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

Authors

  • James T. Sanders
  • John E. McPeck

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11575/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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