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3 references
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- Vol 6 PE: App E
- Vol 6 RE: Chapters 1, 2
defensive reasoningsingle-loop learningdouble-loop learninggoverning assumptionstheory-in-useadvocacy and inquiryJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Argyris examines why highly successful professionals can struggle to learn from failure. Their education and career histories often reward solving external problems without requiring reflection on how their own assumptions and actions contribute to difficulty.
Key ideas
When challenged, they may use defensive reasoning: shifting blame, avoiding embarrassment, and keeping their governing assumptions beyond discussion. This enables single-loop learning, in which people adjust actions while leaving goals and underlying beliefs unchanged, but blocks deeper double-loop learning. Argyris argues that organisations should make reasoning visible by examining the gap between what people claim to do and the theories actually evident in their behaviour. Productive reflection tests assumptions openly and links advocacy with inquiry.
Why it matters
For schools and professional learning communities, the implication is that expertise alone does not ensure learning; teams need psychologically safe routines for examining their own contributions to problems and revising shared norms.
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- Vol 6 PE: App E
- Vol 6 RE: Chapters 1, 2, 7, App A, App B, App D, App E
organizational learningespoused theoriestheories-in-usesingle-loop learningdouble-loop learningdeutero-learningdefensive routinesBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Argyris and Schön develop a theory of how organisations detect and correct error. They distinguish espoused theories—the explanations people give for their actions—from theories-in-use, the assumptions and rules that actually govern behaviour.
Key ideas
In single-loop learning, an organisation changes actions while preserving existing goals, values, and governing variables. Double-loop learning questions and may revise those underlying arrangements. The authors also consider “deutero-learning,” or learning how an organisation learns, and show how defensive routines, undiscussable issues, and mismatches between words and actions inhibit inquiry. Organisational learning is therefore not simply the sum of individual learning; it depends on shared maps, norms, records, and practices that retain and shape knowledge.
Why it matters
For educational organisations, the framework supports examining policies and assumptions behind recurring problems instead of repeatedly adjusting surface-level procedures.
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- Vol 6 RE: App D
organizational learningespoused theoriestheories-in-usesingle-loop learningdouble-loop learningdefensive routinesaction researchBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
This sequel revisits and extends Argyris and Schön's theory of organisational learning in light of subsequent research and practice.
Key ideas
It asks what makes an organisation capable of learning, what forms of learning are desirable, and how productive inquiry can be strengthened. The authors retain the distinction between espoused theories and theories-in-use and examine how defensive routines protect people from embarrassment while preventing the testing of assumptions. They develop single-loop and double-loop learning through cases, action research, and discussion of the relationship between researchers and practitioners. Organisational knowledge is treated as embedded in routines, conversations, records, and shared interpretations, not merely stored in individual minds.
Why it matters
For schools, the book supports disciplined inquiry into recurring problems: teams should make reasoning visible, test causal claims, and reconsider governing values rather than changing procedures while leaving the assumptions that produced the problem untouched.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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