There can be little doubting the importance in teacher education of th
e notion of reflective practice. One of the most winery cited authors
in the field is Donald Schon. In English teacher education, some have
seen Schon's work as justifying a move toward school-based training in
an attempt to bridge the alleged gap between the theoretical and prac
tical aspects of teacher education (Furlong et al., 1988, p. 123). In
this paper this view is challenged. it is suggested that Schon's work,
once placed within the context of a Wittgensteinian description of la
nguage, can be reinterpreted to support a wider notion of teacher educ
ation and professional development.