This study explores how teachers think about the usefulness of shared knowledge they obtain from external sources, such as educational theories, research, professional programs, their colleagues, and how and why they use, modify, or did not use these resources. The author interviewed fifteen lower elementary teachers, asked them to generate examples of knowledge they had obtained elsewhere on their own, and gave them knowledge artifacts to evaluate. Teachers' self-described responses to these various resources suggested that their main goal was instrumental use of knowledge, but there were various ways of using it. In addition to instrumental uses, the teachers used shared knowledge to expand and change their perspectives on teaching and learning, used it as a source to develop and produce their own practical knowledge, used it to reflect on their practice, to confirm and justify their practice, and used it as a reminder of other ideas. The teachers also described varied types of instrumental uses: they used shared knowledge by replicating, specifying, extending, adding, reducing, and changing it. They either modified or did not use shared knowledge when they thought that there were reality constraints, when they thought the knowledge was not relevant to their contexts and students, when it did not fit their own philosophies and styles, or when it was perceived to be ineffective, or not valid.
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