Do We Have a Theory of Instruction?

After Jerome Bruner finished The Process of Education (see my previous blog), he took several years to work with children and teachers to uncover the guiding principles of quality instruction.  By the title of his 1966 book, Toward a Theory of Instruction, you can guess that Bruner does not provide a specific answer, but moves us "towards" a theory of quality instruction.

But now the question - 50 years after Bruner's book:
Do we have a theory of instruction today?

Charlotte Danielson has a Framework for Teaching.
James Stronge gives us Qualities of Effective Teachers.
Todd Whitaker tells us What Great Teachers Do Differently.
Doug Lemov offers a program to Teach Like a Champion.
The list goes on and on, and many of these books also come in versions for administrators.

But do we have an actual theory of instruction?
Should we?  Is it even possible?

Bruner makes some important points that would serve us well to remember.
Going to school has become so commonplace for us, that we have forgotten that:
• Schools are an artificial environment for learning.  As a species, our natural environment for learning and problem solving is the world itself.
• Humans are the only species that does not begin learning anew with each generation (113).
• Schools exist not to "get knowledge across" (73), but to transmit culture - the skills, values, style, technology, and wisdom that "produces more effective and zestful human beings" (149) with each succeeding generation.
• We are intrinsically wired to learn.  Bruner list four motives for learning - curiosity, competence, the desire to emulate a model, and social reciprocity (114).
• Instruction is really just an effort to assist and shape growth (1).

If we take those points into account, then a teacher's vocation is to:
• channel curiosity through real-world problem solving
• allow students to demonstrate efficacy
• be a model learner for students to emulate
• create social environments where students want to give to each other by taking on various roles

So what is a theory of instruction according to Bruner?  It is prescriptive (meaning it sets forth the best way to achieve knowledge or a skill) and it is normative (meaning it is generic and comparable across all subjects and ages).  Returning to our initial question: Why don't we have a theory of instruction after all this time?

Probably because Bruner (and others before and after Bruner such as Dewey and Robinson) realized that "people do not come in standard shapes and sizes" (Robinson, 2015, p. 25).  That doesn't just mean students - it means teachers, too!  Every learner is different, which means every teacher is different.  What remains is moving constantly and relentlessly towards a theory of instruction - listing the qualities of effectiveness and a framework for quality as we seek to transmit the fabric of a culture forward.