FRANCIS P. HUNKINS is a professor in the department of curriculum, University of Washington, Seattle. Educators often write about curricum theory without providing clear xamples of what it is and how it can elp the practitioner. An examination f the meaning, function, and pracice of curriculum theory can help educators develop effective urricula.ESPITE THE MYRIAD works on the nature and function of theory, and on the differences between theory and practice, curriculum specialists have not produced a universal definition of theory. This is not too surprising because the three basic realms of knowledgehumanities, social sciences, and natural sciencesall look at reality differently and generate definitions of theory that reflect their interests.Although differences exist among the major types of theory, some commonalities are evident as well. Most definitions of theory deal with sets of events or phenomena and the relationships among these events or phenomena. Abraham Kaplan provides a useful general statement for defining theory: &dquo;A theory is 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 altogether, replacing new ones as the situation demands.&dquo; Theory will appear as the device for interpreting, criticizing, and unifying established laws, modifying them to fit &dquo;data unanticipated in their formation, and guiding the enterprise of discovering new and more powerful generalizations.&dquo;1 Richard Snow states that &dquo;a theory is essentially a symbolic construction that is designed to bring generalizable facts or laws into systematic connection.&dquo; The theory itself consists of a set of units that can be &dquo;facts, concepts, or some variables, and a noting of relationship among the units identified.&dquo;2 According to Biddle and Anderson, theory deals with true forms of knowledge and methods: confirmatory, which assumes that theory establishes &dquo;objective information that is useful for plan-ning&dquo; or policy making; discovery, which assumes that the &dquo;hard sciences are radically different from the social sciences and ... that we pay greater attention to the limitations and subjectivity of social research&dquo;; and integra-1. Abraham Kaplan, The Conduct of Inquiry
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