Teachers’ ways of knowing

Margit Szesztay

Teachers’ ways of knowing tend to be understood through academic ways of

thinking and writing. This article sets out to take a closer look at the way seven
school teachers understand and describe how they know, re?ect, and act in the
midst of teaching. In particular, through the combined voices of these teachers
I aim to take a closer look at the nature of re?ection-in-action, what can trigger
it, and the ways in which it can in?uence on-the-spot decision making. I will
also consider the way experienced teachers’ re?ective accounts, such as the
ones given in this article, can be used in teacher education. None of the seven
teachers in this study teach languages. However, it is my belief that the nature
of teacher knowledge and re?ection-in-action cut across subject-matter
boundaries.

Background I am a Hungarian teacher and teacher educator in ELT . In 2001 I went to

the USA to teach and do research at the School for International Training
(SIT ). Before going there I had just completed a four-year Ph.D.
investigation into the learning potential of group discussions (Szesztay
2001). During these years I engaged in an intense form of re?ective
professional development. My immediate aim was to understand, and
ultimately to improve, my own practice.
The experience of doing research with a strong practitioner orientation
pushed me to think about the nature of teacher knowledge. I became
particularly interested in the kind of knowledge which guides the
invisible process of classroom decision-making. As a teacher educator, I
also wanted to understand better how to help beginner teachers make
split second decisions about when to stop an activity, or how to respond
to disruptive behaviour, for example. This article gives an account of what
I learnt by listening to experienced non-EFL teachers talk about
classroom decision-making, and about the implications of this for
teacher education.

Setting up the frame I want to start out by outlining the frame within which the teacher
descriptions are set. This involves making explicit a basic assumption
about the nature of teacher knowledge, and introducing the key concepts
that map out the territory of classroom decision-making.
[It] is a holistic skill. In an important sense, one must grasp it as a
whole in order to grasp it at all. Therefore, one cannot learn it in a
molecular way, by learning >rst to carry out smaller units of activity
and then to string those units together in a [teaching] process; for the

ELT Journal Volume 58/2 April 2004 © Oxford University Press 129
 pieces tend to interact with one another and to derive their meanings
and characters from the whole process in which they are embedded.
(Schön 1987:158)
Schön here is referring to architectural design, but I think the quotation
is relevant to teaching, as well. It captures the holistic nature of the
competence that enables teachers to act as professionals in the
classroom. In this quotation Schön uses the word skill, and elsewhere
talks about professional artistry. The teacher in the midst of practice is akin
to an artist relying on intuition and sensitivity as much as on knowledge.
The main message of the quotation for me is that, in the act of teaching,
the building blocks of professional competence blend together
seamlessly; knowledge, skills, and qualities as separate categories, are
only abstractions. And this has serious implications for the ways in
which such seamless and holistic competence can best be captured,
understood, and developed.
In addition, the concepts of knowing-in-action and re?ection-in-action
(ibid.) can serve as useful signposts in the attempt to understand the way
teachers know and act in the classroom. Knowing-in-action draws
attention to the immediate link between knowing and doing. In the
midst of teaching we need to make split-second decisions; there is little
time to ponder and analyze. However, knowing and doing do not always
blend into one. Re?ection-in-action captures the moments following and
preceding a classroom decision made by a teacher. In a sense, re?ection-
in-action also takes place in real classroom time; a teacher rarely has the
luxury to sit down and think the next move through. None the less, it is
qualitatively di=erent from the uninterrupted ?ow of knowing-in-action.
I have come to think of re?ecting in the act of teaching as a movement of
the mind. The word ‘re?ect’ might be somewhat misleading, as it refers
to a process which often does not happen in the medium of words (ibid.:
28). Perhaps it is more accurate to say that you sense or notice something
about what is really going on in your classroom, rather than think about
it. In fact, the actual processes of re?ection involve intuition, and
observation skills (Barrett 1983; Allison and Pissanos 1993). What is
more, Schön says that in order for re?ection-in-action to be triggered,
there needs to be an element of surprise, something unexpected which
catches and moves our attention (Schön: 26–7).
What is referred to in Neurolinguistic Programming as the three
positions of the mind (Bee and Bee 1998: 38–9) has helped me to get
closer to understanding the movement of attention which I believe is at
the heart of re?ection-in-action. Position 1 is described as being focused
on yourself, Position 2 as being focused on others, and Position 3 refers
to having a helicopter view. In a classroom situation this might
correspond to focusing on your next teaching point (Position 1), being
sensitive to the way the learners are responding (Position 2), and having
an overview, being an external observer of classroom events, as it were
(Position 3).
To sum up, I believe that in the act of teaching we draw on skills,
knowledge, and intuition all at the same time. In other words, knowing-

130 Margit Szesztay

 in-action is holistic. This holistic process is steered by re?ection-in-
action, which is an intelligent and sensitive response to what is going on
in the classroom.
I hope that the examples and descriptions provided by seven US public
school teachers will help bring to life and further re>ne the fairly abstract
concepts of knowing and re?ecting in action. I now turn to introducing
the teachers and the project through which I have come to know them.

The teachers The seven teachers whose ideas form the central part of this article live
and the teacher and work in Vermont, and all of them have been teaching for at least ten
knowledge project years. Lyle, David, and Ellen1 teach all subjects in di=erent elementary
(TKP ) schools. Andy is a music teacher, and Susan works as a school librarian;
both of them are also at elementary schools. Finally, Nancy and Jane
teach English literature and social studies respectively at a high school.
All seven teachers took a year-long re?ective professional development
seminar o=ered by the Teacher Knowledge Project at SIT .
As part of the Project, all seven teachers had a series of three classes
videotaped, and then engaged in a stimulated recall interview. These
interviews were structured around the concepts of re?ective practice
which were introduced and clari>ed during monthly seminar meetings.
In practical terms, each teacher chose 3 from a list of 14–16 concepts and
then stopped the tape to make comments whenever they wanted. For
example, if one of the concepts selected was ‘student-centred learning’,
the teacher would stop the tape every time they saw an instance of
learning which was—or was not— student-centred, and say what they
saw happening, and why.

Building up the When going over the interview transcripts, I looked for ways in which the
picture seven teachers described the immediacy of teaching. As they had all
participated in a re?ective professional development seminar they were
familiar with the concept of re?ection-in-action, though they were calling
it di=erent names, e.g. ‘step back’, ‘gain perspective’, ‘re?ect on student
learning’.
I chose quotations which I felt drew attention to the di=erent aspects
of re?ection-in-action, and then organized them around three themes:
1. What is re?ection-in-action? 2. What can trigger it? 3. How does it
a=ect practice? In addition, I gave each quotation a label which I felt
highlighted what for me was its main message.
Each of the three sets of quotations is followed by my interpretative
commentary, relating what the teachers are saying to the concepts
introduced at the beginning of this article. However, I o=er my
interpretations as one among many possible ways of making sense of
what the teachers are saying. Tapping into the illuminative potential of
qualitative research (Reason and Rowan 1981), I intend to provide the
reader with a clear and rich picture of the phenomenon under study so
that they can examine and interpret it themselves (Chenail 1995). As I
will show in the last section of this article, asking beginner teachers to
come up with their own interpretations of re?ective accounts, such as the

Teachers’ ways of knowing 131

 ones given below, can start a process of learning about classroom
decision-making.

What is re?ection-in- The super ego watching (Quotation 1)

action? That’s a lot of re?ection in action, what’s happening is this other
personality, this super ego is sort of watching the whole thing some
distance so you don’t get wrapped up in control, . . . and I think this has
also got some compassion in it. (Andy)
A pause in the act of teaching (Quotation 2)
Sometimes in the act of teaching, there is a moment of ‘Hmmm. What
is the best way of dealing with this right now?’ And other times I just
>le it away and think about it later. (Nancy)
Feeling overwhelmed and getting perspective (Quotation 3)
Sometimes this class is so overwhelming that I can’t get any
perspective on it because there are so many kids and they are so needy.
[. . .] It’s very hard for me sometimes not to be overwhelmed by this
class and get perspective on it and keep my sense of humour about it.
(Jane)
Stepping back (Quotation 4)
That’s stepping back. Trying to look at what was going on in front of
me, trying to re?ect in action to make a thoughtful decision that would
allow them to, that would foster as much success as I could out of what
was going on. . . . [. . . .] I wasn’t sure about this girl. She um, often is
looking elsewhere, and doing other things, but she gets things. And
this guy who is back there is very, very bright and often physically
elsewhere also, but doesn’t miss a trick. So that’s another interesting
piece of re?ection in action. What you see is not necessarily what’s
happening. [. . .] This is just a very complex group. (Susan)
To me the above quotations seem to bear out that re?ecting in the midst
of action is a movement of the mind that may or may not be
accompanied by verbal thought. ‘A super ego watching’ (Quotation 1)
seems to echo having a ‘helicopter view’ of classroom events (Bee and
Bee 1998: 38–9). Andy’s comment that it ‘also has some compassion in
it’ seems to illustrate that we draw on sensitivity as much as on
knowledge in the act of teaching—this goes back to Schön’s concept of
professional artistry. In Quotation 2 Nancy likens re?ection-in-action to a
pause—another way of saying that there are moments when knowing
and doing in the classroom are not seamlessly united. In addition,
‘getting perspective’ (Quotation 3) and ‘stepping back’ (Quotation 4) also
seem to describe a change in perception, rather than a process of rational
thinking.
In the last quotation Susan o=ers a possible purpose for what she calls
‘stepping back’. In her own words the aim is to help the teacher ‘make a
thoughtful decision’, one that would ‘foster as much success’ as possible
‘out of what is going on’. This backs up the view set out in the
introduction that re?ection-in-action is a tool for responding to what is
going on in the classroom in an intelligent and sensitive way. The second

132 Margit Szesztay

 part of the quotation illustrates the complex nature of what Schön refers
to as professional artistry. As Susan says, ‘what you see is not necessarily
what’s happening’. Drawing on intuition and observation skills, teachers
need to learn about each student as an individual in order to understand
what their behaviour really means.

What triggers Hitting against di;cult work (Quotation 1)

re?ection-in-action? You learn a lot about a kid by paying attention to what is hard for them.
These are things that I have been noticing over the years. So when a
kid gets confused I ask myself ‘What kind of work did he hit against
that got him confused?’ For some kids it can be something like
cleaning the desk. Not just not wanting to do it, but not knowing how
to do it. And then the same kid might >nd it hard to do a math
problem which involves sorting of a more abstract level. And then you
notice that as a teacher. So you’re really forming knowledge of the
students through the feedback you’re getting. . . . Getting to know them
as individuals. (Ellen)
Responding to a novel situation (Quotation 2)
Now this is an example of re?ection because I’ve not seen this
[painting]. This is the >rst time that I’ve seen these images. So I’m, in a
sense, I’m looking at it and thinking about the kinds of things I’d like
to talk about. What exactly I’m going to say and how we’re going to
proceed, at least in the beginning, this is sort of what I’m trying to
>gure out now. (David)
Teaching a new grade level (Quotation 3)
This is the >rst year that I’ve taught this grade level after 20 years of
teaching another level. So I feel like I’m constantly re?ecting on what
they are capable of doing and if I’m expecting enough or too much
from them. (Lyle)
How am I going to correct him and help everyone else? (Quotation 4)
So that’s an example of me really having to re?ect on, you know, say,
‘Hold it. What was the mistake that he made? What is he thinking?
How am I going to correct him and help everyone else?’ Yet at the
same time, going back and establishing rapport, making sure that he’s
not feeling absolutely stupid, cause you know, it’s a risk whenever you
say anything out loud in a group of people. (Lyle)
The >rst three quotations describe two kinds of triggers for re?ecting in
the midst of teaching; noticing that students have ‘hit against di;cult
work’ (Quotations 1) and being confronted by a novel situation
(Quotations 2 and 3). Both triggers seem to support Schön’s idea that
re?ection-in-action is set into motion by some new, unexpected element.
In the case of the >rst quote the new element originates in the way the
students respond, whereas in the last two cases it originates in the way
the teacher sees the class, or in David’s case, the picture that the class
discussion seems to revolve around.
Ellen comments that the knowledge derived from noticing separate
instances of what children >nd di;cult can accumulate over time, and

Teachers’ ways of knowing 133

 this way, on-the-spot re?ection can help in ‘getting to know [children] as
individuals’ (Quotation 1). This seems to echo the point raised by Nancy
in the previous set of quotations that on-the-spot re?ection can at times
lead on to further re?ection—‘sometimes I just >le it away and think
about it later’. Perhaps such re?ective moments in and out of the
classroom in?uence the teacher’s overall approach and teaching
strategies, as well.
Finally, Quotation 5 highlights the complexity of knowing and re?ecting
in action. As Lyle points out, she needs to >gure out why a student made
a particular mistake so that she can ‘correct him and help everyone else’
at the same time. In addition, she needs to >nd a way of correcting him
which will not make him feel ‘absolutely stupid’ and which can help to
maintain rapport between teacher and students. This quotation takes me
back to Schön’s idea of professionals requiring ‘holistic skills’; in this
case, error analysis, error correction, establishing rapport, and paying
attention to the whole group are happening all at the same time.

How does Acting on the ‘feelings I pick up’ (Quotation 1)

observation and I’m actively changing what I’m doing because of information that I’m
re?ection a=ect getting either from what they’re telling me, from what I ask them or
practice? from what I see or sense. It’s not always some concrete thing. It can be
a feeling that I pick up. Actually, a lot of my teaching is based on
feelings that I have. And then I act based on that. (Nancy)
Feedback can really feed back. (Quotation 2)
Feedback can also mean observing in a way that I learn about teaching.
It is paying attention very closely to what it is that the students are
doing, not just what I am doing. So that this way feedback can really
feed back, inform my teaching. (Ellen)
Describing what comes out of the mood (Quotation 3)
I don’t detail my lesson plans like, then sing one verse and chorus one
time, now stand. These decisions just happen right there and then, like
asking them to stand up in order to change the dynamic so that we
don’t end a song on a sort of low key. It’s reading the mood and
deciding what comes right out of it, what needs to happen. (Andy)
Losing focus because of frustration (Quotation 4)
Just before I said, ‘OK, you can drop this task’, I could tell that they
were becoming frustrated and that they were losing their focus
because of the frustration. [. . .] I think it’s important for kids to
struggle with stu=, in order to get to know it, but at some point, if the
challenge is too high, I like to give them the option of either struggling
on, or dropping it. (David)
The last set of quotations relates to the outcomes of re?ection-in-action.
For example, Nancy sees a direct link between what she picks up from
the students and the on-the-spot decisions she makes (Quotation 1).
Going back to Schön’s de>nition, this kind of responsive teaching may or
may not involve re?ection-in-action. ‘Reading the mood and deciding
what comes right out of it’ (Quotation 3) might at times be a seamless

134 Margit Szesztay

 process of knowing-in-action. However, as the previous sets of quotations
seem to suggest, re?ection-in-action might play an important part in
building an experienced teacher’s knowledge base.
In addition, the quotations bear out that the way teachers know and
re?ect in action is very closely related to their values and beliefs (Richards
1998; Borg 1999). For example, Andy’s belief about the need for
spontaneity in?uences the way he plans his lessons, as well as the way he
makes decisions in the classroom (Quotation 3). Also, David’s belief that
struggle is an integral part of learning seems to play a key role in the
decisions he makes in the classroom. Finding the optimal amount of
challenge seems to be one of the main principles informing his teaching.
During an interview, he described this as ‘pushing [learners] as far as you
can without breaking them’. For Nancy, sensitivity and being open to the
feelings of the learners is a central part of teaching; therefore it
in?uences the way she knows and acts in the classroom.

Implications for I have used the descriptions of the immediacy of teaching given in this
teacher education article on a number of teacher training seminars. We usually listen to the
quotations one by one, with participants taking turns reading them out.
This is followed by a re?ective writing or a group discussion stage when
participants are asked to respond to the quotations. The three extracts
which follow are taken from such written re?ections. I include them here
to illustrate the way experienced teachers’ descriptive accounts can lead
to further re?ection on the part of professionals within a training context.
The extracts were written by course participants on SIT ’s one-year
Master’s program for language teachers in the academic year 2001–2. All
three participants are teachers of English.
I have been teaching for a few years, and I can sense that my interest in
developing as a teacher is shifting in the direction of noticing ‘feelings’
that I pick up on in the class. Reading Nancy’s statement, I marvelled
at the fact that I went through an entire teaching credential program
without ever being encouraged to pay attention to the ‘feelings I pick
up’ in the classroom. [. . .] I now know that being able to observe the
spoken and unspoken dynamic in the classroom, and to react to that
feedback, is really at the heart of teaching. (Sarah)
Often feelings in the classroom are more powerful than thinking. At
>rst, I feel something, then I think and analyse it. And sometimes I
just feel, I cannot explain why I have that feeling. These feelings are
nearly always correct and reliable. (Hyosun)
For beginner teachers like myself everything can trigger re?ection-
in-action, because everything is new. For example, noticing the extent
to which a student is being challenged or how students are responding
is important. But it’s also important to develop a kind of routine, so
that a lot of this noticing becomes automatic and the lesson can go on
smoothly. (Katy)
I included the above three responses to illustrate the way that multiple
descriptions on—in this case, teacher decision-making—can trigger
re?ection in fellow professionals. Responding to experienced teachers’

Teachers’ ways of knowing 135

 descriptions can help someone to formulate their own beliefs about
teaching, as Sarah’s example shows: ‘I now know that being able to
observe the spoken and unspoken dynamic in the classroom, and to react
to that feedback, is really at the heart of teaching’. In addition, by working
through such responses, aspects of the classroom decision-making
process can begin to take shape, as Hyosun’s insightful comments about
the importance of feelings illustrate. Finally, Katy’s remarks show that
she is aware of the need to be alert to classroom processes, while at the
same time recognizing the need to develop a routine which ensures the
smooth running of the class. What she formulates here, I think, is one of
the central dilemmas facing beginner teachers.

Conclusion I hope that this article triggered a process of re?ection in the reader, as
well. My intention was to paint a picture which draws attention to the
process of classroom decision-making. My aim was to go beyond mere
illustration to capture the >ne nuances of the way teachers know and
make decisions in the classroom. Each teacher’s description is like a
snapshot, and the multiple snapshots create a rich and detailed picture.
However, as with a work of art, it is up to the reader to take a close look
and interpret what they see.
Final version received May 2003

Notes Richards, J. C. 1998. ‘Teacher beliefs and decision

1 All the names used here are real, and making’ in Beyond Training. Cambridge:
permission has been given to use them in this Cambridge University Press.
article. Schön, D. A. 1987. Educating the Re?ective
Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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136 Margit Szesztay