' I don't like theory. I'm a hands-on teacher.'
How many times have you heard similar sentences coming from a colleague? It has happened to me countless times - I have heard this piece of 'wisdom' coming from both ELT practitioners and postgraduate students (!)
Kurt Lewin once said 'there is nothing as practical as a good theory' but, in spite of this, from time to time the discussion emerges again about the primacy of one over the other. I truly believe that putting theory & practice in terms of bipolar opposition is a serious mistake for any educator or researcher. Theory without practice is dead letter and practice without theory is just like running around like a headless chicken, doing what others tell you to do, without a clue where you are going. Adopting methodologies without analysing their theoretical underpinnings makes teachers vulnerable to the 'fashions & trends' that have plagued ELT for a good many decades.
Both in education and in research, good practice should be based on solid theory and solid theory should spring up from reflective practice. It is not just they should come together, be bridged or co-exist like in a marriage. It is more than that: one cannot exist without the other.
My metaphorical image for theory & practice the ying-yang. It apparently shows dichotomy because of the contrasting colours but a closer analysis will show you that the first impression is deceiving. The contrasting colours show that indeed, they are distinct but the waving line in the symbol is the graphic representation of the non-defined boundaries between them; otherwise the line would be straight. If we could make the image move, the dividing line would be waving all the time showing how the territories of both actually fluctuate. Moreover, the contrasting dots included in each field would not be static either, but grow until the whole field is taken by the opposite colour and then the whole process starts again, meaning that practice springs from theory and theory springs from practice in a perpetual cycle of giving birth to the 'other'.
Some suggestions for further reading:
Bordieu, P. (1977) Outine of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: CUP.
Dearden, R. F. (1984) Theory and Practice in Education. London: Routledge and Paul Kegan.
Downey, M. and V. A. Kelly (1986) Theory and Practice in Education: An Introduction. 3rd edition. London: Sage.
Comments
willybilly
I would have to agree with this article. You need to blend in both theory and practice to achieve a good teaching result no matter whether it is English, technical teaching or simply teaching someone to drive a car.
If we teach only practical work then what happens when something a little bit different shows up? The practical learner cannot think outside the box he/she has been shown and deal with this change. They are only robots and need to be reprogramed again with more practical teaching.
Chris Lima
Hi Willy
Thanks a lot for replying to my post :)
I think you hit the nail when you mention thinking out of the box. I believe this is one of our biggest problems, not only for practitioners but also for academics. We get too used to seeing things only from the point of view of our own communities of practice and forget to look elsewhere for other possible solutions and points of reference.
Cheers - Chris