Theory and Practice

Theory and Practice

Theory can be defined as the underlying principles or methods of a given technical skill, art or profession. It lays down how things are supposed to work in a perfect world. Practice on the other hand is the ongoing pursuit of a craft or profession. In practicing, there is a realization of how things work, or not, in an imperfect world. In learning theory, people have a foresight of situations while in learning through practice, people get a hindsight of the situations.

Nonetheless, theory and practice are inter-connected through a process of abstraction and application with theory eventually becoming practice and practice leading to theory. Theory is then abstracted practice while practice is applied theory.

Those who specialize in practice often view theorists as far removed from the real world, living in ivory towers. Theory specialists on their part view practice specialists as lacking the core understanding of what they do leading to inconsistent practices.

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Yet there are those in the middle; those who embrace both worlds viewing theory as leading to practice and vice versa. These are a conduit that brings the two worlds of theory and practice together. The fact is that those who just do could do it much better if they had a good understanding of what they are doing while those who just philosophize might understand what they talk about if they could sometimes get to do it.

Understanding what value theory adds to practice is important as is being able to perfect a theory through practice. When practicing, there is an underlying set of rules followed. Yet the rules are not set in stone and these benefit from flaws observed during practice. And there will always be flaws when the rubber meets the road because there are many uncertainties in the real world as opposed to the flawless ideal world.

Some of the issues involved when translating theory into practice include people problem. That one practices with other people means one will come across people who wittingly or unwittingly place impediments on their path to actualizing a theory. Such people may include leaders in an organization who may pass down wrong decisions; decisions by their nature are murky at best or choices between undesirable options. It is in overcoming these impediments that practice refines theory by looking at what will happen given different scenarios.

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Another issue likely to be experienced in the real world is that situations that are theorized may have changed with time. Hence, what may have been true last year may not be true this year. This may be caused by change in technology, environment or economy; rendering a theory obsolete.

Individual lack of complete understanding of a theory may also pose an issue in translating the theory in the real world. Whereas a theory may be applicable to a tee, implemented half-baked ideas will often not work in the real world. An example is where elected leaders without adequate knowhow find themselves leading large institutions; trying to regulate things they have never managed.

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