The Problem of Enactment
Helping teachers learn to teach effectively requires not only that
they learn to “think like a teacher” but also that they be able to put what
they know into action—what has been called “the problem of enactment.”
3 Teachers must be able to do a wide variety of things, many of
them simultaneously. Meeting this challenge requires much more than
simply knowing one’s subject matter or discussing ideas about teaching.
The issues teachers face regarding enactment are similar to those
encountered in other professional fields, but they are even more challenging.
For example, teachers do many more things at once, with many
more clients assembled at one time, than do most other professionals.
Developing an authoritative classroom presence, good radar for watching
what many different students are doing and feeling at each moment,
and skills for explaining, questioning, discussing, giving feedback, constructing
tasks, facilitating work, and managing the classroom—all at
once—is not simple.