One of the enduring social challenges is to find better ways of relating ‘theory’ and ‘practice’.
It is always a problem in professional training. Trainees can be taught the ‘theory’ but that doesn’t always mean they know what to do. For example teachers can be taught the theory of education in College, but that doesn’t always make them good teachers. It is also not difficult to give them classroom experience, but that doesn’t make them good teachers either. The problem is to find a good way of connecting theory and practice, in a way that lifts professional performance.
The problem was brought home to me very vividly by something I heard many years ago in a lecture by the late John Davy, who was then Science Editor of the Observer. He was talking about how anatomy was taught to medical students in the 16th century. He said it took three people. There was someone who read from Galen’s studies of anatomy, written in the 2nd century. There was also a barber who cut up a dead body. Thirdly, there was a Professor whose job it was to connect up what was being read from Galen with the corpse that was being cut up. Quite a challenge!
Read Relating Theory and Practice in full.
