The Concept of Theoretical and Practical Teaching

Experts practicing to share their skills

Experts in different specialist areas must now continue to practice to share their skills in their fields of specialization. They must put their scientific understanding and skills learned during their studies to use. The acquisition of these skills and experience is a lengthy process that necessitates the integration of theoretical understanding with operational ability to achieve a mission. Learning is all-encompassing. As a result, there are several methods for acquiring expertise and skills. One of them is practical education, which lets people pull out the best in themselves and overcome real-life challenges confronting society. There have been debates on the style of teaching that should be emphasized concerning knowledge acquisition in schools. Whether practical skills or theoretical, some individual give favor to the traditional theoretical method of education while others prefer practical teaching which emphasizes on practical skills and useful in making the learners be able to gain and retain the concept and skills in a better way (Starbuck & William, 720). Knowledge may be referred as the process of learning concepts and obtaining principles and facts about a subject through the use of media and books. Skills can be seen as the utilizing the knowledge to solve problems experienced in real life. The individual’s capability to solve problems encountered and deal with different situations in real life is the overall determinant of how successful one is in their profession.

The importance of practical teaching

Though theoretical knowledge is important in the learning process since it is the overall or outermost base of obtaining practical knowledge and deriving solutions, there is a need for schools to pay more attention to practical teaching. This is because there are rapid changes in the working environment, the society, and information technology which requires professionals to have the ability to work in different contexts, possess vital skills such as social and communication skills. According to Mikkonen, there is the need for professionals to continue building and developing their expertise with the primary aim being to fulfill the demand of the society or population and adapt to the ever-changing working life (Mikkonen 23). Some vital components of learning are knowledge acquisition, the ability to utilize knowledge, and the effectiveness of transforming the knowledge into actual work. Practical knowledge is essential since it helps students to understand how things work in the real world, breaks the classwork monotony, and exposes the students to real-world experience.

The role of practical knowledge

Practical knowledge takes different perspectives from school projects, study tours, laboratory experiments among others. It acts as a tool used to deepen one’s understanding of the professional concept further and helps one to gain personal experience. Learning about theories and principles theoretically may not be sufficient unless one knows how to apply them when dealing with real-life problems. It is arguable that unless one utilizes their theoretical knowledge to the real-life situation through practical experiments and experiences, theories do not always turn out to hold much good apart from general knowledge (Fry et al.72). No matter how well the subject or concept is explained in a textbook or a lecture, the knowledge will always sink well when applied in a practical sense thus improving learning and improving the acquisition of specific techniques which becomes useful when one starts working in their field.

Value of theoretical knowledge

On the other hand, many people would argue it’s good for schools to overlook practical learning and emphasize on theoretical knowledge. There are various reasons as to why this would be supported, one of them being that theory teaches the students based on the experience of others and not from a void, they have empirical evidence, anything done practically has some theoretical knowledge concept backing it (Von et al.165). Thus, the theory explains how different factors impact situations and techniques of working. Therefore, students or learners have a deeper understanding of a concept and have the understanding of how a theory can be applied practically. According to Michael (6), theory studies have a role in helping the practitioners understand, explain, and criticize professional practices and arguments used to justify these practices. Thus, they help to appreciate new ideas and thinking since they propose new forms of practices. Michael continues to argue that theories explaining the ideology of a profession are crucial when setting the profession goals and objectives, moreover, where one has one-to-one interaction with a client.

The importance of practical and theoretical teaching methods

In conclusion, practical and theoretical teaching methods are essential and complement each other to make a profession full and useful. Though this is the case, there is a need for schools to concentrate on practical teaching since that is what matters in the work field when students’ land in the job market. Practical and fieldwork experience is important in building one’s experience and skills. The theoretical concept should not be ignored since it explains how a concept in professional theory works, giving room for new ideas and encourages interactive thinking.

Work cited

Eraut, Michael. “2.1 Transfer of knowledge between education and workplace settings.” Knowledge, values and educational policy: A critical perspective 65 (2009).

Fry, Heather, Steve Ketteridge, and Stephanie Marshall. A handbook for teaching and learning in higher education :enhancing academic practice. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon New York: Routledge, 2015. Print.

Mikkonen, Irma. Clinical learning as experienced by nursing students in their critical incidents. University of Joensuu, 2005.

Starbuck, William H. “Learning by knowledge‐intensive firms.” Journal of management Studies 29.6 (1992): 713-740.

C Krogh, Georg, Kazuo Ichijo, and Ikujiro Nonaka. Enabling knowledge creation: How to unlock the mystery of tacit knowledge and release the power of innovation. Oxford University Press on Demand, 2000.