Action learning
EducationalAlso called learning by doing. The phrase comes from Reg Revans' L = P + Q formula — learning equals programmed knowledge plus questioning.
Action learning is a learning approach where people develop skill by tackling real, unfamiliar problems together. The premise is simple: people learn fastest when they face a situation that doesn't fit the textbook neatly, and a group of peers willing to ask honest questions makes the learning stick.
The core practice is real problems with peers, not simulated ones alone. The work has stakes — a brief from an actual context, a deliverable, a critique that lands. The format has been applied across industry, healthcare, public sector, and higher education for over eighty years.
On Ewance
Ewance is built on action learning. Every challenge in the catalogue puts a student in front of a real-world problem, with rubric-based feedback and peer review as the questioning layer. The unit of learning isn't a course module — it's the cycle of brief, deliverable, feedback, iteration. The pedagogy is the platform.
Read more
Why action learning beats lecture-based courses
The empirical case for learning through real problems, summarised.
Read articleArticleReg Revans, the Coal Board, and the L = P + Q formula
How a British physicist invented modern action learning while running training for hundreds of thousands of workers.
Read articleDecide by doing.
The fastest way to know whether challenge-based learning fits you is to ship one.