At the dojo where I train beginners are taught techniques first, then they are taught the principles/concepts inside the technique once they can perform it fairly well or are of age/rank (we don't usually teach the younger children the priciples of techniques). With the advanced students, the technique is taught and then one of the main concepts is pointed out to the student. Also, since there is almost always more than one concept/principle inside of any givin technique, instructors will ask the student to explain why they believe the technique works or something similar (i.e. "Why strike here instead of here?"). I agree with this method of teaching because I personaly believe it would be very difficult to teach a principle/concept alone without some kind of set technique as an example. However, I also believe it is pointless to teach someone a set technique w/o explaining the reasoning behind it.