Skip to main content

the transient nature of theories

From Kelly (1963):

"If it were a static world that we lived in, our thinking about it might be static too. But new things keep happening and our predictions keep turning out in expected or unexpected ways. Each day's experience calls for the consolidation of some aspects of our outlook, revision of some, and outright abandonment of others." [p. 14] I'm calling for the abandonment of the pursuit of a generic learning theory.

"A scientist formulates a theory --- a body of constructs with a focus and a range of convenience. If he is a good scientist he immediately starts putting it to test. it is almost certain that, as soon as he starts testing, he will also have to start changing it in the light of the outcomes. Any theory, then, tends to be transient. And the more practical it is and the more useful it appears to be, the more vulnerable it is to new evidence. Our own theory, particularly if it proves to be practical, will also have to be considered expendable in the light of tomorrow's outlooks and discoveries. At best it is an ad interim theory." [p. 14]
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning Environment

The learning environment can be one or both of the following: 1) Content providing: e.g. other skiers provide good and bad examples, mountain provides visual input to understand skiing (compared to talking about skiiing in a classroom, chalkboard drawings, pictures, video, etc...) 2) Performance enabling: e.g. the mountain, snow, a ski lift, provide a place to ski; skis, boots and poles provide equipment to ski. e.g. a harness can help a diver safely learn a new dive, e.g. a foam pit can help a gymnast safely learn a new move
Post a Comment
Read more

Preface note for dissertation

Although I feel that this work is of value it seems so insignificant compared to what I have learned in producing it. If only I could give that to the world, then I would feel my contribution is truly great. However, that progression is not something that can be given, but rather something that each person must discover and attain individually. Hopefully this work will, at least, give a good strong nudge in the right direction. (me, 2008)
Post a Comment
Read more

Trait vs state

"A useful distinction in the discussion of student characteristics is trait versus state. Traits are student characteristics that are relatively constant over time...whereas states are student characteristics that tend to vary during individual learning experiences, such as level of content-specific knowledge." (Reigeluth, 1983, p. 32) Reigeluth also states that "many strategy components have been shown to help students with all kinds of traits to learn" [p. 32]. My position is that we do not know a priori which aspects of our instructional strategies, learning environment, motivator, etc... will generalize across many or all students. However, with a localized learning theory we can learn over time which do and which do not. At the same time, we will likely find ways of grouping students that we never would have before imagined.
Post a Comment
Read more