Pedagogical Sensitivity and Teachers Practical Knowing - in - Action

In everyday life in classrooms, the thousand and one things that teachers do, say, or do-not-do, all have practical pedagogical significance. Not only the objectives or goals of education but also the means and methods used all have pedagogical value and consequences for teaching and learning. This text explores the nature and significance of the practical forms of knowledge that teachers enact in (inter)active situations with their students. Teacher practical knowing-in-action requires pedagogical sensitivity and is described in terms of thoughtfulness and tact, embodied and pathic understanding. Teaching can be a complex enterprise when teachers challenge the students to think independently and critically about their learning. Teaching can be risky for teachers who are willing to make themselves vulnerable by engaging students in activities that are not always clearly predictable and controllable. Any “true teaching” moment can pose innumerable questions to the teacher: What is in the best interest of this child? What is appropriate and what is less appropriate for these students? What should the teacher say in this or that situation? How should a teacher enter this classroom? How should one close the door? How and what atmosphere is created by the many seemingly innocuous things that teachers and students do? How should a teacher adjust his or her tone of voice in different situations and in different circumstances? How does the teacher encourage the children? Where does he or she stand, sit, or move around in the classroom? What speech climate is created? When should a teacher speak? When should a teacher be silent? What is good and what is not good? What meaning is expressed in the teacher’s gestures? Which teaching techniques and what evaluation approaches are pedagogically more appropriate in particular circumstances? What type of experience is good for children here? And what material is less good for them? Should this difficult subject matter be taught? Should it be made easier? How easy? What kind of difficulty is good for this student? And what about that student? How much pressure is too much? What kind of discipline is right in this situation? And what expectations may be inappropriate? What should one do now? Any of these questions may be posed or occur to teachers at any time in their teaching. However, while interacting with their students and while presenting their lessons, teachers usually do not have the time or inclination to truly reflect on any of such questions. Reflection in action is limited to an (inter)active thoughtfulness. So if such questions do present themselves then they usually occur afterwards, upon reflection on the events and the situations in which the