This article reports on a study of teachers who have engaged in systematic research about their practice. It describes the inquiries of two urban teachers into challenges and dilemmas common to many who work with diverse groups of students. The accounts presented reveal how teachers are able to construct new knowledge about teaching when they…

The author's first teaching position was as a 4th and 5th grade teacher at a school in Philadelphia. There, she learned the Quaker value of adding silence and periods of reflection to her teaching to provide a wider range of students with the opportunity to participate in classroom discussions. Later, a focus on silence as a teaching strategy led…