Schön Training Restaurant

Donald Schön.

Learning, reflection and change

Donald Schön made a remarkable contribution to our understanding of the theory and practice of learning. His innovative thinking around notions such as ‘the learning society’, ‘double-loop learning’ and ‘reflection-in-action’ have become part of the language of education.

At Schön Café, Restaurant & Function venue students of Hospitality Training Australia explore the concept of reflective practice by working in the venue. It is through this work the student is able to practice so that learning from practice can occur.

Donald Schön

Schön (1930-1997) trained as a philosopher, but it was his concern with the development of reflective practice and learning systems within organizations and communities for which he is remembered. Significantly, he was also an accomplished pianist and clarinetist – playing in both jazz and chamber groups. This interest in improvisation and structure was mirrored in his academic writing, most notably in his exploration of professional’s ability to ‘think on their feet’.

This following passage review summises his achievements and introduces students of Hospitality Training Australia to the notion of reflection-in and on-action.

The Reflective Practitioner (reflection-in and on-action)

Donald Schön made a great contribution in bringing ‘reflection’ into the centre of an understanding of what professionals do. His published work The Reflective Practitioner (1983) explores the notions of reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. Both notions were central to Donald Schön’s efforts in this area. The former is sometimes described as ‘thinking on our feet’. It involves looking to our experiences, connecting with our feelings, and attending to our theories in use. It entails building new understandings to inform our actions in the situation that is unfolding.

The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation. (Schön 1983: 68). We test out our ‘theories’ or, as John Dewey might have put it, ‘leading ideas’ and this allows to develop further responses and moves. Significantly, to do this we do not closely follow established ideas and techniques – textbook schemes. We have to think things through, for every case is unique. However, we can draw on what has gone before. In many respects, Donald Schön is using a distinction here that would have been familiar to Aristotle – between the technical (productive) and the practical.

We can link this process of thinking on our feet with reflection-on-action. This is done later – after the encounter. Workers may write up recordings, talk things through with a supervisor and so on. The act of reflecting-on-action enables us to spend time exploring why we acted as we did, what was happening in a group and so on. In so doing we develop sets of questions and ideas about our activities and practice. The notion of repertoire is a key aspect of this approach. Practitioners build up a collection of images, ideas, examples and actions that they can draw upon. Donald Schön, like John Dewey (1933: 123), saw this as central to reflective thought.

When a practitioner makes sense of a situation he perceives to be unique, he sees it as something already present in his repertoire. To see this site as that one is not to subsume the first under a familiar category or rule. It is, rather, to see the unfamiliar, unique situation as both similar to and different from the familiar one, without at first being able to say similar or different with respect to what. The familiar situation functions as a precedent, or a metaphor, or… an exemplar for the unfamiliar one. (Schön 1983: 138)

In this way we engage with a situation. We do not have a full understanding of things before we act, but, hopefully, we can avoid major problems while ‘testing the water’. When looking at a situation we are influenced by, and use, what has gone before, what might come, our repertoire, and our frame of reference. We are able to draw upon certain routines. As we work we can bring fragments of memories into play and begin to build theories and responses that fit the new situation.

The Schön Cafe, Bar & Restaurant Methodology

At Schön Café, Restaurant & Function venue students are rostered into work so that they can test the skills they have developed in the classroom. At the completion of each shift it is the role of the Hospitality Training Australia trainer to debrief the student to enable reflective practice. The trainer and student identify what skills were executed well and what skills need to be improved. The student then receives training to further develop the skill so they can then re test this skill during the students next working shift. The cycle of learning, reflection and change then continues. It is through this reflection and identifying what we do well and what we need to improve that students build up a repertoire of employable hospitality skills and moreover competence in a qualification of the hospitality training package.*

The impact of Donald Schön’s work on reflective practice has been significant, with many training and education programs for teachers and informal educators adopting his core notions both in organizing experiences and in the teaching content.