Should teachers use external research to influence their practice or use their practice to answer their research questions?

Whitehead’s Living Educational Theory is a form of self-study that is focused on the researcher aiming to develop their own teaching practice. “A Living Theory researcher recognizes that there is no existing methodology that is appropriate for exploring the implications of asking, researching and answering the question, ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’” (Whitehead, J, 1979).

A more traditional approach to research would mainly focus on abstract principles that would attempt to apply to the teaching practice of all teachers whereas Whitehead’s Theory emphasises personal insights with a teachers’ own practices to develop a deeper understanding of effective teaching and learning. He argues that Living Educational Theory is “your explanation for your educational influences in your own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formations in which you are living and working.” (Whitehead, J, 2011). In essence, we are our own living examples of the educational theories that we are researching based off our own practices.

I would argue that Whitehead’s argument suggests that there is no perfect way to teach, but it involves a cyclical process of action, reflection and refinement, encouraging practitioners to contribute to their ongoing development. To me this makes far more sense than your more traditional research that focuses more on general principles. Every teaching experience is different due to the numerous different factors we encounter every day such as the school we teach in, the students, the age group and socioeconomic factors. Even teaching a year 9 class in your school will be different to teaching another year 9 class the following academic year in the same school. I’d suggest that Whitehead’s argument implies that there is no such thing as a perfect teacher, it is a profession in which we are constantly improving and using our experiences to change our habits to better teach. I strongly agree with this as by Whitehead arguing that our teaching practice can repeatedly be reflected upon and improved, it states that there is no limit to our teaching practice and there is always room for improvement. Whitehead, J (2011) states that as teachers work to improve their own teaching through serious lines of questioning and reflection, it is a model that can also be applied to the learning of students. I believe that we should be setting an example to students and this can be presented by teachers showing that they are always reflecting on their teaching, in turn encouraging students to always reflect on their learning.

Following more traditional research can be applied effectively in the classroom but will always need some form of adaptation to accommodate to the teaching situation of a specific teacher. Therefore Whitehead’s Theory of reflection on practice can be more beneficial as it allows teachers to come to their own understanding as to how to improve their practice, which also trains this skill throughout their careers. I believe that this concept is exactly mirrored in the idea that students can learn better by coming to their own understanding and reflection on work as opposed to the more traditional style of learning where the teacher simply tells the student want to do. Students can learn from this traditional style of teaching but it will always need some form of adaptation. This is further supported by Skemp, R, (1976) where the idea that learners learn more through coming to their own understanding as opposed to an instructional approach.

Although, whilst the idea of reflecting upon practices and discovering new ways in which to teach does sound more ideal it can often be very challenging. Teachers are generally very busy and it is an extremely stressful career. It is very easy to lack the energy to teach how you want to teach and to then just go with the prescribed syllabus and the prescribed methodology. I know that I have been guilty of this in my career. This leads to the question “Am I a living contradiction?” (Whitehead, 1979). I believe what Whitehead means by this is that we have our desires as educators to improve our own practice and deviate from the prescribed approach but we very often don’t do that because of the effort it requires in an already energy draining career. There are 2 conflicting ideas here where on one hand we would like to teach how we want but on the other we feel constrained to teach by the prescribed approach thus resulting in ourselves becoming a living contradiction to what we want to achieve as educators.