The Knowledge Bases of the Expert Teacher

Abstract

In the late twentieth century, accountability and value for money are two of the major themes influencing developments in education. Reflecting these themes, recent government legislation has produced a set of teaching competences, later revised as standards, for use in initial teacher education and assessment of teaching performance. They are used as criteria for teacher training, in some cases forming the theoretical underpinning of courses. This article argues that that model of knowledge essential for teaching presented by the 10197 standards is impoverished. Instead there will be presented a comprehensive model of knowledge bases for teaching, which can inform our understanding of teaching and provide a more sophisticated theoretical underpinning than that imposed by government legislation. The model was developed through a recent doctoral study of subject knowledge and teaching competences. The model is illustrated by an example of teaching in history, which shows how it can act as a theoretical underpinning both for experienced and beginning teachers.

The Teaching of Children's Literature: A Case Study of Primary Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge

“…Through additional research over the past thirty years, these knowledge bases have been expanded, more explicit subcategories have been identified and argued, and different contexts investigated, in order to demonstrate the highly nuanced phenomenon of teachers' PCK (see Exley, 2001Exley, , 2005Grossman, 1990;Grossman, Wilson, & Shulman, 1989;Hill, Rowan, & Ball, 2005;Magnusson, Borko & Krajcik, 1999;Munby, Russell, & Martin, 2001;Park & Oliver, 2008;Phelps & Schilling, 2004;Turner-Bisset, 1999;Van Driel, Verloop, & De Vos, 1998;Woolfolk Hoy, Davis, & Pape, 2006;Zembal-Saul, Krajcik, & Blumenfeld, 2002). The relationship between the categories of teachers' professional knowledge bases and PCK have been said to be interrelated and synergistic, with teachers not only employing their PCK, but blending the individual categories to plan, teach, and assess.…”

“…Some researchers go so far as to say that teachers' knowledge and their beliefs are the foundation for every teacher's actions in their classroom (Koballa et al, 2000). The choice of content and pedagogy, the decisions made about texts, learning objectives, methods of assessment, espoused purposes for teaching subjects, goals set for students and the nature of a subject, as well as the beliefs for teaching a particular subject (Grossman, 1990;Turner-Bisset, 1999) are considered relevant to PCK, with specific regard to the category of teachers' SMK.…”

“…Turner-Bisset (1999, p. 45) described as empirical knowledge and encompassed "knowledge of what children of a particular age range are like; how they behave in classrooms and school; their interests and preoccupations; their social nature; how contextual factors such as weather or exciting events can have an effect on their work and behaviour; and the nature of the child-teacher relationship". For the purposes of this study, cognitive knowledge and empirical knowledge of learners (Turner-Bisset, 1999), learner characteristics (Shulman, 1987), understanding learners' conceptions and misconceptions (Neale & Smith, 1989), potential misunderstandings (Grossman, 1990), and content-related learning difficulties (Shulman, 1987), drawn from teacher interviews, have been used to describe and inform the developed theoretical framework.…”

“…Building on initial constructs for Knowledge of Learners (KoL), Turner-Bisset (1999) designated two separate components. Firstly, that of cognitive knowledge which encompasses understandings of child development, and understandings of how a child's skills are developed with assistance by the teacher, with reference to how child development informs practice.…”

“…6.6 Teachers' knowledge of self for the teaching of children's literature A teacher's knowledge and understanding of themselves and their abilities to reflect is a component of PCK (McIntyre, 1992;Turner-Bisset, 1999). Turner-Bisset (1999, p. 46) argued that "if teaching is a profession in which the self is a crucial element, which demands a heavy investment of the self and in which the self in evaluation and reflection plays an important part, knowledge of self is an important knowledge base and should be added to the categories of knowledge for teaching".…”