Week 3 – Theoretical Frameworks and

Concepts

TOPIC GOALS

 Learn what is the theoretical perspective behind critical practice

 Learn the different concepts involved

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 1. Introduction

“A conceptual framework is a frame that works to put those concepts into

practice.”

(Paul Hughes, 2009)

2. Theoretical perspective

‘Theories are formulated to explain, predict, and understand phenomena

and, in many cases, to challenge and extend existing knowledge within the limits
of critical bounding assumptions. The theoretical framework is the structure that
can hold or support a theory of a research study. The theoretical framework
introduces and describes the theory that explains why the research problem under
study exists’ (USC, 2013). Knowledge is socially distributed, and the distribution
of knowledge is socially structured, but the distribution and the structures within
which knowledge is produced and reproduced— often two separate things— have
varied enormously. […] Knowledge has a history and source, and the sources
constrain the way a knowledge formation is configured. There are multiple
sources of “knowledge” but a basic set of distinctions might be borrowed from
one of the most deeply rooted and historically important bodies of knowledge—
law. A traditional distinction is made between (1) revelatory law, (2) rational law,
and (3) customary law. A version of this might be adapted more generally: There
is (1) knowledge that is eternal and unchanging and comes from a source
appropriate to it; (2) empirical or factual knowledge, with a source in the changing
world of empirical fact or socially constructed fact or even literary fashion; and
(3) non-explicit knowledge, involved in application, such as craft knowledge, or

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things learned as a tacit precondition to possessing the other kinds of
knowledge.[…] Each of these, as a living body of knowledge that is transmitted
and taught, involves a common language and a common understanding of that
language, which is often specialized and distinct from ordinary language, as well
as accepted forms of argument and reasoning, which are “shared” as a result of
more or less standardized training or education of some kind that is a condition
of communication rather than a form of communication (Frodeman, 2017).
As John Fook argues in his book Social Work: A Critical Approach to
Practice, (2016) ‘… the ability to reflect upon practice in an ongoing and
systematic way is now regarded as essential to responsible professional practice.
There has been some criticism that ‘reflective practice’ has simply become a new,
and uncritical, orthodoxy (Ixer 1999), possibly because it can be enacted in many
and varied ways, and is used so widely across many different professions and
disciplines (Fook, White and Gardner 2006). […] Part of the difficulty in pinning
down exactly what reflective practice and critical reflection mean may be due to
the fact that there has been a great deal of development of these concepts in
widely varying fields, from the health and welfare professions to law,
management, business and education, and from both research and practice
traditions.’ It is argued that connecting theory and reflective practice can be
particularly useful in developing a reflective disposition and should begin with
eliciting and analyzing personal beliefs and theories (Smith, 2003).

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 Educational research embeds itself in a wide variety of theoretical
discourses, using them to explore issues such as professional and cultural
identities, forms of educational management, changing work practices and
priorities. They also form the basis for numerous debates relating to the user
experience, including, for example, differential attainment and achievement,
access and inclusion, and the relationship between culture and learning (Murphy
and Timmins, 2009). However, a dedication to continuous improvement in the
context of critical cultures calls for risk and disclosure—a type of truth that can
be found only in the passionate stories of people who care. The risks lie in naming
problems, which many would prefer to have left quiescent (Sockett and Wood,
2001).
A theoretical framework consists of concepts and, together with their
definitions and reference to relevant scholarly literature, existing theory that is
used for your particular study. The theoretical framework must demonstrate an
understanding of theories and concepts that are relevant to the topic of your
research paper and that relate to the broader areas of knowledge being considered.
The theoretical framework is most often not something readily found within the
literature. You must review course readings and pertinent research studies for
theories and analytic models that are relevant to the research problem you are
investigating. The selection of a theory should depend on its appropriateness, ease
of application, and explanatory power (USC, 2013).

The philosophy that learners actively construct and create their

personalized knowledge structures from the interaction of three inputs: what they
already know; what they pay attention to in their environment, including
language, people, and images; and what they process deeply.

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Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934): Theory of Social Development
Vygotsky is a twentieth‐century Russian psychologist, linguist, and philosopher
whose work became accessible in the mid‐1960s when it was translated into
English. His theory is usually referred to as a social development theory because
a major theme in his theoretical framework is that social interaction plays an
essential role in the development of cognition.

John Dewey (1859–1952): Experiential Learning

John Dewey, an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer,
was a major proponent of experiential learning in the first half of the twentieth
century. He foresaw an active and collaborative student experience that, almost a
hundred years later, we finally have the tools and shared collective acceptance to
implement. Dewey emphasized the unique and individualized nature of
interaction in the learning experience.

Jean Piaget (1896–1980): Theory of Genetic Epistemology or Origins of

Thinking
A twentieth‐century Swiss psychologist and natural scientist, Piaget is best
known for his stage theory of child development, beginning with the sensorimotor
stage (0 to 2 years), preoperational thinking (3 to 7 years), concrete operations (8
to 11 years), culminating in abstract thinking in the formal operations stage (ages
12 to 15 years). Piaget called his general theoretical framework “genetic
epistemology” because he was primarily interested in how cognitive knowledge,
including moral reasoning, develops in humans.

Jerome Bruner (1915–): Constructivism

Jerome Bruner is an American educational psychologist who is a senior research
fellow at the New York University School of Law. As a constructivist, Bruner’s
work incorporates strong support for discovery learning. He believes that mastery

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of the fundamental ideas of a field involves not only the grasping of general
principles, but also the development of an attitude toward learning and inquiry,
toward guessing and hunches, toward the possibility of solving problems on one’s
own (Bruner, 1963).

John Seely Brown (1940–): Cognitive Apprenticeship

As early as 1991, in a Harvard Business Review article, Brown envisioned how
“advanced multimedia information systems” would make it possible to plug into
a “collective social mind” (Brown, 1997), laying the groundwork for our thinking
about communities in online learning. Brown explored similar ideas about
“learning communities capable of generating, sharing, and deploying highly
esoteric knowledge” (p. 127) in The Social Life of Information, the book he co-
authored with University of California, Berkeley researcher Paul Duguid in 2000.
His work on cognitive apprenticeships (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Collins,
Brown, & Holum, 1991) and learning environments (Brown, 2006) examine how
technologies can support problem solving and hands‐on learning.

Roger Schank (1946–): Schema Theory

Roger Schank was one of the influential early contributors to artificial
intelligence and cognitive psychology in the 1970s and 1980s and continues as a
major contributor to learning theory and the building of virtual learning
environments. His concepts of case‐based reasoning and dynamic memory were
significant contributions to these fields. The central focus of Schank’s work has
been the structure of knowledge, especially in the context of language
understanding.

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Albert Bandura (1925–): Social Learning Theory
Albert Bandura is best known as the psychologist responsible for learning
theories that transition behaviourism and observational learning, also referred to
as social learning theory. While behaviourism depends on learning theories of
reward and punishment, Bandura researched the power of observational learning,
that children could learn from simple observation of others. He is also known for
the construct of self‐efficacy, the belief in oneself to be able to take appropriate
actions.

Jean Lave (1939–): Situated Learning Theory

Jean Lave, University of California, Berkeley, is a social anthropologist whose
learning theories emphasize the role of the context in which learning occurs. Her
situated learning theory suggests that classroom activities that are abstract and
lack context are not effective. Situated learning theory is similar to social learning
theory, which describes learning as a cognitive process that takes place in a social
context.

K. Anders Ericsson (1946–): Expert Performance Theory

K. Anders Ericsson is a Swedish psychologist widely recognized for his
theoretical and experimental research on expertise. One of his most well‐known
contributions is the framework for development of expertise and the need for
“deliberate practice” (Ericsson, 2000). Deliberate practice is more than simply
practicing a skill over and over. In Ericsson’s words, deliberate practice “entails
considerable, specific, and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well—
or even at all.

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Ellen Langer (1947–): Theory of Mindful Learning
Ellen Langer, a professor of psychology at Harvard, has applied the concept of
mindfulness to any situation requiring decision‐making. She defines mindfulness
as having three characteristics: continually creating new categories, openness to
new information, and an implicit awareness of more than one perspective
(Langer, 1997, p. 4). Mindfulness might be a close relation to critical thinking,
encouraging teaching skills and facts set within multiple different contexts.

Daniel Goleman (1947–): Theory of Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman is the author of a 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can
Matter More Than IQ, that caused a rethinking of the skills and traits needed for
effective leadership and management. Goleman’s research found that the
qualities usually associated with effective leadership—such as intelligence,
toughness, determination, and vision—were insufficient. Emotional intelligence,
which includes self‐awareness, self‐regulation, motivation, empathy, and social
skill, is also needed.

(Boettcher and Conrad, 2016)

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 Teaching Online: The Big Picture 15

Figure 1.1
influential learning theorists

LEV VYGOTSKY (1896–1934) JOHN DEWEY (1859–1952) JEAN PIAGET (1896–1980)

1. Theory of Social 1. Experiential Learning – 1. Stage theory of child
Development – encourages characterized by interaction development – how
small teams and groups. and continuity. Encourages reasoning abilities develop.
2. Zone of Proximal hands-on collaborative 2. Learning occurs with two
Development – Small window activities and projects. processes: assimilation and
of readiness and opportunity 2. Development of accommodation – requires
suggests choices and reflective, creative, active use of content and
personalization, and close responsible thought as time for processing.
monitoring. primary aim of education.

WHAT THEY SHARE

1. Emphasis on developing critical reasoning skills
2. Focus on engaging with content and influence of context

JOHN SEELY BROWN (1940 - ) JEROME BRUNER (1915 - )

1. Theory of cognitive apprenticeship – 1. Learning as an active process, adding to
promotes hands-on doing and learner’s existing knowledge – promotes
problem-solving. discovery and problem-solving.
2. Concept of collective social mind – 2. Concept of scaffolding, designing experiences
promotes community and to match learner’s state of readiness –
collaborative work. encourages options and personalization,
relationship with learners.

WHAT THEY SHARE

1. Emphasis on learner discovery, active engagement with
content and others

ALBERT BANDURA (1925 - ) ROGER SCHANK (1946 - )

1. Social learning theory – we 1. Schema Theory – scripts,
JEAN LAVE (1939 - ) plans, mental models to
learn by observing others.
Suggests use of models, case 1. Social learning theory describe knowledge structure.
studies, examples. – Learning is a cognitive Suggests use of context,
2. Self-efficacy – belief in process that takes place in patterns, relationships.
oneself to take appropriate a social context. Learning 2. Curriculum Design –
actions. Suggests learning as includes elements of Promotes combining learning
attitudinal as well as cognitive by doing experiences with
observation, extraction of
growth. mentoring.
ideas, and decision-
making. Suggests need
for observation, reflection,
and decision-making. K. ANDERS ERICSSON (1947 - )
1. Need for deliberate practice to
acquire expertise. Argues for
monitored practice in varied and
multiple contexts to develop
WHAT THEY SHARE
expertise. Suggests use of examples
1. Learning is cognitive activity within a social with evaluative activities.
context observing modeling behaviors

ELLEN LANGER (1947 - )

DANIEL GOLEMAN (1947 - ) 1. Mindful Learning – Learning requires
1. Theory of emotional intelligence. Emotional mindful engagement with content.
intelligence can mean ability to perceive and Noticing distinctions, the novel within
regulate emotions in self and others. Argues the familiar, and the familiar within
to include dimensions of feeling and attitude the novel. Argues for thoughtful
in learning situations. reflections.

(Boettcher and Conrad, 2016)

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 3. Concepts

concept formation
Our ability to order elements of the world into different kinds of things in order to further our
practical projects and then to talk and make judgements about these orderings, is our ability to
form and handle concepts. According to these writers, concepts are pre-formed at birth and we
then learn to match the words of our mother-tongue onto these pre-existing concepts. The main
argument for this appears to be that conceptual learning can only take place through hypothesis
formation and testing, and that, in order to test hypotheses about the meanings of words, one
needs pre-existing concepts in order to test. However, if learning can take place through
practice, training and instruction then there is no reason to suppose that the innatist account is
unavoidable. One can then take seriously the idea that concept formation occurs as part of
learning one's mother-tongue, through the acquisition of rules for the use of words in social,
practical situations which are then extended to uses in mental non-discursive acts.
(Winch and Gingell, 1999)

Knowledge management is a new discipline, with roots in a number of

other disciplines, including management, information systems, business theory,
social psychology and organizational behavior. It has yet to develop a coherent
set of theories, but some clear themes and lines of thought have emerged. As in
all disciplines, a number of important thinkers are influencing the development
and direction of knowledge management. While there is no agreed list of
knowledge-management ‘greats’, there are certain writers who have been
particularly influential (Sallis and Jones, 2002).
‘…the wedding of educational practice with theory and research in
epistemic beliefs and epistemic cognition.
 The enculturation of desirable epistemic habits of mind and habits of
practice among educators should begin at the outset of their professional
development.

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  When educators thoughtfully consider their own learning goals and the
cognitive processes they seek to develop professionally, desirable
epistemic outcomes are more likely to manifest in their pedagogical
practice.
 When educators engage in thought and planning about the deep
understandings and critical analytic abilities they want their students to
develop, there is increased likelihood that their students will develop such
abilities.
 The students of educators who model critical-analytic thinking and who
provide time and opportunity for such thinking are more likely to develop
the habits of mind and corresponding actions aligned with epistemic
competence.
 By bringing attention to the standards of evidence, the qualities of
knowledge, and the process of knowing associated with different academic
domains, educators are more apt to facilitate students’ abilities to navigate
the epistemic complexities encountered within and across disciplinary
communities.
 The verbal interactions between instructors and their students or among
student groups that are core to learning and instruction are a natural
platform for externalizing and fostering a deeper understanding about the
nature of knowledge and the process of knowing.

What educators model in their teaching, devote time to during instruction, value
in their assessments, reflect upon in their planning, and monitor in their own
practices and the actions of their students matter significantly to learning
processes and outcomes (e.g., Bandura, 1971; Clark & Peterson, 1986; Earl &
Timperley, 2008; Garner, 1990; Hattie, 2012; Sch€on, 1983; Schunk &
Zimmerman, 2007)’ (Alexander, 2017).

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 Educators often approach their craft from one or several overarching
theoretical frameworks, also sometimes referred to as pedagogies/instructional
epistemologies. Why is it important to consider theoretical framework?
Depending on your outcomes, you may find specific teaching methods/strategies
fit better with your framework. You may also find certain frameworks mesh better
with your content discipline. Additionally, awareness of a range of frameworks
can promote productive experimentation and diversity of skill set. No framework
is necessarily more effective than another because frameworks only serve to
provide a conceptual overview, separate from methodologies or implementation.
Though there are thousands of theoretical frameworks leveraged in teaching,
some of the more popular frameworks are:

Andragogy/Adult Learning Theory – Theorists like Knowles (1980)

believed adults are problem-oriented participants that want to incorporate
experience and self-direction into subjects or projects that are relevant to
their lives. Andragogic education tends to incorporate methods like
constructivism and connectivism, leveraging task-oriented processes and
projects, also stressing application.
Behaviourism – Theorists like Skinner (1953) often focused on observable
behavior, believing learning was supported through drill & practice and
related reinforcement. Behaviourist instruction tends to be directive,
incorporating lectures and practice problems, often leveraging objective
assessments including multiple choice questions or other rote approaches.
Cognitivism – Theorists like Gagné (Gagne, Wager, Golas, & Keller,
2004) focused more on thought processes and structures. For instance,
Gagné developed nine events of instruction to describe optimal conditions
for learning. Cognitivist instruction often incorporates lecture along with
methods like visual tools or organizers to promote retention. It may
leverage objective assessments with multiple choice, though also

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including; response or essay activities for learners to demonstrate thought
processes.
Connectivism – Theorists like Siemens & Downes (2009) saw learners as
part of many nodes or connections, driving their personal learning by
leveraging the knowledge of that network, and contributing to the
knowledge infrastructure. Connectivist instruction tends to be self-
directed, including a variety of information sources/references, and is often
used in online education. It could also be considered a constructivist
approach.
Constructivism – Theorists like Piaget (1950) & Brunner (1961) proposed
individuals construct knowledge from within, contributing to the process
by incorporating personal experience. Constructivist instruction tends to be
social and exploratory, sometimes without clearly-defined outcomes, often
leveraging critical thinking activities, peer review, and/or collaborative
projects.
Objectivism – Theorists or writers like Rand (1943) believed knowledge
exists outside the individual as opposed to constructivist perspectives
valuing knowledge from within. Objectivist frameworks can describe both
behaviourist and cognitivist perspectives. Objectivist instruction tends to
be directive and linear, valuing inductive logic, often leveraging objective
assessments.
(Cmich.edu, 2019)

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Further reading from the Weekly EBooks:

EBook: Sockett, H. and Wood, D. (2001), Transforming Teacher Education:

Lessons in Professional Development, ProQuest eBook - Part IV: Framing
Professional Critique, pages 179-228

Additional Reading: Smith, T. (2003) Connecting Theory and Reflective

Practice through the Use of Personal Theories.

Video: A Brief Overview of 4 Learning Theories

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References:

Alexander, P.A. (2017). Reflection and Reflexivity in Practice Versus in Theory: Challenges
of Conceptualization, Complexity, and Competence. Educational Psychologist,
[online] 52(4), pp.307–314.

Boettcher, J.V. and Conrad, R.-M. (2016). The online teaching survival guide: simple and
practical pedagogical tips. 2nd ed. [online] San Francisco, Ca: Jossey-Bass.

Cmich.edu. (2019). Theoretical Frameworks for Teaching | Central Michigan University.

[online]

Fook, J. (2016). Social Work: A Critical Approach to Practice. 3rd ed. [online] Los Angeles;
London: Sage.

Frodeman, R. (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity. 2nd ed. [online] United
Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Murphy, F. and Timmins, F. (2009) Experience based learning (EBL): Exploring professional
teaching through critical reflection and reflexivity. Nurse Education in Practice,
[online] 9(1), pp.72–80.

Sallis, E. and Jones, G. (2002). Knowledge Management in Education: Enhancing Learning &
Education. 1st ed. [online] London: Routledge.

Smith, T. (2003) Connecting Theory and Reflective Practice through the Use of Personal
Theories. International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education., [online]
pp.4–222.

Sockett, H. and Wood, D. (2001) Transforming Teacher Education: Lessons in Professional

Development. [online] Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey.

USC (2013). Research Guides: Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Theoretical
Framework. [online] Usc.edu.

Winch, C. and Gingell, J. (1999) Key concepts in the philosophy of education. [online] London
UK: London Routledge.

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