In 1970, he delivered the Reith Lectures for the BBC, on how learning occurs within organizations and societies that are in permanent states of flux.

During these decades his long collaboration with adult education/organizational behavior expert Chris Argyris yielded key insights into the question of how organizations develop, adapt, learn or fail in these critical missions.

He proposed the idea of a "generative metaphor" as figurative descriptions of social situations, usually implicit and even semi-conscious but that shape the way problems are tackled.

[9] This emerged out of a self-described inability to understand the process of planning, which included his failure to determine what his students learned from field work experience.

[11][12] His model challenged practitioners to reconsider the role of technical knowledge versus "artistry" in developing professional excellence.

The concept most notably affected study of teacher education, health and social care professions and architectural design.

[14] Schön also criticized what he called the commitment on the part of institutions of higher learning to a view of knowledge that featured a "selective inattention to professional competence".

[15] In the context of reflective practice, Schön suggested the replacement of the dominant epistemology of technical rationalism with his reflection-in-action framework.

[18] Together with Chris Argyris, Schön provided the foundation to much of the management thinking on descriptive and interventionist dimensions to learning research.

His interest and involvement in jazz music inspired him to teach the concept of improvisation and 'thinking on one's feet', and that through a feedback loop of experience, learning and practice, we can continually improve our work (whether educational or not) and become a 'reflective practitioner'.