The Meaning of Theory
A symbolic construction that is designed to bring generalizable facts or laws into systematic connection (Snow)
Notes:
a way of making sense of a disturbing situation so as to allow us most effectively to bring to bear our repertoire of habits, and even more important, to modify habits or discard them all together, replacing new ones as the situation demands (Kaplan)
Hoy & Miskel: Theory is a set of interrelated concepts, assumptions, and generalizations that systematically describes and explains behavior in educational organizations. Moreover, hypotheses may be derived from the theory to predict additional relationsh
Beauchamp: A theory is a set of related statements explaining some series of events. This set of statements includes definitions, assumptions, and general propositions with specified relational properties. Three dimensions of theory: unification, universa