ABSTRACT
WHATEVER may be the task of philosophers of education, the typical task of the teacher is a practical one: that is, he is constantly preoccupied with what to do in a situation requiring him to do something. This does not at all mean that thinking and reflecting is a less important part of his business, for, as the old controversy aroused by pragmatism showed, 1 theory is not opposed to practice but essential to it. The teacher, however, needs a type of thinking particularly suited to practical problems—it might be called practical thinking, in contrast to that which arose without a practical end in view. Without it, the way a teacher acts can be inconsistent, indecisive, or mechanical and rigid. Nor is it likely that he can free himself from these hindrances to effective work unless he forms, in the course of his practical thinking, what may be called a 'concept' of education—that is to say, a set of ideas, characterized by their common capacity to contribute to his practical work. These may be combined in various ways according to the practical problem concerned, and they consist of a number of procedures appropriate to the carrying out of the teacher's work, plus a number of aims in pursuit of which those procedures are operated. This 'concept', then, would provide him with some basic notion of his role as a teacher and how to carry it out. Such a concept need not arise—a teacher may continue indefinitely doing his work in an inferior way—but it can arise out of an intelligent and observant assessment of the results of daily practice, an awareness of the convictions that one is using as aims, and a constant attempt at improvement. This demand is at present commonly met by the recourse to technical knowledge of one sort or another. But it need not mean this. It can mean what is meant here by formulating a concept; namely, the attempt to obtain insight into one's aims and purposes in grappling with practice (which is not purely a matter of method) as well as reflection upon questions of method.
