Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teachers: Integrate Everything You Know to Help Students Learn

     Linda Griffen, Patt Dodds, and Inez Rovegno (1996)

      Summary by Alana Ausmus

 

ISSUE - Focus - Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is specific to teaching.  Teachers need PCK so that they can "package" everything they understand (about the learners, the activity, the phys. ed. program goals, school, students, and the community) in order to help the students learn.

In physical education, athletes are skilled performers of movement and do not have PCK, while teachers and coaches do, precisely because they understand movement activities in ways that help them teach others how to play or perform. *Highly successful teachers and coaches have well developed PCK.

*PCK is highly domain specific- for example: a teacher with rich PCK in tennis may not have it in soccer or basketball. This means teachers can continually develop their PCK in new directions and with greater depth.

*PCK is also highly situation specific - for example: teachers who know their students, school, and their movement content can create wonderful learning tasks tailored to their own students.

ASSUMPTION - Teachers with rich PCK integrate 4 forms of knowledge into their profiles

1. They keep both broad and narrow goals clearly in mind

2. They understand readily what various students already know or can do

3. They are highly knowledgeable about curriculum content

4. They vary instructional strategies to help all learners

REASONING - Tactical Approach to Teaching Games

- shifts the major objective of games teaching from skill development to improved performance

- takes into account student needs and motivations to learn

Pitfalls in Developing PCK

- missing the big picture - teachers in early stages of developing PCK think about activites but not about how these activites are related to their program goals

- not understanding progressions within activities - teachers move from stage 1 (individual skills) to stage 4 (modified or full game play) without adequate practice in stages 2 and 3 (combining skills and basic offense and defense strategies)

- focusing on activites but not teaching the content within activites

- assuming that "telling" information to students who appear to be listening is teaching 

Conclusion: While PCK can be highly effective for teachers who are well developed they need to be aware of the pitfalls of PCK. Teachers can develop good PCK in all areas of sport which will increase their teaching abilities, they can relate one sport to another with well developed PCK in both.