Theory-inspired Musing

For the past 18 years, I have been steeped in the education system that my two sons were part of until 8th grade. It is based on an understanding of human development with a spiritual (non-denominational) underpinning. Rudolf Steiner who developed this curriculum was a scientist/philosopher who was much respected in Germany in the early twentieth century for his understanding of the human condition, so to speak. He not only developed a unique approach to educating children, but he also founded the principles and practices of Biodynamic agriculture, and the CSA movement was created using a form of community and commerce that he called "three-fold social order." He influenced architecture, music, and a movement for working with mentally disabled children and adults called Camphill here in the U.S.

In reading about the different learning theories, I found a little of all of them in his approach except for behaviorism. He definitely uses practices that would correspond to humanism, and social cognitive principles play a large role in the classroom dynamics for children. There is a description of Bruner's model (Merriam p. 286) of the three processes in his cognitive theory—acquisition of new information, transformation to make if fit new tasks, evaluation whether the transformation is adequate to the task—that sounds similar to what is called phenomenology, which is a process taught in Waldorf/Steiner schools in both science and literature.

While I have not studied in-depth Steiner's views on adult learning, I do know, from hearsay, that he viewed adults as being self-starters when it came to learning. At the ages between 21 and 28, adults go through a change in their development that introduces the motivation that is necessary to self-initiate the learning process.

I do find it difficult to sift through all the theories. There are parts of each of them that I agree with and I could imagine using different parts depending on the setting, the learners, and the goal. For instance, while I don't believe that behaviorism is an appropriate approach to K-12 education (although elements of it are useful), I do think it is entirely appropriate in adult education in certain settings.

What I'd like to know is: Are we supposed to choose one theory and stick to it? How does an experienced instructiional designer come to terms with all of these different theories, sometimes in conflict with each other?