MEZIESBLOG

The terms theory and practice include two distinct concepts not intertwined but related to each other by underpinning epistemologies, and separated by a chasm. The discussion about the relationship between educational research and educational practice is an old one. It became evident “at least since the establishment of education as an academic field of study,” for instance, in Germany in 1779, when the first Professor of Education was established (Biesta, 2007, p. 295).

Several of the contributions here start with the claim that there is a gap between research and practice and they try to bridge this gap (Andrée and Eriksson, 2020; Carlgren, 2020; Biza and Nardi, 2020; Ousseini, 2020). How to bridge the gap varies in the studies, for instance, as forms of “cooperation” or “collaborative interaction” between researchers and student teachers in teacher training programs or subject teachers (Kullberg and Runesson, 2013; Pang and Runesson, 2019). Kullberg et al. (2020) take the learning study approach to bridge the theory–practice gap by including teachers in collaborative work with researchers on improving students’ learning and improving teaching as well as teachers’ professional knowledge. The rationale is a phenomenographic non-dualistic ontology on which variation theory, a general learning theory and learning study have been based (Kullberg, 2010; Lo, 2012; Marton, 2015; Pang and Lo, 2012; Runesson, 2019).

In collaborative work among teachers and researchers, the aim of the learning study is to decide an object of learning that concerns a specific way of understanding something, for instance, a subject-specific concept. Variation is a prerequisite for discernment and learning is a function of discernment in variation theory. To make learning possible, certain patterns of variation manifested in the classroom make it possible for the students simultaneously to discern critical aspects of the object of learning (Lo, 2012; Marton, 2015). Critical aspects of the object of learning are what students have to discern in order improve their learning (Kullberg and Runesson, 2013; Mårtensson, 2019; Pang and Ki, 2016). These aspects are the “knowledge products” concerning instructional strategies of the learning study (Kullberg, 2010; Runesson et al., 2018). Differences in pattern of variation seem to have significant effect on student learning, when comparing three similarly arranged lessons in the same topic (Kullberg et al., 2020). Accordingly, Kullberg et al. (2020) suggest that there are specific features of the learning study that can link theory and practice, produce practice-based knowledge relevant beyond the local school context and bridge the theory–practice gap.