Contributing to Learning to Change: Exploring learning from experience for professionals

M.Ed. thesis

Learning to change is difficult, complex, and takes time.  This raises two questions for me: Why is this so?  How can such learning to change be facilitated?  This study explores the issues involved in learning to change.  It undertakes the study from a viewpoint which values having an explanatory conceptual understanding (theory) that will inform action (practice), both for learners seeking to engage with change for their own practice, and for a facilitator of such learning with others.

My first focus was on testing the efficacy of a professional development activity.  The design for the activity was based on my conception of reflective research of practice, developed from the work of Kenneth Kressel, and what would be involved in developing such an approach to learning about practice, in-practice.  My testing involved two processes: (1) exploring whether the professional development activity, when used with two different groups of professionals, encouraged them to engage in such an approach in their own practice; (2) engaging with my own practitioner experience and comparing my theorising about the experience with that reported in the literature.

Consequently, I have at least two stories to tell.  And I share these stories on the basis of one of my findings: sharing reflective stories prompts reciprocal sharing, and shared reflective thinking may challenge perspectives and perceptions, triggering additional learning.  Practitioners, by engaging with these stories and using their own active compare-and-contrast, and their own values, may be stimulated to undertake further thinking about their own practice, and its rationale.  From such a process may come ideas for change which they are prepared to try in-practice; or a deeper, firmer understanding of why they value their own approach over this other.  Either result tends to revitalise intentional action in-practice.

The first story concerns the outcome of conducting the professional development activity design with two groups of professionals: the outcomes of the activity, while not reaching my intended target, indicate the design’s merit.

The second story concerns the change wrought in myself by the conduct of the inquiry: the first focus on testing the efficacy of a professional development activity shifted to the progressive deepening of my understanding of the theories and practice of
• learning to change, for an adult learner
• inquiry, especially inquiry into practice issues, in-practice
• evaluation, by beginning to enunciate how, and on what basis I was evaluating, and
• the nature of the relationship between learning, inquiry, and evaluation that constitutes much of intentional action in-practice: its intricate interactivity.

In developing my understanding of theory and practice, I draw on the work of scholar-practitioners who have a longstanding engagement with the field, including Argyris, Bateson, Heron, Mezirow and Schön.  I conclude that reflective research of practice, or self-study of practice for improvement of practice, can be enhanced.  Tools that enhance it include: (1) developing self-awareness; (2) developing reflective work to move progressively into the subtle and the contextual elements of practice; and where possible (3) engaging in this enterprise with a group of peers in a collaborative or cooperative context (4) where participants are focused on taking intentional action developed from inquiry into the thinking-action complex of in-practice activities.


published by VDM 2008
ISBN 978-3-639-06165-9

Land Between Two Rivers: a historical and pictorial survey of Shellharbour Municipality

co-authored with Jim Derbyshire

(1984) published by Shellharbour Municipal Council, Warilla, NSW.

A historical and pictorial survey of Shellharbour Municipality, on its 125th anniversary, 1859-1984.
Surveys key elements of its natural environment, European settlement, and present and future prospects.
With Heritage List, Chronological Table, and Index.

The Illawarra region, report - a preliminary to planned development

(1974) Prepared for submission to the Illawarra Regional Development Committee.  Provides an analysis of the physical, etc, resources of the Illawarra region, by a series of maps prepared ot be overlaid, so that land suitable for certain uses could be identified, and discusses current concerns of ad hoc land use planning and development pressures throughout he region.

Lake Illawarra : a report on land use in the catchment area of Lake Illawarra

(1974) Prepared for the South Coast Conservation Society, involves an analysis of the landform and resources in the catchment of Lake Illawarra, and points to issues between land use and water quality for Lake Illawarra

A Case for Quarrying: in the Kiama-Shellharbour area

(1973) published by Dianne Allen, Kiama. NSW

A survey of the background to basalt quarrying in the Kiama-Shellharbour area, examining current trends, and concluding that there is a case for restricted quarrying in the area, and suggesting appropriate action to manage such quarrying into the future.