A central issue in a theory or conception of teaching is what the essential skills of teaching
are assumed to be. Science-research conceptions, theory-philosophy conceptions, and artcraft
conceptions represent different points of viewabout what teaching is. Science-research
conceptions use learning theory or learning research to validate selection of instructional
tasks and tend to support the use of specific teaching strategies and techniques. Teachers
are expected to select and monitor learners’ performance on tasks to ensure that the tasks
are generating the appropriate use of language or choice of learning strategy. The effective
teaching model of teaching is similarly a top-down philosophy of teaching, in the sense that
once the characteristics of effective teaching are identified, teachers must aim to implement
such practices in their own classes.
Theory-philosophy conceptions require teachers first to understand the theory underlying
the methodology and then to teach in such a way that the theory is realized in classroom
practice.With Communicative Language Teaching, for example, lessons, syllabi, materials,
and teaching techniques can be judged as more or less “communicative.” Specifications as
to what constitutes “communicative teaching” have been proposed, and a teacher’s performance
can be assessed according to the degree of “communicativeness” found in his or her
lessons. Likewise, Gattegno’s views on teaching, which form the basis of the Silent Way,
lead to prescriptions as to what teachers should and should not do in the classroom. The
essential skills the teacher needs to acquire are those that reflect the theory and spirit of the
Silent Way approach. There is little room for personal interpretations of the method.
Philosophical or values-based approaches are prescriptive in a different kind of way,
since the choice of instructional means in this case is not based on educational criteria (e.g.,
on effectiveness or learning criteria) but on a wider set of values which are not subject to
accountability (e.g., religious, political, social, or personal beliefs). Art-craft conceptions,
on the other hand, are more “bottom-up” than top-down. Teachers should not set out to look
for a general method of teaching or to master a particular set of teaching skills, but should
constantly try to discover things that work, discarding old practices and taking on board
new ones.
The different principles underlying the three conceptions of teaching can thus be summarized
in terms of the following statements of what teachers should do according to each
conception of teaching.