AbstractPublished discussion of the concept of reflective practice in teaching has been conducted essentially within the frames of reference of teacher educators and researchers. Less attention has been given to teachers’ own understandings of reflection — in particular reflection ‘in action’, how those understandings develop, and how teachers deploy them. This case‐study centres around a teacher's account of his chalk‐face reflective behaviour, not his reflection whilst pupils work independently of him during the lesson or that engaged in after the lesson. Current notions of the time‐frame of reflection do not seem to fit what may be interpreted as his endeavour to encourage the ‘experiencing of experience’, his own and his pupils’. The nature of this endeavour has implications for our understanding of collaborative approaches to reflection that are widely promoted: even the notion of ‘jointwork’ is seen to be limited. The inclusion of courage amongst the attributes of the reflective practitioner is emphasized. Moreover, in highlighting this teacher's reflective practice, the paper picks up on the debate about the appropriateness of ‘socialization’ as a term to capture the experience of ‘becoming’ a teacher. Caution is suggested with regard to conceptualizations of reflective practice sharply attentive to ‘levels’ in which a chalk‐face focus seems cast in an inferior, utilitarian light.