Theoretical perspectives

“Educational phenomena, teaching and learning and the social institutions intended support teaching, can...be very complex, and there are often alternative ways of approaching the conceptualisation of a particular research focus.... Discussions of educational research often make references to the ‘theoretical perspective’ informing a study, as something other than the ‘conceptual framework’ underpinning the study. Theoretical perspectives can be thought of as well-developed theoretical positions about some aspects of a social or educational phenomenon that can act as starting points for making sense of research topics. An important point is that in ... education, there is no 1:1 correspondence between theoretical perspective and specific topics. Rather there will often be several theoretical perspectives that might be relevant to a topic. These might sometimes be seen as based on competing theories, but often they might be better thought of as each illuminating some of the facets of a complex phenomenon.” (Taber, 2014: 1854-1855).

Taber, K. S. (2014). Methodological issues in science education research: a perspective from the philosophy of science. In M. R. Matthews (Ed.), International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching (Vol. 3, pp. 1839-1893). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

One example of a theoretical perspective that might be drawn upon or adopted in work exploring how people understand their experiences would be ‘constructive alternativism’, deriving from personal construct theory.

A theoretical perspective that might inform studies of teaching and learning is constructivism (or one of its variants).

Sometimes a theoretical perspective leads to a particular methodology being developed. So the construct repertory test and repertory grid were developed from personal construct theory. Phenomenology is a term that can be used both to refer to a theoretical perspective and the associated methodology.

Index of topics