‘variation theory’ – need to be field tested by teachers in their classrooms. Such
theories provide a shared language for teachers to reflect about and discuss their
practice together. In the process, teachers both generate knowledge of how to put a
theory into practice and also test and refine the theory itself. Fifth, school-based curriculum
development is a process of testing a series of theory-informed educational
experiments in classrooms by teachers.
Variation theory may be understood as a conceptual framework that informs
action research into the development of ‘teaching for understanding’. I would argue
that ‘variation theory’ is consistent with Stenhouse’s process model of curriculum
design because it construes teaching for understanding as an ethical conception of
the ideal relation between the learner as a person, the object of learning and the teacher.
As such, the relationship of ‘variation theory’ to the pedagogical aims and
principles that define a process model of curriculum design deserves further exploration.
For the moment it is sufficient to argue that ‘the transformation of teaching into
a form of virtuous action’ cannot be separated from the testing and development of
educational theory through teachers’ research. They go together.