Argyris and Schon on Single and Double Loop Learning
Two kinds of learning (Argyris and Schon, 1978)
| Type | What changes | What stays the same |
|---|---|---|
| Single-loop | Strategy or technique | Underlying goals, values, beliefs |
| Double-loop | Underlying goals, values, beliefs | Nothing; the whole frame is examined |
Single-loop learning
Try a strategy. Get feedback. Try a different strategy. The frame stays fixed; only the technique changes.
Double-loop learning
Run out of strategies, or notice that the strategies keep producing the wrong outcome. Step back and re-examine the goals, values, and beliefs that drive the choices. A new framing produces new options.
Why double-loop matters
Single-loop learning is faster and easier. Double-loop learning is slower and harder, and produces deeper change.
A teacher who keeps trying new techniques to fix the same problem is doing one kind of learning. A teacher who realises the problem is not in the technique but in the underlying goal or assumption is doing another. Chris Argyris and Donald Schon, writing in 1978, called the two single-loop and double-loop learning. The distinction is one of the most useful ideas in the entire field of reflective practice.
What the two loops are
Argyris and Schon built their theory around the recognition and amendment of a perceived fault or error. When something goes wrong, the practitioner has two ways to respond.
Single-loop learning
Single-loop learning involves connecting a strategy for action with a result. The teacher takes an action, observes the result, takes in feedback automatically, and tries a different approach.
The frame stays fixed. The teacher’s underlying goals, values, and beliefs do not get questioned. Only the technique changes.
A short example. A teacher wants students to participate in discussion. She tries questioning. Few students answer. She tries calling on students by name. Still few answers. She tries giving small participation marks. Still few answers. Each new attempt is a new strategy. The goal (more participation) and the implicit beliefs about what participation should look like (oral, in front of the whole class, in English) stay the same.
Double-loop learning
Double-loop learning involves modifying personal objectives, strategies, or policies so that when a similar situation arises a new framing system is in use. New approaches become available because the underlying frame has changed.
The cyclical process of trying new strategies may run several times without producing the wanted outcome. Running out of strategies can push the practitioner to re-evaluate the deeper governing variables that shape behaviour. Re-evaluating and reframing goals, values, and beliefs is a more complex way of processing information. It is a more sophisticated way of engaging with experience.
Continuing the example. The teacher steps back and asks: what am I assuming about participation? She realises she has been assuming participation must be oral and public. She rebuilds her working idea of participation to include written contributions, paired discussion, and small-group talk. With the new frame, several new strategies become possible that were not visible before. The change in frame produces a change in options.
Why double-loop learning is harder
Single-loop learning is built into most teaching. The teacher tries something, sees what works, tries something else. The cycle is fast. It produces measurable improvements in technique.
Double-loop learning is slower and harder for several reasons.
It questions the goals themselves
Asking “what am I trying to achieve, and is that the right goal?” is uncomfortable. It opens the possibility that the entire effort has been pointed at the wrong target.
It requires examining inherited beliefs
The frame the teacher is working inside often comes from her own training, her own school experience, her culture, her institution. Examining the frame means examining where it came from and whether it still serves.
It can produce wider change
A teacher who shifts her goals about participation may then find that her assessment system, her grading rubric, and her lesson plans all need to change. Single-loop change is local; double-loop change tends to ripple.
It can create conflict
If the teacher’s new frame contradicts her institution’s expectations, she has a decision about whether to push back or comply. Single-loop learning rarely produces this kind of friction. Double-loop learning often does.
Single-loop changes the strategy; double-loop changes the underlying goals, values, or beliefs
Single-loop learning is fast and useful for technical improvement. Double-loop learning is slower and harder, and is the only way to produce real change when the same problem keeps appearing despite new strategies. A reflective teacher uses both, choosing depth based on the situation.
Working with both loops
A reflective practice that uses only single-loop learning produces a teacher who is technically skilled and locked inside her current frame. A practice that uses only double-loop learning produces a teacher who keeps overhauling her frame and never gets the technique right. The combination is what works.
A practical pattern.
- Run single-loop learning for routine problems. Most teaching problems do not need a re-examination of underlying beliefs. They need a different technique.
- Reach for double-loop learning when the same problem keeps returning. If three different techniques have failed, the issue is probably not in the technique. It is in the frame.
- Make double-loop learning a periodic habit. Once or twice a year, review the working frame. What goals are you pursuing? What values shape your choices? Do they still hold?
This pattern lets the teacher use each kind of learning where it fits without overusing either.
A second-order use: double-loop learning about others
Argyris and Schon also suggested that double-loop learning extends to the people the teacher works with. In double-loop work, the teacher evaluates not only her own goals and beliefs but also those of the students, colleagues, and institutions she interacts with.
Some of these external goals and beliefs may need to be modified or adapted to produce a constructive outcome. A teacher in a multicultural classroom, for example, may need to adapt her own working frame to be open to many cultural values and methods. The double loop runs in both directions.
This expansion is rare in routine teaching. It matters most in periods of significant change: a new institution, a new student demographic, a major curriculum shift.