Table of Contents
Schön’s reflective model, introduced by Donald Schön in 1983, describes two core modes of professional thinking: reflection-in-action (adjusting your approach while an activity is happening) and reflection-on-action (reviewing what happened afterwards). Together they turn everyday professional experience into deeper, transferable learning.
Donald Schön was an American philosopher and academic who studied how skilled professionals actually think while working. Architects, doctors, teachers and social workers rarely apply textbook theory step by step; Schön set out to explain what they do instead.
He argued that competent practitioners hold tacit, intuitive knowledge he called “knowing-in-action”. This skill is built through repeated experience and usually surfaces automatically during familiar, routine tasks.
Before Schön, professional training rested on “technical rationality” — the belief that practitioners simply apply scientific theory to clearly defined problems. Schön argued real practice is messier, ambiguous and rarely fits pre-set rules.
Reflection begins when something surprises the practitioner — an unexpected result, an unfamiliar case, or a plan that suddenly stops working as intended. That surprise interrupts routine and triggers conscious thought.
As a reflective practice model, Schön’s framework now sits at the centre of nursing, education, social work and other placement-based modules across UK universities. Many students turn to a nursing essay writing specialist for guidance on structuring these reflective assignments.
Schön published The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action in 1983. The book challenged “technical rationality” — the idea that expertise is simply applied science delivered by rulebook.
He studied practitioners across architecture, engineering, town planning and psychotherapy, observing how they solved messy, real-world problems that rarely matched textbook cases exactly.
His central conclusion was that expertise lives in action itself, not only in formal knowledge. Professionals adapt continuously, treating each new situation as a unique case worth attention.
The book had a lasting influence on professional education, including nursing, teaching and social work curricula across the UK. Many dissertations reference Schön (1983) within their literature review when discussing reflective-practice theory.
Schön later extended this thinking in Educating the Reflective Practitioner (1987), proposing that professional courses teach through supervised practice and coached reflection, not lectures alone.
Schön (1983) remains a landmark reference in reflective-practice literature. Correct citation matters in academic work — check our referencing and citation support guide before submitting any assignment.
Schön’s model rests on two distinct but connected processes. Academic markers often expect students to show clear evidence of both, not just one, in a single reflective account.
Reflection-in-action happens while the activity is still unfolding — thinking on your feet and adjusting technique in real time as a situation develops unexpectedly.
Reflection-on-action happens afterwards, once the event has finished. It is the slower, deliberate process of reviewing, analysing and drawing lessons from what occurred.
| Aspect | Reflection-in-Action | Reflection-on-Action |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | During the activity, in real time | After the activity has ended |
| Trigger | An unexpected result or “surprise” that disrupts routine | A deliberate decision to review an experience |
| Nature | Intuitive, fast, often tacit adjustment | Conscious, structured, deliberate analysis |
| Typical example | A nurse changes technique mid-procedure when a patient reacts unexpectedly | A student writes a journal entry after a placement shift |
| Academic use | Harder to evidence directly; usually described in hindsight | Common basis for reflective essays, portfolios and placement reports |
Schön also described a related idea, reflection-on-practice, where a professional steps back from a whole pattern of work rather than one incident, spotting recurring habits or blind spots.
Although Schön never drew a fixed diagram, tutors commonly present his ideas as a repeating cycle. The flow chart below shows how a single practice moment generates learning.
Step one is the practice moment itself — a lecture, ward shift, client meeting or design task performed largely on autopilot using existing skill.
Step two is the surprise: an unexpected reaction, error or obstacle that routine knowledge cannot immediately explain or resolve.
Step three is reflection-in-action — the practitioner adjusts approach there and then, testing a new response while still inside the situation.
Step four is reflection-on-action, completed later. The practitioner reviews what happened, questions assumptions and asks why the surprise occurred.
Step five reframes future practice. Insight from the review reshapes “knowing-in-action”, so similar situations are handled with new understanding next time.
This cycle repeats constantly across a career. Each round of reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action gradually refines a practitioner’s tacit skill, judgement and confidence in unfamiliar situations.
Among the many models of reflection taught on UK courses, Schön’s and Gibbs’ remain the two most widely referenced reflective models in nursing, education and social work programmes.
Schön’s model is often compared with Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988), which sets out six defined stages: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan.
Gibbs offers a fixed sequence students can follow step by step. Schön offers two flexible modes of thinking rather than a rigid checklist to work through.
In practice, many students blend the two: Schön’s concepts explain why reflection matters, while Gibbs’ stages give a clear structure for writing the assignment itself.
Whichever framework a module specifies, check the assignment brief carefully — markers usually expect the named model applied consistently, not mixed without explanation.
Many students describe the event in detail but forget to separate reflection-in-action from reflection-on-action, blurring both processes into one generic paragraph.
Another common error is skipping the “surprise” entirely and reflecting on a routine, unremarkable event instead — Schön’s model works best with genuine disruption.
Some essays state feelings without analysis. Schön’s model expects practitioners to question assumptions and consider why the surprise occurred, not just describe how it felt.
Finally, avoid vague conclusions. A strong reflective account ends with a specific, realistic change to future practice, not a general statement about “learning a lot”.
Schön’s model captures something Gibbs cannot: the fast, intuitive thinking that happens mid-task, before there is time for structured analysis or planning.
It respects professional judgement and tacit skill, making it popular in fields like nursing, teaching, architecture and social work where split-second decisions matter.
The main limitation is structure. Because Schön offers no fixed stages, students sometimes find it harder to organise a written reflective essay clearly.
Reflection-in-action is also difficult to capture accurately in writing, since it is recalled after the event rather than recorded as it happens.
Some critics argue Schön’s account is difficult to test empirically, since “reflection-in-action” relies on practitioners accurately recalling fast, intuitive thought after the fact.
Start by identifying a genuine “surprise” moment from your placement, seminar or project — reflection needs a real disruption to routine practice, not a generic summary.
Separate your account clearly into reflection-in-action (what you noticed and adjusted at the time) and reflection-on-action (what you concluded afterwards, using theory).
Support your analysis with course literature and correctly cited sources. Good essay structure keeps a reflective account focused and easy for markers to follow.
If your reflection sits inside a wider dissertation methodology or placement chapter, a dissertation writing service can help you integrate it clearly with the rest of your argument.
Keep language precise and evidence-based. Avoid vague claims about “learning a lot”; instead name the specific skill, assumption or habit that changed as a result.
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Schön’s reflective model, from Donald Schön’s 1983 book The Reflective Practitioner, describes two ways professionals think about their work: reflection-in-action (adjusting technique while performing a task) and reflection-on-action (analysing the experience afterwards). It explains how practical, tacit skill develops through experience rather than fixed theory alone.
Reflection-in-action happens in real time, while a task is still underway — the practitioner notices a problem and adjusts immediately. Reflection-on-action happens afterwards, once the activity has finished, through deliberate review and evaluation, often written up in a reflective journal, essay or portfolio entry.
American philosopher and professor Donald Schön created the model, publishing it in his 1983 book The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. He developed the theory after studying architects, engineers, planners and therapists to understand how skilled professionals actually solve problems in practice.
Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) sets out six fixed stages — description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan — followed in sequence. Schön’s model instead describes two flexible modes of thinking, in-action and on-action, without prescribed steps, focusing more on tacit professional judgement than a linear checklist.
Identify a genuine ‘surprise’ moment from practice, then separate your account into what you noticed and adjusted during the event (reflection-in-action) and what you concluded afterwards using theory and evidence (reflection-on-action). Support both sections with correctly referenced academic literature and a clear structure.
Strengths include capturing intuitive, in-the-moment professional judgement that other models miss, and respect for tacit skill built through experience. Limitations include a lack of fixed structure, which can make essays harder to organise, and difficulty accurately recalling reflection-in-action after the event has passed.
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