Reflections on the action of reflections in action : of cars, helicopters and satellites

I have long been dissatisfied with the emphasis on reflection as a process of reviewing after the event- you think, you do, and then you think of what you just thought and of what you just did, ex post facto. For me, this is a this is a very limited construction of the process of thinking about thinking and doing. We can, and should extend the concept considerably. Of particular importance, I believe is to capture the dynamic essence of reflecting on what you are thinking and what you are doing, as you are thinking and doing it! Donald Schoen (1987, 26) gives us the lead: We may reflect on action, thinking back on what we have done ... or we may pause in the midst of action to make what Hannah Arendt (1971) calls a 'stop and think'. I either case, our reflection has no direct connection to present action. Alternatively, we may reflect in the midst of action without interrupting it ... I shall say in cases like this, that we reflect in action. I want to pursue this notion of reflection-in-action as a way of knowing and, indeed, present it in the context of knowing about knowing