ABSTRACT
In investigating the relation of theory and practice in teacher education, a first approximation of how the two notions are to be understood is to liken the relation to that found in the practice of medicine. There, clearly, the theory is that found in the biological sciences, and practice is found in the interaction between the physician and the patient. It seems obvious that the practice of medicine is guided by the theoretical knowledge of the physician. Physicians take the theoretical knowledge that they possess as a result of their education and apply it to a particular case at hand. The education of the physician is, then, an effort to provide the student with general knowledge of the field that can be applied in the everyday practice of medicine. While I would not want to push this analogy too far, and indeed I will return to it to discuss its limitations, it is a forceful analogy that one commonly finds in discussions about the relation of theory and practice in education. The force of the analogy is in no small part due to the success of medicine. The biological sciences have provided the practice of medicine with much knowledge and many treatments that can be used in the care of individual people. One author who has used the view behind this analogy as a basis for conceptualizing educational theory, while recognizing its limitations, is D. J. O'Connor. 1 I will turn first to his view of educational theory.
