Domains of Teacher Knowledge

This knowledge refers strictly to the science content, with no other elements of what a teacher would need to know in order to relate the content to students.

2. Knowledge that alternative frameworks for thinking about the content exist

When teachers have deep knowledge of disciplinary content and recognize that different ways of organizing ideas exist, they can focus on helping students understand the important ideas, without necessarily requiring students to organize ideas in the exact same way.  Such knowledge also enables teachers to recognize student understanding that is correct, but presented differently than the teacher might organize it.

3. Knowledge of the relationships between big ideas and the supporting ideas in a content area

Teachers need to help students not be so focused on the small details of the content that they never grasp the larger (and more powerful) concept.

4. Knowledge/understanding of student thinking about the content

To help students understand content, teachers need to know what ideas students are likely to bring with them and where they are likely to struggle.  Some content areas—e.g., force and motion—have a rich research base on student preconceptions and misconceptions, which includes research on how resistant these ideas may be to change.  Most content areas do not have such a research base.

5. Knowledge of activities/representations/hypothetical scenarios, etc. that can be used to diagnose the thinking of a particular group of students

Teachers need to know how to discern what ideas students have about a content area, both prior to and during a unit of instruction.

6. Knowledge of how to sequence ideas for students to learn the content of interest

This type of knowledge highlights one of the differences in how a teacher and scientist think about content.  A teacher needs to be able to think about content in terms of how students can most efficiently come to understand it.  They need to know which ideas are pre-requisites for later ideas and how to progress from less complex to more complex ideas.

7. Knowledge of content-specific strategies (activities/representations/hypothetical scenarios, etc.) that move students’ thinking forward

In addition to knowledge of student thinking, teachers need knowledge of ways to move that thinking forward.  Included in this knowledge is an awareness that not all strategies will work equally well with all groups of students.  The implications of some student differences are obvious—e.g., seeing or hearing impairments.  Others are more subtle; e.g., representations that communicate well for students in inner city settings may not work well for students in rural schools, and vice-versa.