The Interaction between Teachers’ Knowledge and Skills when Managing a Troublesome Classroom Behaviour

This paper reports the findings of a study that explored how teachers manage a pervasive and disruptive classroom behaviour known as talking out of turn. The study found that talking out of turn occurred at story time in the 26 primary classrooms investigated. Comparisons between teachers showed that they used different strategies to manage classroom talk and that these strategies correlate with the frequency of talking out of turn in their classrooms. However, this is not a matter merely of some teachers being more skillful than others. Detailed analysis of each teacher's knowledge of teaching and learning showed that the skills that they used are inseparable from the knowledge they hold. It is suggested that teachers may change the frequency of an unwanted classroom behaviour, if they are helped to reflect on their professional knowledge.