Teaching Application of Theory into Practice

 

Student teachers read theories in the teacher education curricula at all levels in education but seldom do they understand the connection of theory to their practical teaching. If you ask any of the practicing teachers, rarely would any of them be using theories in their classroom teaching. No doubt, that there is a vast gap between theory and practice which has surely been neglected in our country. Teachers’ lack of abilities to apply theory into their teaching has been impacting their teaching efficiency and is probably the reason that our education system is producing hordes of degree holders but not critical or creative minds.

Scientists and scholars have been studying teaching and learning processes for ages. Scientists studied multifarious aspects of human beings such as physical, mental, emotional, developmental, cognitive, and came up with certain conclusions that came to us in the form of theories. We know that scientific products are based on certain scientific principles, rules, laws, or theories, the process of educating a child and even an adult must also be based on specific rules, laws, or theories.

Just like the laws of gravitation pertain to the motion of planets, or conservation of energy governs the production of electricity, or the laws of aerodynamic forces govern the flying of airplanes, is it not intelligible that the gigantic process of teaching/learning must be governed by some philosophies too? A human mind is the most complicated and intricate creation. Do you think that a teacher takes up the content and can just shovel it into the minds of students? Well, that must not be the case. There is a lot going on behind the teaching-learning process. There is the learner’s personality, his/her mind, social, emotional, and psychological development, etc. In that connection, for example, Piaget explained the developmental stages of children which can help the teacher determine what kind of knowledge the child is ready to take up developmentally or how learners process new information.

The teacher intends the learner to learn the content at different levels. At some point they just want the learner to memorize the content while at another instance the content is intended to be understood and conceptualized. The teacher might intend the learner to discern its working in nature and be able to apply it to other situations or to be able to create something else using the taught concepts. Bloom's taxonomy comes to play here which gives six levels of learning objectives which are essential for teachers to understand and apply. The teacher then needs to apply different teaching techniques using the behavioral, cognitive, or constructivist theories to attain the teaching objectives of different levels in Bloom's taxonomy. 

Our teachers are taught all the theories and philosophies during their professional education, but they have no idea about the connection of those philosophies to their teaching practice. Although the usual or common techniques used in classroom teaching might be falling into some theory or philosophy, but teachers generally don’t have an intricate understanding of the working of theories in their practice. Lack of sophisticated knowledge and ignorance of the connection of theories and philosophies bar the teacher to plan and apply suitable methods and practices of teaching in delivering their content aligned to their objectives.

Owing to the fundamental importance of theories and philosophies in the teaching/ learning process, and the lack thereof in classroom teaching necessitates that special emphasis is given on the theory into practice aspect in the teacher preparation programs. Moreover, a specialized course on theory into practice is highly recommended in the programs where prospective teachers are solely taught the application of theories into their classroom teaching.