used by the trainee facilitators. Active reflection is a term which describes the trainees’ accounts of the two complementary action reflection processes: reflection on action (thinking back on what was done) and reflection in action (thinking about the action while one is doing it). Identifies a number of implications for group support systems facilitation training and practice.

This study aims to investigate the aspects that influence reflective practice during an action learning approach to management development programmes (MDPs).

A narrative inquiry approach was used to gather interview and pictorial data from 16 participants who had attended an action learning oriented MDP. Data were translated into interpretive stories using McCormack’s lenses, which were further analysed using thematic analysis.

Two key themes emerged: dealing with emotions and practising reflection. Participants initially found reflecting uncomfortable, but showed courage by persevering. Participants had to learn how to reflect and set aside time for it, while valuing support and guidance from their action learning facilitator.

The findings and recommendations may not be relevant to all types of action learning as action learning forms and contexts differ.

Reflective practice is the responsibility of both the participant and the action learning facilitator. Participants need to create the time and space to learn, be fully present during reflection, practice mindfulness and have the courage to be uncomfortable while reflecting. Action learning facilitators could encourage reflection by creating a safe learning environment, selecting a diverse action learning team, designing reflection time into the MDP and helping participants apply reflection tools.

Reflective practice enhances learning; yet there is a need to better understand reflective practice in an action learning context. This study provides empirical evidence of the aspects that influence the reflection process and outcomes as well as practical guidelines to participants and facilitators on how to promote reflection.

Human resources (HR) department managers play an important role in the processes of defining and implementing organizational strategies. From this perspective, decisions made by HR managers directly influence organizations’ competitiveness. There is a gap in the literature related to decision-making processes by these managers, particularly with respect to the subjective elements involved in them. This paper’s aim is to analyze HR managers’ strategic decision-making processes from the perspective of reflective practice.

A qualitative study was conducted based on an analysis of five HR department managers’ strategic decision-making processes.

The results indicate that reflection-in-action is one possibility for narrowing the gap between action and reflection in management practice, as this could contribute to improving strategic decisions; HR managers’ decisions are delimited by internal and external organizational issues; and these decisions involve intensive information sharing.

The results of this research contribute to extend the existing knowledge on reflection, one of the subjective elements that influences decision-making processes, and which has been identified as a subject in need of research by several authors (Eisenhardt and Zbaracki, 1992; Hambrick, 2007; Langley et al., 1995; Nutt, 2010).

A better understanding of HR managers’ decision-making processes, particularly in the Brazilian context, which other organizations can use as examples of alternative choices for HR departments strategic management. For managers, reflection-in-action facilitates an effective decision-making process, increases self-knowledge, contributes to the processes of individual and organizational learning and improves managers’ global overview of their organizations.

These results represent a development in understanding one of the subjective elements of HR department managers’ decision-making processes – reflection – and should help to improve the results of strategic decisions by these managers and by managers of other organizational departments.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on reflective practice as a qualitative methodology, and reflection-in-action as a modus operandi to engage with the artistry of cross-language qualitative research.

The author draws on the doctoral research, a cross-language multiple case study aimed at investigating the author’s evolving understanding, as a reflective practitioner, of drama-based pedagogy for teaching Italian as a second language.

A reflective analysis of the author’s tacit decision making during drama improvisation unveiled a clash between covert beliefs and overt attitudes in the author’s practice. In this paper, the author examine this process and highlight the value of translingual writing (writing in two languages) as a method of enquiry that allowed me to become aware of this clash.

A limitation of this research is that the nature of this clash of beliefs is confined to the idiosyncrasy of one practitioner. However, the methodological implications are relevant to cross-language qualitative researchers fluent in two (or more) languages. Frequently, translingual researchers focus all writing efforts in one language only, because of the absence of methodological guidelines bridging cross-language research, reflective practice and translingual studies.

Strategies to investigate awareness of tacit beliefs in educational practice may help other second language/drama reflective practitioners to better understand their knowing in-action.

This paper represents a first step in disseminating knowledge about translingual writing as method, and is of value to all those translingual researchers who are interested in reflective methodologies.

The purpose of this study is to share how the learning impact of a remote workshop was improved through action research practices, especially action inquiry and critical reflexivity.

Research design detailed herein consists of one complete cycle of action and reflection. Methods used include: journaling into four territories of experience, free-form journaling, individual and joint reflection using four parts of speech and extended ways of knowing.

Action inquiry and critical reflexivity have shown themselves to be a potent means of improving the learning outcomes of remote Playing Lean workshops. Drawing on early insight, the author suggests several venues for further inquiry.

This paper contributes a novel combination of action research practices that can be used for improving other learning initiatives as well, and an example of how to question the veracity of qualitative findings.

The purpose of this paper is to justify, elaborate and elucidate the concepts of action, experience and reflection, and how they are intertwined when discussing contemporary entrepreneurship education. These concepts have been given a meaning in entrepreneurship education, but have not been discussed in-depth, and by that have been abridged in meaning and purpose, and mostly been treated in isolation from each other.

The paper is conceptual and takes its starting point in the historical development of the field and discusses the concepts, from philosophical roots and their application, in entrepreneurship education.

Neither of the discussed concepts are enough to generate learning one by one, as they are intertwined within the learning process that aims to generate knowledge. From this perspective, an understanding of how these concepts work, both individually and in synergy, is of importance for entrepreneurship education.

The discussion presented in this paper may be a starting point for future empirical studies on entrepreneurial learning, by developing the meaning of action, reflections and experience, or by trying to conceptualize them.

The study indicates that entrepreneurship education should not concentrate only on one dimension of the entrepreneurial learning process, as for example, on actions, but should try to combine all of its discussed elements.

By exploring the origins and developments around the concepts, the paper brings a deepened understanding of what the field considers as important when learning entrepreneurship. By decomposing and mutually referring the concepts, the authors contribute to the call of strengthening the theoretical and philosophical understanding in entrepreneurship education.

This chapter explores the benefits of reflective practice in learning environments and discusses the conditions that can impede and facilitate reflection for teachers and teaching assistants. Various strategies and tools to support teaching teams to reflect collaboratively are discussed and recommendations about how to introduce reflective practice are outlined.

The first part presents a review of concepts relating to reflection, drawing on the literature in this area. This literature review relates to the following aspects of reflection: the definition of reflection, the process of reflection, strategies in reflection, content of reflection, barriers to reflection, and advantages of reflection.

The second part of this paper presents an investigation into the perceptions of a small sample of English language educators and supervisors, through personal interviews with 9 teachers and 3 supervisors from one higher education institution and other educational institutions in the United Arab Emirates. The findings of the investigation are analyzed with respect to the dimensions that appear in the literature review. These findings show that the teachers do have some knowledge of reflection. They reveal that the teachers: attitudes towards reflection and its applicability in the teaching and learning process is largely positive, mixed with some degree of skepticism. Teachers agree that reflection is useful, but many seem uncertain about how it can be applied in their situation. In some cases the interviewees seemed to be more concerned about the technicalities of their job, making collaborative reflection appear less of a priority.