ALACT
Updated 2026-08-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
The ALACT model describes reflection as a spiral of five phases: action, looking back on that action, awareness of the essential aspects, creating alternative methods of action, and trial of those alternatives. The pivotal phase is awareness, because a review that only recounts what happened produces no new options. Raising the review to the level of the underlying problem is what allows alternatives to be designed and tested. Each trial then becomes the action that starts the next turn of the spiral, so professional competence accumulates.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Climb to awareness: move the review from what happened to the essential problem behind it. - Design alternatives: invent at least one different method of acting on that problem. - Close the loop: trial the alternative and let the result start the next cycle.
Anchor fast decisions
Reflection that stops at description leaves the practitioner with a record rather than a new capability. The ALACT spiral forces the review upward to awareness, where the essential problem is named, and only then generates alternative methods. Because the alternatives are tried in real action, the outcome supplies fresh material for the next round of looking back. Iterating the spiral converts experience into generalised professional knowledge rather than a series of disconnected episodes.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- korthagen.nlhttps://korthagen.nl/en/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Going-to-the-core.pdfverified
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