Shulman (1986) teaching-knowledge

Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(4), 4-14.

Shulman describes knowledge needed for teaching. He rejects “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches” and instead asserts that ‘Those who can, do. Those who understand, teach’. He criticizes separating subject knowledge and general pedagogical knowledge, and simplifying complex teaching contexts. Shulman’s research examined teacher-education programs and interviewed novice teachers for two years. He focused on key events (i.e. How do teachers teach something they have not yet learned? How do teachers adapt and improve poor learning materials?) to investigate how  teaching-knowledge develops. Shulman defines teaching-knowledge as content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular knowledge.

– Content knowledge includes theory and practice of subject-knowledge, justification of subject-knowledge, and knowledge of relationships between subjects.

– Pedagogical content knowledge is based on research and experience and includes subject-teaching knowledge, valuable topics, useful explanations and examples, and students’ preconceptions.

– Curricular knowledge includes knowledge of learning-materials, and knowledge of relationships between subject curriculums.

He outlines a framework of knowledge as propositional knowledge, case knowledge, and strategic knowledge.

– Propositional knowledge includes principles from research, maxims from general knowledge, and norms based on ethics. Propositional knowledge is concise, simplified and often forgettable.

– Case knowledge includes prototypes that show theory, precedents that show principles, and parables that show values. Cases are examples of genre, not a single antidote, specifically described with clear boundaries, memorable, and can combine case types.

– Strategic knowledge is the flexibility to reason, reflect, judge, and act within complex context with multiple conflicting factors.

Shulman argues that teacher-education needs to include content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular knowledge, and use research and cases from diverse contexts.

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