Lundqvist, Almqvist and Ostman describe a teacher's manner of teaching and the possible consequences it may have for students' meaning making. In doing this the article examines a teacher's classroom practice by systematizing the teacher's transactions with the students in terms of certain conceptual schemes, namely the "epistemological moves", "educational philosophies" and the "selective traditions" of this practice. In connection to their study one may ask how conceptual schemes could change teaching. This article examines how the relationship of the conceptual schemes produced by educational researchers to educational praxis has developed from the middle of the last century to today. The relationship is described as having been transformed in three steps: (1) teacher deficit and social engineering, where conceptual schemes are little acknowledged, (2) reflecting practitioners, where conceptual schemes are mangled through teacher practice to aid the choices of already knowledgeable teachers, and (3) the mangling of the conceptual schemes by researchers through practice with the purpose of revising theory.