Describing the behavior and documenting the accomplishments of expert teachers

Propositions about the nature of expertise, in gen-eral, and expertise in pedagogy, in particular, are dis-cussed. The time needed to develop expertise in teach-ing and the highly contextual nature of teachers’ knowledge are also discussed. Four theories of teacher development are presented, with an elabora-tion on the heuristic value of the theory of Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986). Examples from the pedagogical lit-erature are used to illustrate this theory. The recent research establishing causal relationships between those identified as experts in teaching and their stu-dents ’ academic achievement is also presented. This research allows those who study expertise in teaching to have a more objective measure for identifying and studying expert pedagogues