"Nothing is so practical as a good theory" Kurt Lewin

I really like this quote by Kurt Lewin....I believe theories are very practical tools and that theory and practice build on one another in a way that is mutually beneficial for ongoing learning...

Theory has given me a range of ways of interpreting my experiences/observations/actions when working with clients and fieldwork placements have been an opportunity to test theories to see if they are actually useful or relevant...

Evidence-based practice and the Research-practice gap. 

The evidence-based practice movement within health care means there is an increasing pressure for occupational therapy practice to be based on research findings. However, practitioners report having difficulty with applying research to practice (Law, Pollock, & Stewart, 2004). Kielhofner et al., (2006) discuss possible reasons for this research-practice gap.They suggest practitioners may......

• “Question the relevance of the questions addressed and findings generated by the research”
• “Express concern that research reflects occupational therapy conducted under ideal conditions or with resources not readily available in practice”
• “...research evidence does not fit with their perception of the practical situation or a particular client’s needs” 

To be most effective “research should be grounded in practice....with investigators and practitioners working together to advance practice knowledge” (Kielhofner et al., 2006, p. 643).

The benefit of participatory action research as outlined by Taylor et al., (2006) is that it has the potential to function as a  knowledge-creating system in which there is “no artificial division between creating and assessing knowledge on the one hand and applying it on the other” (p. 626). PAR approaches advance both scholarship and practice with a “...cycle of knowledge generation in which theory shapes practice and practice shapes theory” (ibid, p. 625).

Click on the article title for a very interesting article that is tangentially relevant.....in terms of a split between theory/practice...thinking/doing  Mind-body Dualism: A critique from a Health Perspective. Neeta Mehta, PhD.

References:

Kielhofner, G., Castle, L., Dubouloz, C., Egan, M., Forsyth, K., Melton, J., Parkinson, S., Robson, M., Summerfield-Mann, L., Taylor, R. R., & Willis, S. (2006). Participatory research for the development and evaluation of occupational therapy: Researcher-practitioner collaboration. In G. Kielhofner (Ed.) Research in occupational therapy: Methods of inquiry for enhancing practice (pp. 643-655). Philadelphia: F A Davis. 

Law, M., Pollock, N., & Stewart, D. (2004). Evidence-based occupational therapy: Concepts and strategies. New Zealand Journal of Occupational Therapy 51, 14-22.

Taylor, R. R., Suarez-Balcazar, Y., Forsyth, K., G. Kielhofner. (2006). Participatory research in occupational therapy. In G. Kielhofner (Ed.) Research in occupational therapy: Methods of inquiry for enhancing practice (pp. 620-631). Philadelphia: F A Davis.