Theory Into Practice or Vice Versa? Comments on an Educational Antinomy

Authors

  • James T. Sanders
  • John E. McPeck

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55016/ojs/jet.v10i3.43728

Abstract

The longstanding educational problem of "translating theory into practice" is not a problem in the conventional sense of a question proposed for solution. Consideration of the problem's inverse, "translating practice into theory" serves to identify certain widely-shared assumptions about the nature and structure of the problem that render it insoluble, in principle. In particular, the maintenance of the "problem" depends upon ( l) the semantic ambiguity engendered by several idiosyncratic meanings of both "theory" and "practice" and (2) a conceptual confusion regarding their relationship with one another.

Author Biographies

  • James T. Sanders

    James T. Sanders is an Associate Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Education, The

    University of Western Ontario. He is co-editor (with S. H. Irvine) of Cultural Adaptation

    Within Modern Africa and Human Behavior in Africa.

  • John E. McPeck

    John E. McPeck is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario

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Published

2018-05-11

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 3 (1976)

Section

Articles

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