Action Modes of Research

For many professional doctorates, especially in the business and management domain, the epistemological focus is on work-based learning, in particular, that there be recognition that learning can be acquired in the midst of practice and dedicated to addressing the problem at hand through enquiry-driven processes. Participants in these programmes are active researchers themselves who enact and reflect upon their own personal mental models and learn to master the metacompetencies germane to their ongoing work contexts. The application of work-based learning can be enhanced through a range of modalities that have as their underlying commonality a planned engagement in practice and collective reflection on that practice. After documenting these work-based modalities and noting their differences, ten unifying elements are discussed giving special heed to how they may be realised in professional doctoral education