Personal Practical Theory
What Personal Practical Theory (PPT) is
A systematic set of beliefs (theories) that guide a teacher’s practice. Practical because it shapes daily teaching. Personal because it is based on prior life experience.
What research on teacher beliefs shows
- Teachers’ experiences shape what they believe teaching should be like
- Teachers form their own theories about teaching
- These theories then shape their classroom practice
Why surfacing your PPT matters
- Increases awareness of your own decision-making
- Reveals the rationale behind ongoing decisions
- Empowers you to become a more conscious reflective practitioner
How to develop your own PPT
Use a chart or template. There are no right or wrong answers. The work is to make the implicit explicit.
Every teacher works from a theory. Most teachers do not know what their theory is. They make decisions in lessons every day, but the beliefs behind those decisions usually stay invisible. Personal Practical Theory, or PPT, is the name for the theory each teacher carries with them, often without being aware of it.
Surfacing the PPT is one of the more uncomfortable activities of reflective practice. It is also one of the most useful.
What Personal Practical Theory is
PPT is a systematic set of beliefs that guides a teacher’s practice. The three words in the name carry the definition.
Personal
The theory is personal. It is built from the teacher’s own life experience. What they encountered as a student, what their own teachers were like, what they observed at home, what they took from their training, all feed into the personal layer.
Two teachers who attended the same training can have different PPTs because their personal histories are different. PPT is not the official theory taught in a course. It is the theory that has settled in this particular teacher.
Practical
The theory is practical, not abstract. It guides what the teacher actually does in the classroom. It shows up in lesson plans, in moment-to-moment decisions, in how the teacher responds to students, in how they handle difficulties.
A teacher’s espoused theory might be one thing. Their PPT, the theory in operation, is often something else. PPT is closer to the theory-in-use described in earlier chapters than to the espoused theory.
Theory
PPT is a systematic set of beliefs, not a random collection of opinions. The beliefs hang together in patterns. They have internal consistency, even if the teacher has never articulated them.
A teacher’s PPT might include beliefs about what learning is, what motivates students, what good behaviour looks like, what teachers are responsible for, what students are responsible for, and what success means. These beliefs interact and reinforce each other.
What research on teacher beliefs has found
Researchers exploring the relationship between teacher beliefs and classroom practice have found three things.
- Teachers’ experiences impact what they believe teaching should be like. Belief is not formed only by training. The teacher’s own school experience often has more influence than their professional preparation.
- Teachers form their own theories about teaching. These theories may not be articulated. They are real even when invisible.
- These theories shape practice. The same teacher in the same classroom with the same students will teach differently from another teacher because their PPTs are different.
This research is consistent across many studies. The implication is that improving teaching at a deep level requires working on the PPT, not only on technique.
What PPT means for the reflective practitioner
For a reflective teacher, the existence of PPT raises a clear question: what is mine?
The answer is rarely available without deliberate work. The PPT operates underneath conscious awareness most of the time. A teacher who has never tried to surface their PPT can often state their espoused beliefs but not their actual operating beliefs.
Surfacing the PPT does several things.
It makes decisions visible
Decisions a teacher makes in lessons stop feeling automatic and start being recognisable as expressions of underlying beliefs. The teacher who has never surfaced their PPT often experiences their teaching as “what teachers do.” The teacher who has surfaced it experiences their teaching as the result of specific beliefs that could be otherwise.
It empowers reflective practice
Reflection without awareness of PPT runs in circles. The teacher reflects on individual events, makes adjustments, and the underlying beliefs continue to drive new versions of the same patterns. Reflection with PPT awareness can engage with the patterns themselves.
It opens the possibility of change
You cannot change a belief you do not know you hold. Surfacing the PPT does not automatically change it, but it makes change possible. A teacher who realises they have been operating from “I am responsible for student motivation” can decide whether that belief is still serving them, or whether a different belief might fit better.
How to develop and explore your own PPT
There is no single correct method for surfacing PPT. The general approach uses a structured chart or template that prompts the teacher to articulate beliefs in specific areas.
A useful template might cover several domains.
What is the purpose of education?
What do you believe education is for? To prepare students for work? To produce thoughtful citizens? To pass on knowledge? To develop individuals? Most teachers carry beliefs about this even though they may never have stated them.
What is the role of the teacher?
What do you believe a teacher is supposed to do? Transmit knowledge? Facilitate learning? Hold authority? Be a model? Be a guide? Different answers shape very different classrooms.
What is the role of the student?
What do you believe students should be doing? Listening? Thinking? Discovering? Following? Questioning? The implicit answer drives lesson design.
What is learning?
What do you believe learning actually is? Memorising information? Building skills? Constructing understanding? Changing as a person? The answer affects what counts as evidence that learning happened.
What is your view of student motivation?
Do you believe students are naturally curious and learning is about not blocking that curiosity? Do you believe students need to be motivated by external rewards? Do you believe motivation depends on the relationship with the teacher?
What is your view of behaviour?
What do you believe causes good or poor behaviour? Internal traits? Environmental conditions? Relationships? The answer shapes how you respond to behaviour issues.
These are starting prompts. The teacher answers each one as honestly as they can. There are no right or wrong answers. The point is to make the implicit explicit.
Working with the surfaced PPT
Once the PPT has been surfaced, several useful activities follow.
Compare PPT to actual practice
Look at recent lessons. Do they reflect the PPT you have just articulated? Where do they match? Where do they not match? Mismatches are interesting. They often show where the espoused PPT and the operating PPT diverge.
Identify beliefs that may be limiting
Some beliefs in the PPT may be holding back development. A belief like “students will not learn unless I tell them” may have been useful early in a career and may now be limiting. Surfacing it allows a decision about whether to keep it.
Notice beliefs that are doing useful work
Not every belief in a PPT is limiting. Some are doing important work. Beliefs about respect, about the dignity of students, about the importance of careful preparation, may be the foundation of strong teaching. Naming these helps protect them.
Consider where beliefs came from
Many PPT beliefs come from the teacher’s own school experience. Some come from their training. Some come from their own children, their family, their culture. Tracing the origin of a belief can help with deciding whether to keep it. A belief absorbed from an authoritarian school environment may not deserve automatic loyalty just because it is familiar.
A systematic set of beliefs that guides a teacher’s practice, built from personal life experience.
PPT is personal (drawn from the teacher’s own history), practical (shaping daily action), and theoretical (a coherent set of beliefs, not random opinions). Surfacing the PPT makes invisible decision-making visible, enables real reflection on patterns rather than just events, and opens the possibility of changing beliefs that are no longer serving the teacher.
A short caution
Surfacing PPT can be uncomfortable. The beliefs that come up may not match the beliefs the teacher would like to hold. A teacher who said “I value student voice” may discover that their PPT also contains “but I find disagreement threatening.” This is not a failure. It is information.
The reflective response is to notice the gap without judgement, then decide what to do about it. Some gaps are easy to close once seen. Others take time and deliberate practice.
A teacher who avoids surfacing their PPT to protect their self-image stays at the surface of reflection. A teacher who can hold an uncomfortable PPT in view, calmly, while working to refine it, tends to develop further.