Like your thinking, your sharing, your challenge here Dave. Much of what you have written here (the reference to doctors) echoes the work on reflective practice that Donald Schon mentions in “The reflective practitioner – How professionals think in practice” (1983) as “reflection in practice”.

http://sopper.dk/speciale/arkiv/book49.pdf

.. and yes.. it’s easy to cave into “the bean counters” right now. In the current economic climate “the bean counters” appear to be taking more and more control of decision making. After all, they are armed with the data. They are armed with the “measuring tools”. So they have the all important information to share with those who need to make decisions to help them make “solid” decisions. Right?

Applicable to education? I’m afraid so.. that too is the world we live in. Finite resources to currently do more with less.