Applying Principles of Action Learning in Undergraduate Economics

Abstract

I report on the implementation of principles of action learning in undergraduate economics teaching at both the intermediate and advanced level. I define action learning as a form of experiential learning in which participants work together to resolve problems in the learning process. Reviewing students’ evaluation of the experience of action learning, I argue that in some settings they found it to be a good means of encouraging the emergence of a community of practice. Reflecting on students’ concerns about the extent to which it might be possible to engage in action learning effectively without deep subject knowledge, I argue that there is a need to recognize the epistemological structure of disciplinary knowledge as an important constraint on the implementation of action learning principles with undergraduate students.