Reflective Practice: An Approach for Expanding Your Learning Frontiers
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this graduate-level course built around Donald Schon's theory of reflective practice, the idea that professionals can improve by examining how they actually use knowledge in the moment rather than just applying formal rules. Lectures and readings cover theories of learning and knowledge generation, framing and reframing of problems, theories of action, reflection-in-practice, and conceptual innovation. Students work through practical exercises in which they analyze real situations from their own professional history, testing the theories against their own decision-making patterns. The course targets professionals and students in urban planning and related fields who want a more deliberate way to combine practice with ongoing learning. Materials include the full syllabus, assignments, and readings as published by MIT, with no cost to access the content.