Learning Theories for Everyday Teaching

Carol Thompson, Lydia Spenceley

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781526469809, 9781526469816
• eBook ISBN: 9781526482525
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

An essential tool for new teachers and trainers who want to use learning theories to develop their practice.  The text explores key learning theories in a pragmatic way and encourages focused reflection to promote critical analysis of theories and their potential application to specific contexts. The authors highlight the practical benefits of using theory in planning, teaching and reflecting on practice.  The text also encourages the use of a range of creative approaches to enhance learning.

Each chapter explores a key aspect of the teacher?s role (such as planning, motivation or assessment) and outlines theories relating to this theme - fully embedding the use of learning theories in practical every day teaching. It includes activities for reflection and a section  encouraging readers to ?map? the theory to their own practice. Scenarios and case studies throughout illustrate learning and support readers link theory to practice.

1 What is the point in theory?

In this chapter we will explore:

• what theory is;
• why theory is useful;
• behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism in the classroom;
• reflective practice.

Introduction

If I had a penny for every time I have been asked ‘what is the point in theory?’ while I have been working in teacher education, I would be a very rich person. It is usually a question asked by new recruits to the teaching profession towards the start of their studies to gain professional qualifications in teaching. Quite often it’s asked at the point of their having to submit their initial assignment for the course when many students struggle to build a bridge between the (frequently contradictory) theories that they find in the books recommended for the course and their own practice. The books can make the art of teaching look deceptively simple and it is difficult to reconcile the theory they read about with the messy, and often frustrating, reality of their own classroom practice.

To be honest, at this point I find it very difficult to give a succinct, meaningful answer as what many of them are really looking for are the answers to two very different questions – ‘what use is theory to me in my classroom?’ and ‘how can learning all this stuff help me to be a more effective teacher?’. In other words what they really want to know is how this thing called ‘theory’ connects with their practice and how knowing ‘theory’ will be of use to them in their professional practice. The glib answer to their question, and one that is often found in books, is probably something along the lines of ‘knowing theory helps us to become more effective educators’ but that really doesn’t explain why or how familiarity with educational theory will have any connection with their personal experience of teaching. Like education itself, discovering the point of theory is an individual journey of exploration. It is frustrating, perplexing, enlightening and full of moments of darkness and confusion dispelled by the ‘light-bulb’ moments of realisation and comprehension in unequal measure. The times when the light-bulb moments occur are unpredictable; they depend on the individual, their context and the situations they experience as they discover more about teaching and classroom practice – but they always happen. To explore the connections between theory and practice, we would like to introduce Sasha. As a new teacher studying for a teaching qualification Sasha keeps a journal. By looking at extracts from this journal we will see how theory can be used to develop classroom practice.

Figure 1.1 Sasha’s story

Case study

Sasha’s journal

Got a new job! Well done me! Made it into ‘proper’ teaching at a college at long last – I’ve been teaching apprentices at work how to do their job for years and though I say it myself I am a really good teacher. I teach them just the same way I was taught by my teacher.

They’ve sent me a load of paperwork to have a look at – schemes of work and lesson plans and the like but I don’t think I really need much help – I just need to get started – I just need to teach them what I know. Oh, and they want me to take a teaching qualification, apparently I need to know the theory of teaching – don’t really see the point when I will already be teaching, but it’s part of the contract so I’ll have to do it.

Looking at this journal entry it is clear that Sasha thinks that having an understanding of the theory of teaching and learning is far less important than practical experience. Korthagen and Kessels (1999) and Spenceley (2014) note that there is a strong relationship between teachers’ preferred way of teaching and the way in which they have been taught. Sasha’s current practice is with apprentices; and as Lave and Wenger (1991) point out, apprentices’ learning is normally embedded within the activities they undertake, the context in which they work and the culture of the organisation. Apprentices learn by modelling themselves on their teachers and the patterns of behaviour they observe but Sasha seems to think that this form of teaching will work in a different context – that of a more formal educational setting. However, it is unlikely that Sasha would expect a doctor or a dentist to practise without knowing the theory of how different drugs might affect human beings (rather than just knowledge gained from practice), so why is it that Sasha thinks that theory is less important than practical experience when it comes to teaching?

What do we mean by ‘theory’?

Before exploring why Sasha may be underestimating the role of theory in effective classroom practice it’s important to look at what we mean by theory. Regrettably, Sjolie’s research indicated that at the beginning of most teacher education courses students tend to dismiss theory as being something which was ‘boring’, ‘vague’, ‘out of touch with reality’, ‘obvious’ or ‘verbose nonsense’ (Sjolie, 2014, p741) which had limited relevance to their practice and experience of teaching. Theory is generally seen as a set of ideas or general principles which can be used to explain a fact, event or opinion, but it can also be seen as a set of rules which have the potential to guide action (Dye, 1999). In this sense theories are something which are a form of abstract knowledge, other peoples’ (or experts) thoughts and experiences (Sjolie, 2014, p731). These are often applied directly to classroom practice which, as Knight (2015) suggests, leads to them being regarded by most people as divorced from reality. Used in this way theory becomes a set of abstract, general rules which can be applied by teachers to either explain or guide their teaching practices. If this is the case then it can be argued that simply using existing theory to inform their practice will reinforce the status quo, leaving little room for change and the development of the innovative practices associated with teaching and learning in the twenty-first century.

There is, however, an alternative view of genesis of theory – grounded theory. Glaser and Strauss (1967) argued that theory could emerge from practice in a specific context rather than through the application of abstract analytical constructs and pre-existing theory opening up a space for the development of new theory. In other words, grounded theory is based on experience, what the practitioner finds ‘works’ in a given situation to resolve a problem, and which they might refer to in future to guide their actions should a similar situation arise; an approach which leaves room for the growth of new theories which might be more suited to the changing context of education. So now we have two forms of theory: theory which is abstract and deals with general principles which Aristotle described as epistemic theory and that which is derived from practice or ‘phronetic’ theory. Both these explanations of theory are valid, but neither answer the questions raised by students earlier in the chapter: ‘what use is theory to me in my classroom?’ and ‘how can learning all this stuff help me to be a more effective teacher?’ – in other words, how is theory related to practice?

Case study

Sasha’s journal

I’ve got to keep a journal for this course – I gave up writing diaries when I was a kid, but I suppose I will have to do it. I’ve survived the first part of the year – bit of a baptism of fire but I’ve just about coped. Some of the other teachers have been really helpful and told me what to do about the routine stuff. Some of the students seem to be learning alright but most of them don’t seem to remember what I say to them. It’s their fault they don’t remember – they just don’t pay enough attention to me when I’m talking to them about the basics. They don’t seem to grasp that they will need to know the basic principles before they can progress to the really interesting stuff later. Sometimes they just don’t seem to be interested in the subject at all and if they aren’t interested why are they doing it?

Oh yes, and I have started my training. Seems a bit boring and that makes it difficult to concentrate sometimes and I haven’t learned a fat lot about how I can teach better yet either. She says I have to use quotations – well here’s what I think so far. It’s all ‘words, words, words, I’m … sick of words’ – that’s from some song or other but I can’t remember which one. As far as I can see it’s all about writing things down and thinking about them – as if I’ve got time for all that!

Activity 1.1

Review what you have read so far and make a list of the things that Sasha is finding difficult.

One of the things which is probably top of your list is the comment that Sasha makes about students not understanding that they ‘will need to know the basic principles before they can progress’. Every subject is governed by theories or general principles which students need to understand before they can grasp more complex aspects. What Sasha doesn’t see is that his difficulties in engaging students in learning stem from the same thing – the need to have a basic understanding of the principles (or theories) which underpin effective teaching and learning.

Case study

Sasha’s journal

OK – I’m beginning to get it – well some of it anyway. I tried out some of this behaviourism theory we looked at, going over and over the same information with the students, but they were really bore...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• 1 What is the point in theory?
• 2 The classroom environment
• 3 Planning for learning
• 4 Motivating learners
• 5 Developing learners’ thinking
• 6 Learning with others
• 7 Co-constructing learning
• 8 Mixing it up
• 9 Innovative teaching
• 10 Resilience
• Final thoughts
• Index