This study was conducted to determine the relationship between teachers' experience and their perceptions of and reactions to problematic classroom situations. The purpose was to assist teacher educators to more adequately train beginning teachers who then would be better prepared to deal with problematic classroom situations. Subjects (N=49) were secondary teachers from the Southeast of the Netherlands: 25 inexperienced teachers with 0 to 3 years experience and 24 experienced teachers with more than 5 years of practice. Five simulated problematic classroom situations were shown on videotape, and teachers were asked to complete two questionnaires dealing with emotional stress reaction and the sense of self-efficacy. The data suggest that experienced teachers' reactions are characterized by more complexity than those of inexperienced teachers; experienced teachers produce more reaction-intentions and need more reaction time; both groups show no differences in their range of reactions and seem to react in a confrontive, friendly-directive or understanding-permissive way. Attributional differences of teachers appear to be related to situational cues, rather than to teachers' experience. (LL)