Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Health Education & Behavior
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Burdine, J. N.
Right arrow Articles by McLeroy, K. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Burdine, J. N.
Right arrow Articles by McLeroy, K. R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Practitioners' Use of Theory: Examples from a Workgroup

James N. Burdine

Lehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Kenneth R. McLeroy

University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina

There is a continuing discussion within the field of health education about the rela tionship between theory and practice. Much of this discussion, particularly that which appears in professional journals, has been developed by academicians and is prescriptive. That is, it identifies ways in which theory should be used by practitioners. The purpose of this article is to facilitate this ongoing discussion by providing descriptive information on how theory is used by a group of health educators who work for the same organization. This information is used as a springboard for discussion more generally about the nature of theory in health education.

This article represents the thinking and experiences of a dozen health professionals, in reaction to the question, "How do you use theory in your practice?" The authors believe this information will be useful in helping theoreticians develop more useful theory and helping practitioners increase their understanding of the utility of good theory. The division between theory and practice in the field of health education represents a sig nificant opportunity and challenge to the discipline if energy can be redirected from criticism of the other "camp" to effective collaboration and enhanced effectiveness of health education efforts.

Health Education & Behavior, Vol. 19, No. 3, 331-340 (1992)
DOI: 10.1177/109019819201900305
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?