Typically, students have a strong academic background and an interest in applying it in more practical ways, or they have stage experience and want a more theoretical foundation.

There has been some controversy over the theoretical foundation of the actor-observer bias.

In the data mining community these methods are recognized as a theoretical foundation of cluster analysis, but often considered obsolete.

Functional programming, e.g. type free lambda calculus, originated as a theoretical foundation of mathematics.

The theoretical foundation of evo-devo-robo includes evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), evolutionary developmental psychology, developmental cognitive neuroscience etc.