Aspirations into reality

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Clem Adelman

Informal teaching looks easy, smooth and effortless: it is none of these. Similarly, research into teaching appears clear and straightforward, but again appearances belie reality. Before writing this article, the authors spent a long period observing teachers, discussing teaching performances with both teachers and pupils and encouraging the former to monitor their own teaching. As a result they have produced a number of hypotheses concerning teaching approaches which lead to the development of pupils' powers of independent reasoning. These powers are far less easy to develop than many imagine.