There is a need to improve teaching and learning methods in higher education. Firstly, knowledge is narrative and discoursive and has to be treated as such. Secondly, universities are expected to play a more pronounced role in the economic development of society. The context of this paper is the growing number of students and adult learners in universities who lack the educational training and background that is taken for granted in conventional teaching and learning methods, and, secondly, the ideas and outlines of an action oriented and reflective educational practice that has its roots in American pragmatism.