ABSTRACT
This action may reasonably be considered as involving the deployment of a body of skills related to practical teaching. In the work reported here, these skills are derived from a systematic consideration of the objectives and an analysis of specific teaching tasks in the light of pedagogical principles. They differ from those often derived from other analyses of teaching that do not have this basis. Some common examples of the latter are: beginning a lesson, asking questions, writing on the chalkboard or ending a lesson. Not that such skills are not relevant; they may or they may not be. They are probably not criterial attributes of quality teaching. To illustrate: skilful questioning is desirable because it enables a teacher to stimulate and enhance pupils’ thinking in such a way as to develop complex bodies of concepts. But it is no good asking questions that demand no cognitive effort. Such questions may produce the right answers without the pupils’ having learned the concept. Even ‘probing’ questions, which require pupils to think deeper, are likely to be of limited effect unless they are based on an understanding of the use of language to highlight criterial attributes and distinguish them from non-criterial attributes.
