Central to the educative process is the transaction which takes place between the learner and the teacher. The main concern, therefore, of teacher education programmes is to improve the quality of future transactions by help­ing teachers (in-service and in-training) to understand the learner, the dynamics of learning, and their own roles in the transaction. The case study presented in this article is based on the premise that student-teachers will contlnue to grope in the dark until they have developed the necessary understandings and insights.