By assessing student engagement with learning tasks along with students' understanding of subject matter before and during teaching, teachers are able to shift their teaching approaches through improvisational pedagogical reasoning in real time. However, if a teacher does not know how to respond to students' cues, their capacity to effectively adapt their teaching actions is reduced. This perspective resonates with the notion of pedagogical equilibrium. To date, studies of pedagogical equilibrium have predominantly focused on causes of disequilibrium, with scant discussion of typologies of pedagogical equilibria and mechanisms which can prompt teachers to transition from disequilibrium and equilibrium or vice versa. The purpose of this study is to conceptually discuss: (1) the transactional nature of teacher decision-making when it is based on understanding student actions and cognition; and, (2) typologies of pedagogical equilibria related to teachers' preferences for being responsive to student behaviour and understanding.