Redescribing the theoretical approach to Reflective Practice-based Learning

This paper discusses the concepts of reflection, reflexivity, action, theory, and practice inthe context of education. More specifically, it will suggest a systems-theoretical redescription of the theoretical approach to Reflective Practice-based Learning. The overall objective is to unleash the information potential in this redescription. The redescription will observe the current understanding of the theoretical approach to Reflective Practice-basedLearning and describe it using concepts defined by Niklas Luhmann. The epistemologicalbasis for the redescription is constructivism and the self-reference of autopoietic systems.As the concept of practice is central, the redescription will also address the attribution ofactions to a situation and the structural couplings between psychic and social systems.The redescription will form the basis for understanding reflection and reflexivity for bothpsychic and social systems. Therefore it allows for the complexity that resides in the factthat Reflective Practice-based Learning is a concept that can describe learning for individual learners as psychic systems, teaching as a social system, and the educational institution as an organization. The paper concludes that the systems-theoretical perspective broadens the understanding of Reflective Practice-based Learning by first includingsocial systems as systems that reflect. Second, by distinguishing between reflection andreflexivity and thereby including the temporal self-reference.