Educational theory and educational practice:
We may do this by bringing together points made in the first two sections of this chapter to show the role and function of philosophy of education.
Contemporary philosophy tends now to be seen as a higher-order activity which deals with conceptual and linguistic problems arising out of ground-floor activities like science,
mathematics and history, using the content of these disciplines as subject matter.Education itself is a first-order activity, concerned with teaching and developing the young. Education has its own immediate higher-order activity, educational
theorising, the making of theories about education and theories of education. The further point was made that philosophy of education is another higher-order activity parasitic upon the practice and theory of education. It is not the same thing as educational theory, but it takes theory as its main subject matter. This contention must now be dealt with in more detail.
Teachers engage themselves professionally in educational activities, ground-floor activities of a certain kind. They teach in various ways: they set tasks for pupils, they try to motivate pupils, to help them, to control their performances, and to improve their understanding and skills. In doing all this they necessarily act on theories of a practical kind.A practical theory involves a commitment to some end thought worth accomplishing, and everything a teacher does in his professional work involves such a commitment, together with a recognition that certain measures are necessary to bring about that end. Even mundane, everyday classroom activities like asking children to be quiet, to open their books and to write in them are based on theories, limited theories admittedly, but theories nonetheless. It is held as a theory that if you want pupils to hear what you say you must see to it that they are reasonably quiet; that if the teacher wants them to write something he must see that they have writing materials. If the teacher allows children to work in groups, this
follows from a theory about the best way to achieve his educational ends; if he organises their work on the basis of individual discovery, this too follows from a theory. All practice
is theory-loaded and educational theory is logically prior to educational practice. Unless
what is done is done according to some theory, bearing in mind some desirable end to be achieved and the means to achieve it, it is not practice at all, merely random behaviour.
What applies to everyday classroom affairs applies to the general stance a teacher takes up
about his work. If he deliberately allows the children the maximum amount of freedom in what they do, he does so according to some libertarian theory; if his teaching is didactic and authoritarian, this once again follows from a theory about the way in which the desired
educational end is best achieved. More generally still, if his teaching aims at producing well-integrated personalities, or democratic citizens or dedicated communists or dedicated Christians, he is in each case acting on a theory. It is well worth insisting on this priority
of theory to practice, since it is often thought to be the other way round, that theory always follows on practice. The fact is that what is codified in theoretical treatises are either those theories which have already been put into practice, or those which it is thought ought to be so. Theories may be amended or refined as a result of putting them into practice, but in no way does practice precede some theory. This is true of education as of practice generally. Behind all educational practice lies a theory of some kind.
Now, what can be put into practice can be put into words and talked about. So in addition to the actual practices of the classroom there is talk about what is done there and what ought to be done there. This is educational discourse which, in so far as it is serious, will consist partly of descriptions of what is being done, what is being taught and how, what results are being obtained, and partly of recommendations about what ought to be done,with arguments to back up these recommendations. Educational discourse will consist largely of educational theory more or less informally expressed. At the classroom or staffroom level the theories will be at their most informal, often more implied than explicit, and will usually only be made explicit when assertions or recommendations are challenged. At educational conferences theory may well be more detailed, structured and explicit. When the discourse comes to be formally set down, in books, the theories will be at their most explicit, with serious attempts at a convincing rationale. At both the practical and theoretical levels the specific conceptual apparatus will be employed. Teachers talking amongst themselves about their work and educational theorists making reasoned recommendations
for practice will inevitably make use of concepts like ‘education’, ‘teaching’, ‘knowledge’,
‘the curriculum’, ‘authority’, ‘equal opportunity’, and ‘punishment’, amongst others. And in so far as there is explicit theorising about education there will be argument and attempts at justification, since prescriptive educational theory is never simply a matter of assertion.
Theory will involve recommendations backed up by reasons, which may be appropriate or not, relevant or not, adequate or not.