Knowledge for Teaching

Teaching

• The nature of the job – what challenges

does it offer us?

• The necessary knowledge base

 Physical challenges

• On the move
• On your feet
• Multi-tasking
• …..
 Organisational challenges

• Being at the right place

• Being on time
• Having the right stuff
• Doing the preparation
• Following up the loose ends
 Emotional challenges
• Students’ achievements, enthusiasms,
moments of insight, creativity, humour,
gradual personal development
• Students’ failures, worries, personal
circumstances, stubbornness, cussedness
• Colleagues’ enthusiasms, stubbornness,
cussedness
• Hundreds of interactions with about 100
people a day
 Intellectual challenges
• Teaching a topic on a foundation degree
• Getting to the heart of a concept for younger
students
• Understanding why someone has difficulty
learning
• Understanding why someone is not
cooperating
• Dealing with novel ideas
 Moral challenges
• Keep out of the News of the World
But also
• Recognise the power imbalance between
students and teachers and don’t misuse it
• Make sure what you do is worthwhile
In other words: ask not just “How do I do
X?”, but also “Should I do X?”
What kinds of things do we need to
know to tackle these challenges?
 Teachers’ Knowledge Base
Shulman LS 1987 Harvard Educational Review 57,1 pp1-22

• content knowledge
• general pedagogical knowledge
• curriculum knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge
• knowledge about the learners
• knowledge of educational contexts
• knowledge of educational ends, purposes,
values
 Teachers’ Knowledge Base
Shulman LS 1987 Harvard Educational Review 57,1 pp1-22

• content knowledge
• general pedagogical knowledge
• curriculum knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge
• knowledge about the learners
• knowledge of educational contexts
• knowledge of educational ends, purposes,
values
 Teachers’ Knowledge Base
Shulman LS 1987 Harvard Educational Review 57,1 pp1-22

• content knowledge
• general pedagogical knowledge
• curriculum knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge
• knowledge about the learners
• knowledge of educational contexts
• knowledge of educational ends, purposes,
values
Theories of learning – an example
Vygotsky
 Insights into classrooms and
professional learning
tools

Object Subject

Rules
Div of labour
Community
Tools
5 15 273
2 32 200 Classify as
11 125 3 odd or even
AND as
24 150 6
having 1, 2 or
101 9 21
3 digits
100 4 72
7 17 345
8 12 250
 1 digit 2 digits 3 digits

Odd 3, 5, 7, 9 11,…. 273….

Even 2… 32… 250…

 So what tools do students need?
• Literacy skills
• Numeracy skills
• Using tables, graphs, flow charts…
• Information search skills – library, web …
• Skills of critical analysis of sources
• ICT skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Intrapersonal skills
• ……………
 So two challenging questions…
• Do your students have these things as tools?
Do they affect the way they see the world, hold
problems in their minds, play with solutions?
Or are they arid, meaningless rules to be
obeyed? What can we do to make them
function as tools?

• What tools do you need to continue your own

learning as a teacher?
Subjects
 How do the subjects affect learning?
• “Find out what the pupils know and start from there.”
(Ausubel)
• Student misconceptions
But also
• Expectations – what counts as learning, why we
bother, how to learn, what to do when you are stuck?
• Personal history; educational history
• Personal consequences of failing
• Values with respect to learning
• Awareness of the rules of the game
• Available resources
 The rules of the game
258 people are waiting for a lift to the
10th floor.
The lift takes 25 people
How many trips will it take to get
everyone to their destination?

258/25 = 10 r 8 so 11 trips 11 trips – too long – some will walk –

about 10 trips (perhaps only 9)

Middle class students are more likely to give the first answer
 Relevant factors
So the critical characteristics of the subject are likely to be
affected by such things as:

• Class
– (eg affecting available resources and knowing the rules)
• Gender
– (eg girls don’t do engineering)
• Ethnicity
– (eg learning is about absorbing wisdom)
• Life history
– (eg people think I’m great)
• Educational history
– (eg whenever I ask a question I get shouted at)
 So some challenging questions…
• How do you get to know what you need to
know about your students? How much do you
have a right to know?

• What do you know about yourself as a

participant in the classroom?

• How will your characteristics (and those of

your students) affect your own learning about
teaching?
 What can we do about it?
Listen to student voice
Let students take more control of their learning.
• But… “Are we aware that, despite our best intentions, our
interventions may reinforce existing conceptions of
students that tend to deny their agency and capacity to take
responsibility for what they do ‘and perhaps also silence
[their] own ability to speak and be heard’?” (Alcoff
1991/92, p. 26).
And as one masters student found
• Students do not always want to share their insights. “I
knew what was good and what wasn’t about that work but I
didn’t want to discuss it with my group or my teacher.”
 Objects, & outcomes
tools

Today you Object 2

will learn to:
a)
Object 1
Subject
b)
c)

Division of labour Community Rules

 So two challenging questions?
• How can you take a more nuanced view of
objectives for your students’ learning?
• What are your objectives for your own
learning when you meet your mentor; what
are their objectives; how do all of these get
changed during the activity of the meeting?
 One approach….
• Do a mind map of objectives for a new
topic with the class to find out what they
want to learn
And remember to look at outcomes
as well as objectives

“Very nice dear,

but I asked you to
draw an orange”
 Broader issues in ITE
Tools
Tools

Object 2 Object 2

Object 1
Object 1
Subject
Subject

Object 3

Rules Community Community

Division of Division of
labour labour Rules

College teaching University- PCE course

 Ideas on motivation
• Motivation =
personal element + task element

• Motivation can be quite difficult to change

 Teachers’ Knowledge Base
Shulman LS 1987 Harvard Educational Review 57,1 pp1-22

• content knowledge
• general pedagogical knowledge
• curriculum knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge
• knowledge about the learners
• knowledge of educational contexts
• knowledge of educational ends, purposes, values
 Teachers’ Knowledge Base
Shulman LS 1987 Harvard Educational Review 57,1 pp1-22

• content knowledge
• general pedagogical knowledge
• curriculum knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge
• knowledge about the learners
• knowledge of educational contexts
• knowledge of educational ends, purposes,
values
 Teachers’ Knowledge Base
Shulman LS 1987 Harvard Educational Review 57,1 pp1-22

• content knowledge
• general pedagogical knowledge
• curriculum knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge
• knowledge about the learners
• knowledge of educational contexts
• knowledge of educational ends, purposes,
values
 Teachers’ Knowledge Base
Shulman LS 1987 Harvard Educational Review 57,1 pp1-22

• content knowledge
• general pedagogical knowledge
• curriculum knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge
• knowledge about the learners
• knowledge of educational contexts
• knowledge of educational ends, purposes,
values
 Teachers’ Knowledge Base
Shulman LS 1987 Harvard Educational Review 57,1 pp1-22

• content knowledge
• general pedagogical knowledge
• curriculum knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge
• knowledge about the learners
• knowledge of educational contexts
• knowledge of educational ends, purposes,
values
 Two models of using teacher
knowledge

• Schulman’s model of pedagogical

reasoning

• The model of reflective practice

 Pedagogical reasoning
Comprehension

Reflection Transformation

Evaluation Instruction
 Transformation
• preparation
• representation
• instructional selection
• adaptation
 Pedagogical reasoning
Comprehension

Reflection Transformation

Evaluation Instruction
 A MODEL OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

theory, context, values

•reconsider theory
•determine to
change context PLAN
•reconsider values

theory
RECONCEPTUALISE ACT context
values

EVALUATE

theory, context, values

 Reflective Practice

• By ‘theory’ we mean:
 subject knowledge - including knowledge of the
nature of the subject
 pedagogical knowledge - knowledge of theories
of teaching and learning
 informal personal theories of teaching and
learning (craft knowledge)
 Reflective Practice
‘Context’ means characteristics of the
college and class which will affect the way
you teach and the impact of that teaching.
Elements include:
 the resources available
 the nature of the teaching space
 the nature of the students
 the expectations of students, parents/ carers,
colleagues, governors
 the formal policies of the college
 the national context
 Reflective Practice

By ‘values’ we mean:

 national values related to education and the

conduct of teachers and learners

 your personal values related to teaching