Almost all the research interviewees admit that
they lack formal knowledge in this field. However,
they think that they have ample procedural knowledge
that has been acquired through many years of
experience and reflection. Most of them believe that
meaningful knowledge in this field is procedural
whereas theoretical, propositional knowledge (according
to the distinction of Ryle, 1952) is intended
to explain and support what they already know
implicitly. However, Winitzky and Kauchak (1995)
maintain that, as procedural knowledge improves, it
becomes more difficult to verbalize it as propositional
knowledge (this can be explained by how
difficult it is to describe how to lace shoes). All the
supervisors have vast procedural knowledge of
behaviour management, and, therefore, it is not
surprising that they have difficulties in verbalizing
propositional knowledge.