Schon's reflective coaching: learning design-like practice through a dialogue of words and actions

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Evidence · no claims cited

Description

The paper analyzes Schon's account of how master practitioners induct novices into design-like practices. Professional knowing-in-action cannot be taught directly but can be learned through guided practice in a practicum—a "virtual world" allowing low-risk experimentation. The coach and novice form an asymmetrical relationship, and coaching proceeds as an "experiment in communication" with a three-fold task: communicate about substantive problems, particularize demonstrations to the student's confusions, and foster a relationship open to inquiry. Schon identifies three idealized approaches—"joint experimentation," "Follow me!" and "hall of mirrors"—each suiting different circumstances.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• The novice must be willing to act without full understanding and manage feelings of loss of control and vulnerability; the coach must adjust telling and showing to the student's present know-how

Constraints

• Reflective coaching requires a practicum setting that approximates the world of practice while allowing experimentation under low-risk conditions

Target Learners

• novices in design-like professional practices, including prospective teachers

Target Learning Objectives

• developing knowing-in-action
• learning ways of seeing, thinking and acting of skilled professional practice

Claims

Related Theories

• Joyce Showers Technical Coaching
• Reflective practice as a process for refining teaching craft through coached reflection on experience
• Schon's knowing-in-action and the distinction between reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action

Examples

• Pete Frazer's eight guiding moves for working as a co-thinker with novice teachers
• Reflection
• Reflective Practice

Key Sources

• Feiman-Nemser, Sharon, et al. (1994). Guiding Teacher Learning: Insider Studies of Classroom-Based Work with Teachers. Craft Paper 94-1. National Center for Research on Teacher Learning. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED377169

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	theory
title	Schon's reflective coaching: learning design-like practice through a dialogue of words and actions
description	The paper analyzes Schon's account of how master practitioners induct novices into design-like practices.
status	review
canonical	True
generated	by claude/unspecified on 2026-09-25
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — feiman-nemser-1994

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