Pedagogical tact concerns a teacher's ability to adequately handle complex classroom situations that require immediate action. As such, pedagogical tact can be viewed as an enactment of teachers’ intuition. While most teachers, teacher educators, educational leaders and scholars readily recognise the importance of pedagogical tact (and by extension, intuition), few pre‐service or in‐service programmes devote explicit attention to developing this important teacher quality. This study set out to understand why. Specifically, data were collected to investigate how educators perceive intuition, and its role in teacher pedagogical tact. Ten focus group discussions were held with school board members, teacher educators, school principals, in‐service teachers and pre‐service teachers. Participants recognised two types of intuition commonly described in the literature (local and nonlocal), and affirmed the importance of intuition for teacher pedagogical tact. These educators also noted that teachers are rarely if ever encouraged to make conscious use of their intuition, let alone develop it. There was consensus that teachers differ in how well they are able to tune into their intuition. Though the scale of the study is small, the findings suggest that more attention should be given to developing teacher intuition and pedagogical tact than is currently the case.

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In all levels of education, teachers’ abilities to deal with complex classroom situations in split-seconds concerns pedagogical tact, a crucial quality which relies, in part, on intuition. Developing the ability to appropriately handle the complexity of classroom situations requires a systemic approach. This study aimed to explore the experiences in and effects of a systemic-phenomenological professional development program for enhancing teacher abilities to handle complex (classroom) situations through conscious attention for intuition. In the present study, 64 teachers from primary, secondary, and higher education participated in a 12 week professional development program featuring systemic-phenomenological exercises, such as meditations and embodied simulations. By increasing understanding of the complexity of social systems and sensitizing awareness of intuitive signals, the program aimed to improve teachers’ use of intuition, and through that, their handling of classroom situations. Data were gathered through participant reflection logs and focus group discussions, which were analysed both deductively and inductively. The findings suggest that the program helped heighten teacher awareness of intuitions, and individual awareness in the classroom, yielding positive effects on teacher abilities to take appropriate split-second action in complex classroom situations. While further research is needed, the results of this study include practices for enhancing teacher awareness of intuition through systemic-phenomenological exercises which proved to be promising, and a taxonomy of effects related to pedagogical tact in the classroom.

This study explores teachers' awareness of intuition, and how that awareness affects their classroom practices both conceptually and pragmatically. Scholars have long supported the notion that intuition is a crucial form of knowing that supports teaching. Teachers rely heavily on their intuition to deal with complex classroom situations, especially those that require on-thespot problem solving, decision-making, and creativity. Yet, how they do so has rarely been the topic of empirical investigation. In this study, qualitative data were gathered from two groups of in-service teachers (17 in total) while they participated in a professional development programme designed to improve their awareness of intuitions through meditative and embodied exercises. Reflection log entries revealed that teachers' awareness of intuitions includes preparing for, sensing, and considering intuitive signals. Furthermore, participants perceived increased awareness of intuitions as well as perceived positive effects on individual pupils, groups of pupils, and on themselves. This study reveals teacher experiences in their journey to becoming aware of their intuition, developing it, and putting it to use in the classroom. Recommendations are given for further inquiry into the crucial teacher quality of intuition.

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