In order to best teach our students, teachers must have full knowledge of the content which we are teaching. With all subjects there are central skills and peripheral skills. Teachers must be aware the skills that students must know, and the ones that are okay if they do not get it. In addition, teachers must know how to incorporate the most up-to-date information on all of their subjects. For example, when I researched some problems that students of religions other than Christianity face, one issue that I found was that the information that was presented about their religion in schools is very outdated. In order to be a teacher of impact to our students, we must present them with the most modern information possible. In addition, most disciplines build on past knowledge. Thus, teachers must know which elements are prerequisites to each other, in order to teach students the most important items. Finally, teachers must be aware of common misconceptions and combat them before they occur. For example, many young students confuse the lowercase letters b and d. With this in mind, then, teachers can point out this common confusion and give the students tricks to remember the difference, such as b is for bat, and a baseball bat hits a ball, so the b is written with a bat hitting a ball. However, content knowledge is not enough to make a teacher of impact. Teachers must also be aware of the most effective pedagogical approaches for their content. Elements of knowledge of content and pedagogy include:
Knowledge of Content and the Structure of the Discipline
All disciplines have a particular structure, key ideas, smaller ideas, and skills that build off each other. There will not be enough time to teach students everything about a discipline, so teachers must be keenly aware of the structure of their discipline in order to choose the correct concepts to teach students.
Knowledge of Prerequisite Relationships
Some disciplines, such as math, have important prerequisites that must be known in order to advance. Thus, teachers should be aware of the prerequisites for the concepts they are teaching, and what future concepts the current topic could be a prerequisite for.
Knowledge of Content-Related Pedagogy
Much research has been conducted in the area of pedagogy. Thus, teachers should be aware of, and using, the most effective pedagogy for their subject.
Implementing in the Classroom/Artifacts Demonstrating Competency
Knowledge of Content and the Structure of the Discipline
All disciplines have a particular structure, key ideas, smaller ideas, and skills that build off each other. There will not be enough time to teach students everything about a discipline, so teachers must be keenly aware of the structure of their discipline in order to choose the correct concepts to teach students.
Knowledge of Prerequisite Relationships
Some disciplines, such as math, have important prerequisites that must be known in order to advance. Thus, teachers should be aware of the prerequisites for the concepts they are teaching, and what future concepts the current topic could be a prerequisite for.
Knowledge of Content-Related Pedagogy
Much research has been conducted in the area of pedagogy. Thus, teachers should be aware of, and using, the most effective pedagogy for their subject.
Implementing in the Classroom/Artifacts Demonstrating Competency
- Using a Kahoot to find out students' background knowledge of a subject before teaching it
- Include modern applications/modern research of the subjects being taught
- Make sure that students have a solid grasp on the central concepts of a disciple before teaching the smaller concepts
- Ensure that all students have met all prerequisites of a new concept before teaching
- The ability to answer all questions accurately, or be able to quickly find the answer
- While learning about graphing in math, do experiments that involve graphing in science
- Use Universal Design in lesson planning
Below is a Kahoot that I made to test students' prior knowledge of religions before teaching a lesson to pre-service teachers about teaching students of religions other than Christianity.
- Kahoot! | Learning Games | Make Learning Awesome!. (2018). Kahoot!. Retrieved 18 March 2018, from https://kahoot.com/welcomeback/
- (2018). Static.pdesas.org. Retrieved 18 March 2018, from http://static.pdesas.org/content/documents/danielson_rubric_2.pdf