Eisner, E. W. (1964).

Instruction, Teaching, and Learning An

Attempt at Differentiation. The elementary school journal,
65(3), 115-119.

Instruction, Teaching, and Learning

An Attempt at Differentiation
In the past few years a lively debate The reciprocal conception of teach-
has been going on in educationallitera- ing-learning (note the hyphen which
ture on the relationshipbetween teach- underscores this reciprocity) resulted
ing and learning. The debate has cen- in an interest in the study of learning
tered on the questions: "Can teaching and in the development of theories of
take place without learning?" "Can a learning which, it was believed, would
teacher be said to have taught if the be useful in preparing teachers.-If it
students have not learned?" was possible to determine how pupils
Questions such as these are far from learned, then it would be possible to
mere semantic disputes. How they are determine how best to teach.
answered has long-rangeconsequences Among the theories of learning that
on teacher preparation,on the type of were formulatedand elaboratedduring
research that is undertakenin teacher the first half of this century was Ed-
education, and on the very conception ward L. Thorndike's connectionism.
of the act of teaching. Thorndike developed a conception of
The progressives, reflecting Dew- humanbehavior,which he discussed in
ey's distaste for dichotomies, formu- his Educational
Psychology,published
lated answers to these questions a by Lemcke and Bruechner in New
number of years ago.' Teaching and York in 1903. This concept views each
learningwere to be consideredrecipro- human being, in part, as a vast, com-
cal processes, something like buying plicatednetwork composedof neurons,
and selling. Surely one could not buy synapses, electronic impulses, and
something unless somebody was will- bonds, which strengthen or atrophy
ing and able to sell-and one could not under particular conditions. But let
sell unless someone bought. Thorndike speak for himself:
To teach meant that learning oc- A man'snatureandthe changesthattake
curred. A teacher whose activities in place in it may be describedin terms of re-
the classroom did not result in learning sponses-of thought,feeling, action and atti-
tude-which he makes, and of the bondsby
might be engaged in telling or in talk- which these are connectedwith the situations
which life offers. Any fact of intellect, charac-
ing; he might even be engaged in ter or skill meansa tendencyto respondin a
"keeping school," but he certainly was certain way to a certain situation-involves a
not engaged in teaching. situationor state of affairs influencing the man,
115
 SCHOOLJOURNAL December 1964
116 THEELEMENTARY

a responseor stateof affairsin theman,anda that most of these theoretical no-

connectionor bond whereby the latter is the
tions were developed by psychologists
resultof the former.
working in laboratories rather than in
Thorndike's view of human beings classrooms, and if it was also true that
not only posed an imaginative theoret- these theories were tested with ani-
ical view of how learning occurred, it mals more often than with men, these
also affected the way in which teach- practices could be understood since
ing was to occur. If it was true that psychologists were striving toward
bonds in the cortex are strengthened precision and psychology was a young
with use and atrophy with disuse, then enterprisestriving to become a science.
practice was an important feature of In recent years,'workers in educa-
the activities teachers provided for tion have begun to question the prem-
pupils. The three words "Practice ise that teaching and learning are two
makes perfect" might be said to sum sides of the same coin. B. O. Smith,
up one of the major principles of con- Milton Meux, and Arno Bellack are
nectionist psychology. The law of among those who have taken other po-
readiness and the law of effect became sitions. In "The Concept of Teach-
major psychological ideas of the day; ing" in Languageand Conceptsin
and bonds,synapses,and neuronsbe- Teaching, edited by B. O. Smith and
came familiar terms in courses in edu- R. H. Ennis and published by Rand
cational psychology. McNally and Company in Chicago in
Curriculums, too, were affected by 1961, Smith wrote:
Thorndike's work. If transferwas spe- The word "teacher" is a dispositional term
cific rather than general-that is, 'if in the sense that under specifiable conditions-
transfer occurred only insofar as ele- classroom, pupils, and so forth-the individual
to as a teacher tends to behave in
ments responded to in one situation referredcharacteristic ways. He may explain some-
were identical to those in other situa- thing with the expectation that what he says
tions-the need for educationalobjec- will be rememberedby the pupil; he may draw
tives of highly specific character was a diagram and point out certain features of it,
emphasizing that these are to be remembered;
apparent.General principleswould not or he may read from a book and ask a pupil
have utility; pupils needed to learn to to interpret a passage. When the teacher be-
haves in these and many other ways, we say
respond appropriately to a wide va- he is
teaching.
riety of specific stimuliL
For years the view that teaching and Note that Smith emphasizes the idea
learningare reciprocalwas accepted as that the teacher's activities, whether
a basic premise. Theories of learning or not they result in pupil learning,are
--those developed out of connection- what constitute teaching. And since
ism, behaviorism, and Gestalt theory teaching is an activity that may occur
-were formulatedand used in educa- independent of its desired conse-
tional psychology textbooks as signifi- quences, it may be studied independ-
cant ideas to guide the teacher in his ently.
instructional activities. If it was true Milton Meux's position is stated in
 INSTRUCTION117

a work he wrote with B. O. Smith, that demandsfirst-handobservation.

A Studyof theLogicof Teaching, which And psychologistsin educationand
was publishedby the Bureauof Edu- elsewhereare beginningto enter the
cationalResearch,College of Educa- classroomto identifythe richarrayof
tion, Universityof Illinoisin Urbana. variablesthat interactin this setting.
Bellack'spositionis describedin The What do childrentalk aboutin class?
Languageof the Classroom, which was What kind of questionsdo teachers
written with Joel R. Davitz and pub- ask? Does the locationof the child's
lished in 1963 by the Institute of seat affect his behavior?These are
Psychological Research, Bureau of some of the questionsthat are being
Publications,Teachers College, Co- raised.
lumbiaUniversity, New York City. -The separationof teaching from
'Smithand others hold furtherthat learninghas had anotherconsequence.
pupillearningis not the only criterion Justas in previousyearswhenteaching
for evaluating teaching. There are and learningwere consideredrecipro-
other useful criteria:the logic of the cal and'learningtheory was used to
teacher'sverbalizations,how he uses prescribemethodsof teaching,now,
himself in the classroom, and the partlybecauseof the separationof the
clarity of his presentations."
All these terms,the notionis gainingacceptance
may be examined. By sortingout the that educationneeds a theory of in-
act of teachingfrom the act of learn- struction,andthat sucha theorymay
ing, the teacher'sclassroomactivity be formulatedindependentof a theory
hasbecomeanimportantareaof study. of learning.N. L. Gage exploresthis
In calling attentionto the classroom idea in "Theories of Teaching"in
andwhatoccursin it, Smithandothers Theories of LearningandInstruction,
the
have performedan importantservice Sixty-thirdYearbookof the National
for education. Society for the Study of Education,
It is probablytrue that some psy- Part I, whichwas editedby ErnestR.
chologists need to feel the security Hilgardandpublishedby the Univer-
thatmay resultfromthe precisionand sity of ChicagoPressin 1964.
the replicabilitythat is possible in One of the major problemsfacing
laboratory studies with animals. But psychologistswho studythe teacherin
schoolclassroomsandseven-year-olds the classroomis to know whatto look
pose problemsnot posedin laboratory for; to developa sensitiveeye to the
studies.Laboratorylearningwith ani- subtle but significantbehaviorsthat
mals (even with men!) underhighly teachersuse in affectingpupil behav-
controlledconditionsis justwhatdoes ior. In calling attention to this need,
not occur in the classroom,as any those who look on teachingandlearn-
second-gradeteacherwill attest. ing as separate functionshave per-
Childrendisplaya degreeof unpre- formeda usefulservice.
dictability,rambunctiousness, inquisi- There is, however, an important
tiveness,insight,andsheerdoggedness sense in which teaching and learning
118 THEELEMENTARY
SCHOOLJOURNAL December 1964

are inseparable. It has served an im- da, on April 3, 1964. At that time he
portant function for workers in the made these distinctions: "learning is
field of education to consider teaching the desired response, teaching is the
and learningtogether.-Certainlythe in- act of systematically presenting stim-
tention of the teacher while teaching uli, instruction is the total stimulus
is to effect learning. His teaching ac- setting within which systematic stim-
tivities are but means to achieve par- uli and desired responses occur."
ticular ends, and if those ends are not Using the diagram in Figure 1, we
realized, it is not a contradictionto say can identify the relationships among
that the teacher has not taught. these terms.
The distinction that Smith and oth- All teaching has one feature in
ers have made also performs an im- common: all teaching introduces into a
portant function. It frees us from the situation a set of conditions intended
idea that we must look at the conse- to influence the behavior of pupils.
quences of the teacher's activities each These conditions may be considered a
set of imposed conditions. Some of
teaching
these conditions are plannedby teach-
learning ers well in advance of the time they
instruction
meet with their pupils. These condi-
tions are arranged;that is, they follow
a sequence and are goal-directed.Some
FIG. 1 conditions develop on the spot, as a
result of feedback teachers receive
time we want to study what he does. from pupils after such conditions are
Thus, both the reciprocal and the sep- introduced. The conditions-be they
aratist conceptions of teaching and words, gestures, expressions, or illus-
learning are useful. trations-may be called acts of in-
What I would like to propose is the struction if they are intended to result
introduction of a third term that may in learning on the part of the pupils.
allow us to retain the contributionsof Thus,'whatever teachers do in the
the reciprocal conception of teaching classroom that is intended to result in
and learningdeveloped by the progres- learning may be called instruction.To
sives and the contributionsof the sepa- refine the definition of instructionand
ratist concept developed in recent to render it more precise we might
years. The third term I would like to define instruction as those activities
introduce is instruction. that are consciously planned and exe-
James B. Macdonald discussed all cuted by the teacher which are intend-
three terms-teaching, learning, and ed to move the pupils toward the
instruction-in "Curriculum Theory: attainment of the educational objec-
Problems and Prospectus," a paper tives held by the teacher. We call such
presented at the Professors of Curric- "movement" learning.
ulum Meeting at Miami Beach, Flori- I have treated this issue from the
 INSTRUCTION119

vantagepointof the visualarts in "A executedwhich are intendedto result

Paradigmfor the Analysis of Visual in learning.In this sense, the concept
Problem-Solving,"in Studiesin Art of instructionis relatedto the concept
Education for Fall, 1961. of teachingdevelopedby Smith and
Not all the teacher'sinstructional others. While it is possibleto study
activities are successful.Some com- instructionwithoutstudyingteaching,
pletely fail to realizetheir goal; per- it is not possible to study teaching
haps most are partially successful. without examining instruction. In-
Few, however,are wholly successful. structionis a necessaryconditionfor
That is, few instructionalactivities teaching,but not for learning.
that the teacher introduces in the This bringsus to the thirdterm.
classroomsucceedin movingall pupils In the diagrama large segmentin
towardthe desiredobjectives. the arealabeledlearningdoesnot over-
Ideally, the ratio between instruc- lap with instruction.Tor muchof the
tion and learningis 1:1. To depict learningthat occurs in the classroom
this ratio, we would show the two is not the resultof instruction.Pupils
circles in Figure 1 overlappingper- learnmuchthat the teachernever in-
fectly. Few andonly the most simple tends to be learned. Indeed, most
types of educationalobjectives are learningoccurs without a teacheror
likely to bringaboutthis relationship instructiori.It seems likely that only
between instructionand learning.If a smallportionof what pupilslearnin
none of the instructionalactivitiesre- schoolis due to the teacher'sinstruc-
sults in learningrelatedto the educa- tionalactivities.It is this smallportion
tional objectives,there would be no that I have tried to illustrateby the
overlapat all betweenthe two circles smallsectionof circlelabeledteaching:
in Figure 1. The teacher and pupil The distinctions that have been
would be out of contact. made here are intendedto capitalize
Teaching activities might be de- on the recentrealizationthatteachers'
scribedas that portionof instructional activities can be fruitfully studied
activitieswhichis effectivein moving without, at the same time, studying
pupilstowardthe attainmentof educa- the pupils.The distinctionsmaintain
tionalobjectivesandwhich,therefore, the conceptionwhich views teaching-
results in learning.Teachingis what
learningas a reciprocalprocess.Both
occurs when teachers by virtue of
conceptionsare valuable.Ratherthan
their instructionalactivities succeed
argue for the validity or even the
wholly or in partin enablingpupilsto utility of one over the other, I am
learn: In this sense the concept of
hoping that the introductionof the
teachingdescribedhere is similarto of
thatheldby Dewey andKilpatrickand concept instruction may enable us
to keep them both.
by progressivewriters. Instructionis
that group of activities planned and ELLIOT W. EISNER