ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses a condition of teaching that has characterized the practice since its very beginnings. That condition is the gap that exists between what teachers say they want to do and what actually takes place in their work. When in the presence of their students, teachers say and do an immense number of things of which they are not mindful—things that often appear to be automatic or, in a word, habitual. Teachers’ personal qualities promise to be as influential on students, in the long run, as their pedagogical know-how. Teachers’ styles encompass their habitual tones of voice, gestures, body movements, and more, all of which can be highly expressive of their attitudes and orientations toward students and what they say and do. Teachers can never quite know what they are doing or what influence they are having while actually teaching.
