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reality will become simpler and simpler and will explain a wider and wider range of
his sensuous impressions1

Central to this definition is the attempt to understand reality. The definition treats theory as
a continuous process that is followed in an effort to develop an increasingly simple and valid
picture of reality.

The definition is also very broad; any abstraction developed to understand “shat is”
can be called a theory.

Let us assume this notion of theory was accepted and one was interested in gain-
ing knowledge of participant behavior in a faculty meeting. Based on observation of par-
ticipants, one would begin to develop some assumptions, which would help explain the
behavior observed. As one collected additional data in relation to these assumptions, he or
she would revise the assumptions as necessary to provide an increasingly simple and “valid”
explanation of participant behavior at faculty meetings. This “picture” might then be used
to predict what might occur under given conditions and to explain behavior in other group
settings” Note that no values of good and bad behavior are involved. The object is to gain
an increasingly simple “picture” to explain what is or predict what will be.

Equally broad is the following definition, which is illustrative of the thinking of some
educational administration scholars of the 1950s:

A theory of educational administration is, broadly speaking, a collection of
concepts or principles that define what educational administration is and that give
directions to an individual attempting to be and educational administrator. It is
conceivable that a theory of educational administration would include concepts relating
to the nature of individual and group life, the major tenets of American democracy, the
purposes of public education, the nature of the administrative process, and functions
of educational administration.2

1 Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld. The Evolution of Physics. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1938,
p. 33.
2 Southern States Cooperative Program in Educational Administration. Better Teaching in School
Administration. Nashville, Tenn.: McQuiddy, 1955, p. 47.