Critcial Review

The text studied is ‘Educating the Reflective Practitioner’ by Donald Schon, describing theories relevant to the successful management of design. The intent of enquiry is understanding coaching methods as well as a new process for design practice. The perspective used in reviewing the text is that of a design practitioner and not from an educational or psychological angle.

‘Educating the Reflective Practitioner’ is divided into four parts, the first part being the study of architectural education in the design studio which is the setting of the reflective practicum. Here the methodologies of the first book, ‘The Reflective Practitioner’, are explored. We see the students learning by doing, being coached by their tutors. Schon explains, ’their practicum is reflective in two senses’ where students ’become proficient in a kind of reflection-in-action’ and also ‘when it works well (…) a reciprocal reflection-in-action’, this being reflection on reflection-in-action.

Chapter two in part one, describes the methodologies of teaching artistry through reflection in action. The skill of ‘knowing in action’ describes tacit knowledge that is implied but not easy to describe. Or as Schon puts it ’…the know-how implicit in their actions is incongruent with their description of it’.

Here the departure from standard teaching can be seen, where knowing-in-action is dynamic, facts, theories, rules and procedures are static. This difference provides the foundation for Schon’s main argument that education needs reform.

We also see ‘…where our reflection has no direct connection with our present action…’ and reflection-in-action is ‘…our thinking serves to reshape what we are doing while we are doing it’. The difference in reflecting on our action is that ‘…it can shape our future action’. This, Schon observes, enables practitioners to become better at their skill set, resulting in the ‘acquisition of artistry’.

Two further modes of the reflective practitioner are shown, that of a Constructionist where the practitioner constructs situations of their practice (‘world-making’) that they come to accept as their own reality. Also we see the Objectivist view, that of fact finding through research where professional knowledge is accumulated. It facilitates the ability to solve ‘all meaningful disagreements (…) by reference to the facts’. Both views share ‘the tacit process of world-making’ that underlies their practice.

Towards the end of this chapter we are introduced to the practicum, ‘a setting that is designed for the task of learning a practice.’ This is here competent practice is learnt, recognized and aspired to by the student. Schonn is eager to make the definition between knowledge taught in universities and the knowledge in action gained by professional practitioners. They are different and mirror the earlier thoughts of Schon calling for reform of curriculum.

Part two describes the ‘paradox and predicament of learning’ in the design studio, styles of coaching and ‘rituals of instruction’. Schon observes Quist, an architectural lecturer who is a practitioner of the ‘language of designing’. We observe a series of conversations with different students and see Quist using an ‘eventual shift from tentative adoption of strategy to eventual commitment’. This allows him to simplify the ’evolving web of moves to make his thought experiment more manageable’. He analyses Quist’s experiments as encompassing three areas; of exploration, move testing and hypothesis testing. How drawing and speaking provide a fluid and involving way of communicating with students. This act gives rise to the term of ‘virtual worlds’ that allow students to easily access the thinking behind their lecturer’s ideas. This allows Quist to ‘perform artistically but to experiment rigorously’. It is the rigorous exploration that Schon feels defines the artistry in Quist’s professional practice. The next chapters detail the paradox of learning in design, quoting Carl Rogers, ‘truth that has been personally appropriated and assimilated in experience, cannot be directly communicated to another’. The difficulty of communicating knowledge of design to students without merely passing on personally acquired perceptions of design is explored and various methods of communication are listed.

Part three moves to three other contexts of learning – musical instruction; psychoanalytic supervision; and a seminar in counselling and consulting skills. It illustrates how ‘learning and coaching vary with the medium and content of the practice’. The purpose of showing the different contexts is to ‘highlight similarities in the processes by which students learn (…) the artistry of design like practice’.

In part four Schon makes the point that the ‘current predicament in professional schools’ will result in a necessary ‘redesign’ of education. He concludes with an ‘experiment in curriculum reform’ in his own practice in Boston.

The time of publication (1987) was an era of professionals questioning their worth and whether they received the appropriate education during their formative years. Schon calls it the ’crisis of confidence in professional knowledge’. As Cal Swann writes, professionals ‘came under a barrage of criticism that questioned their expert judgement that had never been dreamed of before’. 1 One can assume that ‘Educating the Reflective Practitioner’ is an attempt to educate professionals in a way that equips them with the tools to conduct their practice in a more relevant and rigorous manner.

The book is a thorough examination of not just a design environment. The other areas covered provide Schon with the argument that this process of reflection-in-action is a universally applied thing that can yield results in all sorts of contexts. From an educational standpoint this book is valuable in outlining methods that can be used to coach and encourage.

In terms of relevance to my design practice the book can be divided in two; the first two parts being very relevant whereas the next two parts are somewhat disappointing. The other learning environments described are so removed from the environment in which I work that drawing parallels was difficult.

The final part of the book, showing Schon’s personal application of his theories in his own context, provides the most surprising reflection on his own practice. It seems evident that his practice does not excite him as much as observing others, and so the books final pages lose some of the momentum from the previous sections.

In summary the writings of Schon are a valuable and powerful set of observations that in their clarity of style and importance of message have changed the way modern schools educate their students. Its impact
‘...has been significant - with many training and education programmes for teachers and informal educators adopting his core notions both in organizing experiences and in the teaching content’.2

Furthermore, it gives a tangible theory for improvement in design practice. Tacit and explicit knowledge, ‘world-making’ and the definition of professional artistry are all idioms that we are aware of but do not have a label for in a design practitioner’s context.

Schon defines what methods a professional must take to reach a level where skill becomes a habit and artistry results. Although the explicit detail is not elaborated on, in what happens in the reflective process, we do see how ‘artistry’ comes about. It must be said that reflection-on-action allows reflection-in-action to take place by the sedimentary, accumulated knowledge that comes through experience over time. This allows reflection-in-action by recalling and reformulating a problem, with a view on known past consequences. Experience leads to real intuition in the working environment. This is the only flaw in an otherwise valuable work, its importance to a design practitioner can not be underestimated.

1 Action Research and the Practice of Design, Cal Swann, Design Issues: Vol18, Number 2, Winter 2002

2 Mark K. Smith, First published July 2001.URL: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm [27th October]