ABSTRACT
Richard Pring and author arrived at the Oxford University Department of Educational Studies (OUDES) in the same year, Pring as Director and author as a PGCE student. Pring develops his account of common sense in dialogue with four educational theorists with whom he disagrees: Paul Hirst, Michael Young, Basil Bernstein and Paul Atkinson. He exemplified and encouraged a commitment to both rigorous scholarship and practical action: the point of philosophy of education is both to understand and to improve educational practice. The professional learning communities (PLC) are in vogue as a means of developing professional learning. The author begins by considering the nature of professional learning within PLCs and the development of pedagogical craft knowledge. Brown and McIntyre, in their research on classroom practice, deal with this complexity of transactions by developing the concept of pedagogical craft knowledge. PLCs offer a contemporary approach to professional learning, combining a culture of trust with attention to evidence.
