Reflexive Learning: Education vs Experience in Project Management

This article discusses the importance of reflexive learning in project management and the debate between education and experience. It also explores the challenges of global project complexities and the need for practical training.

Running head: 7TH DISCUSSION FORUM "REFLEXIVE LEARNING" 1
7th Discussion Forum "Reflexive Learning"
Student
Institution

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Introduction
Practitioners are people who are qualified to practice various professions, occupations or
religions (Pierson, 2017). Generally, the vocabulary means those individuals engaged in some
practical behaviors, activities or traits associated with specific jobs, careers or spiritual activities.
Practitioners need to be reflexive to their experiences. As Lynn Crawford and Ed Hoffman
discuss in chapter seven of the book written by Terry Cooke-Davies, there are various means of
developing reflexive practitioners. However, they dispute the fact education and experience can
be directly equated to each other. According to them, some lessons are not educative.
Experiences which can arrest or distort the growth and development of any further experience
are not educative. Out of this, they argue that for a practitioner to learn from experiences, he or
she must have some level of awareness as well as a certain degree of humility which is not
available in some practitioners. This is only possible if they can attest to their competence as
project managers (Crawford, Patton, Stevens, & Williams, 2011). In this section, the work of
some different authors in connection to equating education and experience will be looked at to
help decide on whether to agree or disagree with Crawford and Hoffman.
Education is referred to as the insertion of information within the brain without
authentication (Allen, 2011). It forms the foundations through which the factual information with
the connection to the particular subject or data is then filtered through the manifestation of the
necessary data. On the other hand, the experience is where the same information which has
already been collectively accepted is fumbled upon casually or by personal effort. Well,
education is a sort of knowledge, but the experience is the factual knowledge (Bruneel, Renko, &

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Clarysse, 2010). It is the first-hand information. For example, one might learn some stuff in
school for a profession but when he or she goes to get a job what they learned in school and the
real thing might be two different issues. For example, one might do mechanic at college on a
new vehicle but when they go to do a task on an old car, it would not the same thing as the bolts
will be rusted. At this point, the mechanic will be required to heat them up or even apply force to
open them. In case the pin breaks down, he or she might be needed to redo or drill the threads of
the bolt afresh or even replace the old bolt with a new lock. The same thing in human resource
management, a manager, might be trained on how to manage a business or an organization but if
the same manager goes to the job market, the same techniques he or she learned in the college
might not be applicable in the job industry. These examples broadly justify that education is very
critical in life, but the experience is by far much better. Thus one needs to experience for them to
enjoy their work. Therefore, I agree with Crawford and Hoffman that education and experience
cannot be directly equated to each other as some skills are not educative.
Projects have become more complex in today's world. Therefore there is a need to
understand that the complexity offers a significant advantage to the project managers as they
tend to reason deeply on how to solve the complexities (Cristóbal, 2017). Besides, the
complexity affects some other factors in line with the managers such as safety, cost, modeling,
and evaluation. In this section, the thoughts regarding global project complexities and their
possibility of containing non-educative characteristics are discussed. As Lynelle Briggs explains,
project management training reduces all the tasks of project managers thus increasing challenges

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of the regular orders through the development of project personnel who are reluctant to the
projects interconnectedness.
Management role requires special skills for one to be a successful manager. Organizing,
proper planning, setting up goals and leading people or employees are some of the experiences
that managers need for them to be effective. Definitely! One cannot learn all that in the
classroom. Most classroom activities are theoretical (Elizabeth, 2011). An approach based on
competency has been widely used in the management sector. The approach integrates human
resource plans together with business plans to help organizations examine their present human
resource capability about competency against the energy needed to lead to the desired mission
and vision of the organization (Loew, 2016). This approach is much more harmful to
management. First of all, it is an approach which focuses on the immediate management needs.
The proposal is much less concerned with preparing the managers with new skills which they
can use to curb the menace of the same kind in future. The approach suits some environments
hence neglecting others. Additionally, the plan fails to adapt subject areas in which it is difficult
to prescribe competencies. It also fails in areas where new knowledge and skills need to be
simultaneously accommodated.
As Crawford and co-author quote John Dewey’s work, all experiences do not lead to
beneficial learning. As far as complex projects are concerned, it is good for the managers to
realize that not all the adventures they go through in the management field are educative. Some
of the experiences they enjoy while in their line of duty are not educative and thus there is a need
to reflect on which of these experiences are educative to them. Most of those who practice

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project management usually do not reflect on their experiences as they consider themselves busy.
They are always too busy to hurry to the next task in their line of duty. Lynn Crawford and
Hoffman had a point when they quoted John Dewey. It is important to note that reflection can
help one to solve all complications in management which seem formidable. Those reflections if
shared with others can help to cement the relationship between managers and keep projects going
forward (Bost, 2018).
Conclusion
Education cannot be equated to experience directly. Even though education is the source
of knowledge, some skills are by far educative while others are not educative. Therefore,
practitioners need to be exposed to more practical activities which are all round built. For
example, in the case of mechanics, there is a need to prove them to all manner of vehicles for
them to learn how to handle various challenges using different cars. The same case to managers,
there is a need to train them more practically than theoretically.

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References
Allen, B. (2011, February 27). What is the Diffrence Between Education, and Experience?
Retrieved from InwardQuest: http://www.inwardquest.com/questions/12187/what-is-the-
difference-between-education-and-experience
Bost, M. (2018). Why is Reflection so Important to Project Lessons Learned. Project
Management Articles, Online. Retrieved from Projects Management Articles:
https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/why-is-reflection-so-important-to-project-lessons-
learned.php
Bruneel, J., Renko, H. Y., & Clarysse, B. (2010). Leaening from Experience and learning from
others: How Congenital and Interorganizational Learning Substitute for Experiential
Learning in Young Firm Internationalization. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 164-
182. Retrieved from Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal:
https://www.marshall.usc.edu/sites/default/files/ylirenko/intellcont/Bruneel%20Yli-
Renko%20Clarysse%20SEJ%202010-1.pdf
Crawford, L., Patton, J. R., Stevens, C., & Williams, T. M. (2011). Aspects of Complexity:
Managing Projects in a Complex World. 14 Campus Boulevard: Project Management
Institute, Inc.
Cristóbal, S. J. (2017). Complexity in Project Management. ScienceDirect, 762-766.
Elizabeth. (2011). Is Project Management Training Really Effective? A Girl's Guide to Project
Management, Online. Retrieved from https://www.girlsguidetopm.com/how-effective-is-
project-management-training/
Loew, L. (2016). Competency Management: Challanges and Benefits. Turn Managers into
Leaders, Online. Retrieved from http://trainingmag.com/competency-management-
challenges-and-benefits/

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Pierson, C. (2017). Cardiovascular Disease and Omega-3s: Prescription Products and Fish Oil
Dietary Supplements are not the Same. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse
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https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/2327-6924.12419