What knowledge do teachers need to plan, read curriculum and make it accessible to students?
Lee Shulman first used the phrase ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ and he described categories that would provide a checklist for history teachers to reflect and evaluate their history teaching.
1. Subject/content knowledge which includes ideas, concepts and topics as well as how to inquire
2. General pedagogical knowledge about student learning, cultural and personal influences and strategies for classroom organisation and management
3. Pedagogical content knowledge about how students understand and learn historical information, concepts and topics and how history is best represented in instruction. This includes knowing how to differentiate instruction for individual students and taking account of prior knowledge
4. Curricular knowledge is knowing the curriculum and resources and adapting them to suit a cohort of students
5. Knowledge of students including their physical, social, intellectual and emotional stage of development and how that impacts on their learning
6. Contextual knowledge is an awareness of all of the factors that affect a cohort of students history learning including school, community, state and national policies, attitudes and perceptions relating to the value of history as a school subject.
While all these categories of knowledge contribute to informed practice, American history educators Suzanne Wilson and Sam Wineburg (1991) argue that subject-matter knowledge is crucial to the work of history teachers.
Teachers with a deep knowledge of history, process information with ease and readily connect ideas and topics within and across curriculum areas to enrich student understanding.
In addition, key teaching skills – explaining, informing, analysing, defining, comparing, concluding and reviewing – are enhanced by fluent content knowledge.
Teachers’ subject-matter knowledge influences how they select and organise content for instruction. Teachers with limited knowledge may misrepresent subject matter, fail to recognise learners’ misconceptions, shy away from pedagogical experimentation, resort to transmission teaching and restrict student participation.
Teachers’ subject-matter knowledge affects their capacity to assess learning and evaluate practice.
Check out the website http://www.historycooperative.org/journals.html for many American history journals and research articles on teaching and learning in history.
In Australia the Federal Government’s concern about the importance of history prompted the National Inquiry into History Teaching headed by Associate Professor Tony Taylor, Monash University.
The National Centre for History Education came about from this report and can be found at http://www.hyperhistory.org/. It’s certainly worth a look for the Teachers’ Guide: Making History and for units of work which fit with the Australian Curriculum:History.
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