Chapter 3 - Building a Theory of Education

Summary

This chapter opens with the question: Can education become a science? I seek to answer to answer this question by asserting that education is a human activity and like any other human activity, it can be studied scientifically. This means that we can construct concepts, principles, and theories that explain how human beings acquire, use, and construct new knowledge. A comprehensive theory of education must address the question of the nature of knowledge and how human beings build new knowledge, and how to organize education to facilitate these processes. I argue that the major problem with education in the past has been the use of faulty theories of learning and invalid theories of knowledge and knowledge creation, resulting in inadequate instructional practices.