The Learning Spiral

If preparation-> action -> reflection is the basic model for Praxis@MIT Sloan, we see this process repeated throughout the learning experience at a variety of scales. Within a class session for a case-based class, for instance, students prepare by reading the case and learning the relevant theory via previous class sessions, assignments, and readings; they act by advocating their analysis and point of view in class, engaging in discussiuon and debate; and they reflect by joining the instructor and their peers in summing-up reflection discussions, by considering the case in the light of what they learn in future class sessions and assignments, and by informal processes of reflecting on their experience.

Within the context of other activities at MIT Sloan, this cycle is even more apparent.  Perhaps nowhere more than in their more applied experiences - in projects for classes, club acitivities, internships, and extracurricular activities - MIT Sloan students learn by taking action that they prepare for and reflect on.
We know from research on learning, change, and innovation, that we miss crucial opportunities to learn and improve if we only focus on large-scale, long time-frame learning experiences. Every chunk of experience can be seen from this preparation-action-reflection lens, and accumulating experience via several iterations of preparation, action, and reflection can be more instructive than a single larger endeavor with time for only one round of the learning cycle. In fact, it might be useful to think of the entire two-year program a journey around a spiral in which students work through the preparation-action-reflection cycle several times, focusing on different things each time as they learn more from their experience. 
Here's what we'd like to tell students: travel around the learning spiral several times, while you're here, adjusting your journey on this path as you reflect on and make sense of your own experience. Exploit every opportunity  to work through the preparation-action-reflection cycle in the domains that are most important to you. Choose courses, experiences, and job opportunities that maximize learning from each of these. Part of your task as a student is to take in the more formal, academic ideas and theories and figure out how to draw on and use them. In some courses, this is the work you will do with your peers and faculty; in other cases, you'll have access to materials that are already translated into more applied tools; and in still other cases, you'll focus more on the theories and conceptual frameworks that inform and support the more applied practices that you will learn and develop for yourself in the course of your practical experience.

To do this effectively, students need both some self-knowledge, as well as a good understanding of the range of opportunities that they face. This is part of their task as students here--to figure out what they want to learn, and to seek opportunities to engage in the traditional types of learning combined with action that draws on and uses this learning. Then, while they are still here, students should reflect on their experiences and work to figure out what they would like to learn next. MIT Sloan faculty and staff also have an important role to play in working with students to map out potential paths around the learning spiral.

To this end, we're preparing a master list of particular skills and capabilities that we think any manager needs in order to act effectively. We catalog ways in which students can work on each area (courses, SIPs, workshops, etc). This matrix, in conjunction with a more traditional mapping of courses and tracks that address specific domains, will help students to design their own learning experience. Our hope is that the skills they learn in doing this will help them to not only make the most of their learning here, but also to be effective lifelong learners.

We also know that the natural processes of reflection face obstacles: we often leave little time for reflection; at the individual level, strong cognitive and psychological processes can make it difficult to learn effectively from experience; at the collective level, we have few processes, cultural norms, and other practices that enable ongoing reflection. Hence the need for a teaching approach that links all three elements of the learning process and that equips students with skills, tools, perspectives, and theories useful in reflective action. We'd like to offer students opportunities to reflect, both within the context of individual classes, and also via advising, SIP workshops, and on-line resources.