Re-examining the theory-practice relationship in continuing professional education

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Abstract
The aim of continuing professional education courses is generally considered to be that of helping the practitioner improve practice. Yet in emphasising the transmission of theoretical knowledge, the improvement of practice often becomes ineffective. The focus of this paper therefore is the theory-practice relationship. The conventional formulation of this relationship in terms of the application of theory to practice is examined and found to suffer from serious weaknesses. These arise from the underlying technical rationality model which sees practice as mere technique subordinate to theory and lacking the status of true knowledge. Using Donald A. Schon's alternative model of ‘reflection-in-action˚s it can be shown that practice can generate its own theory which is both experiential and rigorous. Theory is not necessarily remote from practice and need not be intuitive and unsystematic. This therefore suggests an alternative conceptualisation of the theory-practice relationship. However such an alternative has its own problems. It depends on a number of conditions which may not always be present. The key one is reflective practice which is often difficult to realise given the psychological and organisational constraints in certain kinds of practice situations. There is also a conceptual problem since the underlying model collapses theory into practice and implicitly denies the usefulness of formal theory. A reformulation of the theory-practice relationship is suggested, therefore, which attempts to avoid these problems. Formal theory cannot simply be dismissed as impractical or irrelevant. It is however important to recognise the existence of practitioner theory. The two types of theory originate in different purposes and circumstances. Formal theory is concerned with representation and explanation, practitioner theory with judgement and understanding and the issue is how one can help the other. The relationship suggested is therefore one of practice reviewed through theory. This also helps us to understand the proper function of teaching theory to practitioners in continuing professional education. By representing a new relationship between theory and practice which is essentially dialectical and not merely applicative we can see the two sides of the relationship as interactive and mutually enriching, hopefully enabling teaching to be both rigorous and relevant.

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