Conscious reflection and implicit learning in teacher preparation. Part I: recent light on an old issue

In spite of critiques by philosophers from Ryle through to Dreyfus, the assumption that acquisition and exercise of intelligent capability requires conscious contemplation has remained powerful in teacher education, apparently sustained by recent emphases on teacher thinking, cognitive-constructivist influences and Schon's promotion of reflection in professional learning. In this first of two linked papers I draw attention to recent empirical work and connectionist modelling within psychology as adding strong support and further articulation to these traditional critiques by way of evidencing a powerful role of implicit learning in the acquisition of capability. This in turn prompts a re-examination of the procedural-declarative/knowing how-knowing that distinction and a consideration of some of the many ways in which implicit and explicit processing may be involved in the deployment of human capability. A second paper to appear in the December issue of this journal will consider implications of this work for the initial preparation of teachers.