So it took some time to get around to it but I finally read up the Argyris and Schön text on single and double loop learning. From what I understand, the reading is about the kinds of behaviors people exhibit and appears to be based on close observation of the way people handle situations. After reading the section on Theories of Action it immediately struck me that this sounded very much like the kind of person that espouses a belief publicly but whose actions contradict those beliefs entirely -Hypocrites- but then I realised that its not really the case here because for someone to be a hypocrite they would have to pretend to have said beliefs and in the Theories of Action, people are described as being simply unaware that their behavior is not in line with or is even entirely contradicting their espoused beliefs. Ignorance is bliss after all.

I feel they described this pretty well-
When someone is asked how he would behave under certain circumstances, the answer he usually gives is his espoused theory* of action for that situation.This is the theory of action to which he gives allegiance, and which, upon request, he communicates to others. However,the theory that actually governs his actions is this theory-in-use.(Argyris and Schön 1974: 6-7)

The point being people generally don’t behave the way they claim to or believe themselves to, and being able to make this distinction within ourselves will allow us to find a congruence between the two “theories“ so that our behavior better fits our espoused theories, and it is through reflection that we are able to to reveal the theory-in-use.

It feels like a very intelligent way of saying “Stop deluding yourselves you fooools!!”

The way I see it, Single Loop Learning is like trying to solve a problem using methods we’re familiar with and have been using all the time and may not be the most effective, as opposed to Double Loop Learning in which we review our methods and try to formulate new approaches to the the situation as well our methods.

So

Single loop learning then – my way or the high way –
Double loop learning – take a leap of faith and hope it works out for the best –

The important thing to do is to kind of reverse engineer our own behaviors, which is pretty introspective, and not necessarily the easier thing in the world to do as it requires a certain level of discipline to critically analyse our own  behavior and figure out if our own espoused theories are in fact congruently matched with our theory-in-use.

Well thats my two cents at least.

Peace out.