Personal Theory Building

A reflective practitioner does not only borrow theory from researchers. They also build their own theory about how teaching and learning actually work in their setting. Personal theory building is what turns a teacher from a competent practitioner into a thoughtful one. It rests on a few clear ideas about what theory is, what makes a theory good, and how thinking moves between observation and explanation.

What theory building aims at

Theory building has two aims.

Explanation

The first aim is to explain what produces what. A teacher who has noticed that students engage more in lessons that start with a question than in lessons that start with a definition is on the way to an explanation: the opening question produces the engagement.

A useful test of an explanation is whether it would let someone else, doing the same thing, get a similar result. An explanation that only works for the person who came up with it is shaky.

Prediction

The second aim is to predict. If A happens, B will follow. A teacher who has built a theory about lesson openings can predict that a class given a new topic with a question will engage more than the same class given a definition.

Prediction is the test of a theory’s usefulness. A theory that does not let you predict anything is description, not theory.

Two everyday examples of personal theory show the two aims at work.

The first is the common-sense theory that punishment deters bad behaviour. It tries to explain (punishment changes behaviour) and predict (if punishment happens, behaviour will improve). Whether the theory is correct in any specific case is a different question; what matters here is that it has the form of a theory.

The second is the equally common-sense theory that improved teaching increases student achievement. Same form. Tries to explain and predict.

A reflective practitioner builds theories of this kind about their own work. The theories are provisional and updated as evidence comes in. A personal theory that is not checked against evidence is not really a theory; it is a settled opinion in disguise.

The two levels at which theory operates

Theory building works at two levels at once.

The first is the abstract level of concepts. Concepts are ideas pulled away from any specific object: “engagement”, “questioning”, “metacognition”, “scaffolding”, “fairness”. A theory operates at this level when it relates concepts to each other.

The second is the empirical level of experience. The empirical level is what actually happened: the lesson on Tuesday, the student’s response, the worksheet’s effect. A theory connects to this level by being about specific observable events, not just abstract relations.

A good theory holds both levels together. It uses concepts that are abstract enough to be general but stays connected to specific empirical evidence. A theory that is purely abstract is empty. A theory that is purely empirical is just description.

Issues in developing personal theory

Personal theory building runs into a few common issues.

Belief change requires critical reflection

People are unlikely to change their beliefs unless they have an opportunity to critically reflect on them. A teacher who holds a particular belief about how students learn will not change it just because they read a counter-argument. They have to slow down, examine the belief, and look at evidence that pushes against it.

This is one of the reasons solo reading rarely changes practice on its own. The reading provides an idea, but the change in personal theory requires the reflective work to follow.

The intent to learn

Theory building also depends on the intent to learn. The intent comes from two sources.

The first is problems experienced in practice. A teacher who has run into a difficulty has a real reason to look for a better understanding of what is happening. The difficulty drives the inquiry.

The second is the desire to stay current. Even without a specific problem, a teacher who wants to remain a thoughtful practitioner has an ongoing intent to learn. This intent keeps the theory-building active during periods when nothing is going visibly wrong.

Without one of these sources, theory building does not happen. The teacher who has stopped having problems and stopped wanting to grow has stopped building personal theory.

The recursive cycle

The intent to learn supports a recursive cycle. The teacher tries something based on a current theory. Evidence comes in. The theory is updated. The teacher tries something again. The cycle continues.

Recursive here means that each cycle uses the output of the previous one. A teacher who builds theory recursively across years has a much more sophisticated personal theory by year ten than they did in year one. The growth happens through the cycles, not despite them.

What recursive theory building looks like over time

A teacher in year one might hold a simple theory: “if I explain things clearly, students will learn.” Evidence comes in. Some students learn from clear explanations; others do not. The theory updates: “clear explanation helps students who already have prior knowledge; students without prior knowledge need a different approach.”

The teacher tries the new approach. More evidence comes in. The theory updates again: “students without prior knowledge benefit from worked examples followed by guided practice.” And so on. By year ten, the theory has many more components and is much more useful in classroom decisions.

The teacher who never goes through this cycle holds the same simple theory in year ten that they held in year one. The years of teaching have not become years of learning.

Flashcard

What two aims does personal theory building have, and what drives the cycle that keeps the theory growing?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Explanation and prediction, driven by the intent to learn

A theory explains what produces what and predicts what will follow. The intent to learn comes from felt problems and from the desire to stay current. Without that intent, the recursive cycle of trying, gathering evidence, and updating the theory stops, and personal theory stays frozen.