ABSTRACT
Few teachers are likely to enter their classrooms conscious of the awesome nature of the task I proposed in the last chapter. Their eyes will be on more immediate and more ‘down-to-earth’ issues. I suggest, however, that an informed realisation of their complexity will help them to achieve the tasks of practical teaching. Teachers hoping to help children to learn even the most mundane things must have some idea of what they hope to achieve and how they hope to achieve it. Their aims and aspirations bespeak some view of pedagogical principles. The more extensive their knowledge of principles and practice in a field, the better equipped they will be to identify their aims and the means of achieving them. Thus the knowledge they have gained in their own teaching interacts with other knowledge to enrich both. Undoubtedly some teachers enter classrooms for reasons other than to help children to learn. They will have their own aims which I do not propose to address here.
