This paper explores the understanding one teacher constructed of his pedagogy as he taught his high school students using a "PEEL approach" (Baird and Mitchell, 1987; Baird and Northfield, 1992). He returned to high school teaching in order to experience first hand the daily struggles associated with attempting to teach for understanding. He arranged to have a classroom observer give him immediate feedback on his efforts from her perspective as an experienced PEEL teacher as well as offering the students' perspectives on their experiences as a result of discussions with the observer. A researcher worked with him to act as a "conduit" for developing meaning. The researcher and the observer actively framed and reframed events with the teacher during and after his experiences. Data used in this study include the teacher's daily diary, the observer's lesson feedback, students' feedback on lessons, students' written responses to experiences, and students' interview transcripts. The paper provides examples of the teacher's experiences to demonstrate how making sense of a pedagogical situation is enhanced if alternative frames of reference are developed, and that those alternatives are more likely to emerge through collaboration. Dewey's attitudes (open-mindedness, responsibility, and whole-heartedness) displayed and encouraged through the collaborative approach led to both a broadening of the teacher's understanding of his experiences and to an extraction of more substantial meaning from his experiences as a whole; this experience helped him align his beliefs with his practice. (Contains 8 references.) (SM)