. Action learning (AL) is especially effective for learning and development of
people from oral cultures and non-English speaking backgrounds, who
inherently have less access to formal higher education institutions. AL entails
conscious learning from and with one another in small groups (or “sets”) from
action and concrete experience in the workplace or community situation. Set
participants then engage in critical reflection on this experience, individually and
as a group, and take further action as a result of this learning. Here learning is a
cyclical process, through which groups of people address actual workplace or
community issues or major real-life problems in complex situations. AL is
therefore pragmatic as well as educational; it is learning how to learn and to
create knowledge that is conceptual and practical; and it is both collaborative
and individual. It enables and promotes lifelong learning.