A leading M.I.T. social scientist and consultant examines five professions—engineering, architecture, management, psychotherapy, and town planning—to show how professionals really go about solving problems.The best professionals, Donald Schön maintains, know more than they can put into words. To meet the challenges of their work, they rely less on formulas learned in graduate school than on the kind of improvisation learned in practice. This unarticulated, largely unexamined process is the subject of Schön’s provocatively original book, an effort to show precisely how ”reflection-in-action” works and how this vital creativity might be fostered in future professionals.
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About the Author
Donald A. Schön is Ford Professor of Urban Studies and Education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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53 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this book, Schon gives us a language for understanding professional practice. Because the sum of what a professional knows is greater than the sum of what he is aware he knows -- let alone the totality of what he can articulate -- there is a hidden world of practitioner competence. I found Schon to be a little repetitive and his examples difficult to fully conceptualize. However, his discussion of the Technical Rationality model and his vignettes of five professions provide a framework which may be applied to the practice of any profession. I believe that readers of this book can enhance their self-awareness as professionals and artists.
54 of 59 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book discusses the history and theory of professional learning. Schon spends a great deal of time justifying what every professional knows - that framing problems is difficult and that book learning is insufficient to deal with these problems.
If you are interested in positivism, technical rationality, and the evolution of the modern professional school, then this book is loaded with meaty material. If, however, you want to apply methods built upon other epistemologies, go straight to his 2nd book, "Educating the Reflective Practitioner".
The book is well thought out, but I found it a heavy read. Not for the faint-of-heart.
I got a lot out of it. Recommended only for epistemology or history of professional school wonks.
32 of 35 people found the following review helpful
By Rasmus
Format:Paperback
A word of warning. This book is hard to read. Some things are reapeated over and over, while other detailes are never given proper treatment.
But - if you don't mind spending some time reading and analyzing the book, there are heaps of golden nuggets to find.
Schön illustrates why rational design processes doesn't work in reality (for computer enthusiasts this means an explanation of why the waterfall model will never work on real life problems). Instead he tries to explain how designer (architects, musicians, engineers etc.) really work, when they solve real problems. And how to teach expert knowledge to others.
I highly recommend this book for non-whimps...;-)
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Reflective Conversation with the Situation
The most compelling notion in this book is that of practitioners having a "reflective conversation with the situation. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Samuel Mahaffy
4.0 out of 5 stars
Theorist work for my PhD
Obviously an older book, but speaks to the work I want to do for school. Good read, well organized...can skip irrelevant materials and find info necessary for my needs.
Published 21 months ago by Beth B.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gotta Have it
This is the third time I have read this book. Along with Dewey's How We Think I always get something new. Needs to be read by anyone who teaches, especially professionals
Published on February 13, 2011 by Les
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two-tiered knowledge
The author links academic and practical knowledge and sets them onto equal footing. He explains how practitioners know what they know, and he emphasizes the creative processes... Read more
Published on August 2, 2008 by Barbara Ackermann
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reflective Practitioner: Stepwise Discovery of Solutions
Dr. Schon addresses how professionals can better join in a process of learning and decision-making. By seeing life as a process involving both the service provider and the... Read more
Published on May 8, 2007 by JN
2.0 out of 5 stars
not great, not bad
i wasn't too thrilled with this book... mainly because .... i didn't find it eye opening.... i felt that it took simple concepts and made it into high concepts and it became... Read more
Published on March 3, 2007 by H. Park
4.0 out of 5 stars
A foundational classic
This is a critical book that provides a foundation for most of the other work on organizational learning (such as Senge) and complexity in organizations (Wheatley). Read more
Published on June 13, 2005 by Christopher Davis
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 49
books:
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100
books
cite this book:
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- Buenos Aires (Cities of the Imagination) by Jason Wilson on 4 pages
- Participant Observation: The Psychotherapy Schools in Action by Leston L. Havens on page 312, and Back Matter
- New Professionals by Gross and osterman in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Inner Contradictions of Rigorous Research (Organizational and occupational psychology) by Chris Argyris on page 317, and Back Matter
- The Higher Learning in America by Thorstein Veblen on page 35, and Back Matter
See all 49 books this book cites
- Insights Into Teachers' Thinking And Practice by Christopher Day on page 212, page 239, and page 312
- Teacher Inquiry: Living the Research in Everyday Practice by Anthony Clarke on page 6, and page 189
- Professionalism and Ethics in Teaching (Professional Ethics) by David Carr in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
-
Defending Public Schools [Four Volumes]
: Defending Public Schools: Volume II, Teaching for a Democratic Society (Praeger Perspectives) by p>KathleenKesson
on page 33, and Back Matter - The Values of Educational Administration: A Book of Readings by Paul Begley on page 68, and page 186
See all 100 books citing this book
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