ABSTRACT
In order to promote learning teachers need to consider two essential professional tasks. These may seem self-evident or common sense but they must be examined in some detail and their implications for teaching considered. One is to provide information and materials together with learning activities which are closely related to pupils’ abilities and what they already know and which may advance their learning in terms of knowledge, understanding, and skill. The other is to provide and optimise the time and opportunities for children to learn so that for as much of the day as is reasonable each child is productively engaged in learning activities during the time that they are in school. These two issues will be discussed in this and the next chapter before considering in Chapter 6 the central complicating factor which must be addressed in practical teaching, namely how the content of lessons shapes the teacher’s reflection upon and execution of these professional tasks.
