Reflective journaling and WhatsApping as part of a management degree apprentice’s action learning practice

Abstract

This account of practice offers practical examples of the use of reflective journaling and WhatsApping as part of a novice action learner’s practice on her undergraduate degree programme. The action learning set was part of a degree apprentices programme which required the first author to complete a work-based learning module involving the identification and management of a project in the workplace. Reflective journaling was suggested as a voluntary activity, and the WhatsApp group which followed when the face-to-face action learning set stopped meeting was initiated by the first author as a way of continuing to have the benefits of action learning when ongoing face-to-face meetings proved difficult if not impossible to achieve. Reflective journaling is commended as a learning tool which can help the learner make sense of their experience both within and without the set, but like action learning itself it cannot be pressed upon unwilling individuals.