ABSTRACT
‘Action research’ and ‘action learning’ each has a literature promoting itself as both a methodology for the professional practitioner to improve practice and as a technique that may be used to educate. Although having a common thread, the research on each tends generally to be exclusive to itself, and an examination of the literature reveals that there are essential distinctions, as well as a confluence in the processes involved. This must be borne in mind in using action research and action learning in postgraduate curriculum design. Despite action research being most commonly associated with the development of teachers, and action learning with management development, there is no reason why the approaches cannot be employed generically with other groups of professionals. In fact, action research and action learning may be extremely relevant ways in which to build upon both postgraduate and post-experiential qualifications, particularly in a mass higher education market which is organizing into flexible and portable credit accumulation and transfer and where consumers are looking for educational opportunities offering not only academic challenge but enquiry directly related to the world of work.
