Aristotle insists that the development of knowledge and understanding begins with experience. Sense experience is, however, unreliable. This is illustrated by the difference between the naked eye perceiving things to be “crooked when seen in water and straight when seen out of it”, and a scientific understanding of the phenomenon of refraction. Drawing on this analogy, this paper explores the tensions between broad based higher education practices and the pragmatic, technicist initial professional development programmes prevalent in Western Society. Wain suggests (...) that institutions, fearing uncertainty and risk, are far from confident in their “knowingness” but are constantly seeking reassurance through “the language of skills and competencies, of measurable outcomes and transparent transactions in their decisions”. This paper argues for the reclamation of an inductive approach to initial professional development as an alternative to the increasingly deductive discourse of regulation, audit and continuous improvement facing many novice professionals. (shrink)