Chris Argyris

Chris Argyris (1923-2013) was an American organizational theorist whose work on double-loop learning became a foundational framework for how schools, universities and other educational organizations examine and revise their own practice. Teaching at Yale School of Management and later Harvard Business School, Argyris distinguished single-loop learning, in which an organization corrects an error without questioning the assumptions that produced it, from double-loop learning, in which the underlying goals, values and governing rules are themselves re-examined. Working with Donald Schon, he extended this into a theory of organizational learning and action science aimed at helping practitioners, including educators and school leaders, surface the gap between their stated values, or espoused theory, and what they actually do in practice, their theory-in-use. His frameworks are widely taught in educational-leadership and teacher professional-development programs as a method for reflective practice and institutional change, carrying his influence from corporate management into schools of education.