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Donald A. Schön.
Invention and the Evolution of Ideas (== Displacement of Concepts) .
Social Science Paperbacks. 1963

An examination of the emergence of novelty—in theories and in scientific discovery and invention—leads the author to postulate a unifying principle, the displacement of concepts, in terms of which a variety of phenomena may be seen as manifestations of a single underlying process. In exploring the scope of this principle, which he discusses in relation to metaphor, analogy, and comparison, Dr Schön draws examples from concrete cases of product development and invention in industry; from the history of science; from theories in philosophy, aesthetics, and the human sciences; from the forms of language; and from common-sense beliefs.

Donald A. Schön.
The Reflective Practitioner: how professionals think in action.
Ashgate. 1983

A leading M.I.T. social scientist and consultant examines five professions – engineering, architecture, management, psychotherapy, and town planning – to show how professions really go about solving problems.

The best professionals, Donald Schön maintains, know more than they can put into words. To meet challenges of their work, they rely less on formulas learned in graduate school than on the kind of improvisation learned in practice. This unarticulated, largely unexamined process is the subject of Schön’s provocatively original book, an effort to show precisely how “reflection-in-action” works and how this vital creativity might be fostered in future professionals.

Donald A. Schön.
Educating the Reflective Practitioner: toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions.
Wiley. 1987

The problems that professional practitioners—such as lawyers, doctors, or engineers—face are rarely straightforward and clear. They are frequently complex and lack “right answers.” Skillful professional practice often depends less on factual knowledge or rigid decision-making mode}s than on the capacity to reflect before taking action in cases where established theories do not apply. Yet most professional schools only teach students standard scientific theories and how to apply them to straightforward problems—and so fail to equip future professionals with the skills they need to deal with the difficult problems of the real world.

In this book, Donald A. Schön argues that professional education should be centered on enhancing the practitioner's ability for “reflection-in-action”—that is, learning by doing and developing the ability for continued learning and problem solving throughout the professional’s career. Building on the concepts of professional competence first introduced in his book The Reflective Practitioner, Schön offers a new approach to education professionals in all areas. And he shows how professional schools can use this approach to prepare students to handle the complex and unpredictable problems of actual practice with confidence, skill, and care.