ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the improvisational nature of teacher expertise from the teachers’ perspectives drawing on data derived from interviews and lesson observations. Whilst a degree of modesty might be the reason that most of the participants did not feel comfortable with being labelled an ‘expert teacher’, there was a shared view that becoming an expert was an on-going process of continual reflection and improvement that could not be articulated as a definable end state.
Three core practices are identified as being significant aspects of their expertise: the way that they were able to build positive relationships with students across the ability range, their dialogic teaching and the ability to create a culture of learning, a personalised lifeworld within their classrooms. The lifeworld of the classroom was founded on climate setting principles (determined by the teacher through non-negotiable routines and expectations) and a culture of learning that was co-constructed with the students, reflecting their knowledge of the students as individuals and reciprocated by appropriate personal insights into the teacher as a ‘real person’.
