MODEL SHULMAN (1986)

Teacher's In-Depth Content Knowledge

Summary
To teach all students according to todays standards, teachers need to
understand subject matter deeply and flexibly so they can help
students create useful cognitive maps, relate one idea to another, and
address misconceptions. Teachers need to see how ideas connect
across fields and to everyday life. This kind of understanding provides
a foundation for pedagogical content knowledge that enables teachers
to make ideas accessible to others (Shulman, 1987).
Shulman (1986) introduced the phrase pedagogical content knowledge
and sparked a whole new wave of scholarly articles on teachers'
knowledge of their subject matter and the importance of this
knowledge for successful teaching. In Shulman's theoretical
framework, teachers need to master two types of knowledge: (a)
content, also known as "deep" knowledge of the subject itself, and (b)
knowledge of the curricular development. Content knowledge
encompasses what Bruner (as cited in Shulman, 1992) called the
"structure of knowledge"the theories, principles, and concepts of a
particular discipline. Especially important is content knowledge that
deals with the teaching process, including the most useful forms of
representing and communicating content and how students best learn
the specific concepts and topics of a subject. "If beginning teachers
are to be successful, they must wrestle simultaneously with issues of
pedagogical content (or knowledge) as well as general pedagogy (or
generic teaching principles)" (Grossman, as cited in Ornstein, Thomas,
& Lasley, 2000, p. 508).
Shulman (1986, 1987, 1992) created a Model of Pedagogical
Reasoning, which comprises a cycle of several activities that a teacher
should complete for good teaching: comprehension, transformation,
instruction, evaluation, reflection, and new comprehension.
Comprehension. To teach is to first understand purposes, subject
matter structures, and ideas within and outside the discipline. Teachers
need to understand what they teach and, when possible, to understand
it in several ways. Comprehension of purpose is very important. We
engage in teaching to achieve the following educational purposes:
To help students gain literacy
To enable students to use and enjoy their learning experiences

MODEL SHULMAN (1986)

To enhance students responsibility to become caring people

To teach students to believe and respect others, to contribute to the
well-being of their community
To give students the opportunity to learn how to inquire and discover
new information
To help students develop broader understandings of new information
To help students develop the skills and values they will need to
function in a free and just society (Shulman, 1992)
Transformation. The key to distinguishing the knowledge base of
teaching lies at the intersection of content and pedagogy in the
teachers capacity to transform content knowledge into forms that are
pedagogically powerful and yet adaptive to the variety of student
abilities and backgrounds. Comprehended ideas must be transformed
in some manner if they are to be taught. Transformations require some
combination or ordering of the following processes:
Preparation (of the given text material), which includes the process of
critical interpretation
Representation of the ideas in the form of new analogies and
metaphors (Teachers' knowledge, including the way they speak about
teaching, not only includes references to what teachers should do, it
also includes presenting the material by using figurative language and
metaphors [Glatthorn, 1990].)
Instructional selections from among an array of teaching methods and
models
Adaptation of student materials and
characteristics of student learning styles

activities

to

reflect

the

Tailoring the adaptations to the specific students in the classroom

MODEL SHULMAN (1986)

Glatthorn (1990)
described this as the process of fitting the
represented material to the characteristics of the students. The teacher
must consider the relevant aspects of students ability, gender,
language, culture, motivations, or prior knowledge and skills that will
affect their responses to different forms of presentations and
representations.
Instruction. Comprising the variety of teaching acts, instruction
includes many of the most crucial aspects of pedagogy: management,
presentations, interactions, group work, discipline, humor, questioning,
and discovery and inquiry instruction.
Evaluation. Teachers need to think about testing and evaluation as an
extension of instruction, not as separate from the instructional process.
The evaluation process includes checking for understanding and
misunderstanding during interactive teaching as well as testing
students understanding at the end of lessons or units. It also involves
evaluating ones own performance and adjusting for different
circumstances.
Reflection. This process includes reviewing, reconstructing, reenacting,
and critically analyzing ones own teaching abilities and then grouping
these reflected explanations into evidence of changes that need to be
made to become a better teacher. This is what a teacher does when he
or she looks back at the teaching and learning that has occurred
reconstructs, reenacts, and recaptures the events, the emotions, and
the accomplishments. Lucas (as cited in Ornstein et al., 2000) argued
that reflection is an important part of professional development. All
teachers must learn to observe outcomes and determine the reasons
for success or failure. Through reflection, teachers focus on their
concerns, come to better understand their own teaching behavior, and
help themselves or colleagues improve as teachers. Through reflective
practices in a group setting, teachers learn to listen carefully to each
other, which also gives them insight into their own work (Ornstein et
al., 2000).
New Comprehension.
and "reasonable," the
educational purposes,
processes of pedagogy

Through acts of teaching that are "reasoned"

teacher achieves new comprehension of the
the subjects taught, the students, and the
themselves (Brodkey, 1986).

Students (the teachers audience) are another important element for

the teacher to consider while using a pedagogical model. A skillful
teacher figures out what students know and believe about a topic and
how learners are likely to hook into new ideas. Teaching in ways that
connect with students also requires an understanding of differences
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MODEL SHULMAN (1986)

that may arise from culture, family experiences, developed

intelligences, and approaches to learning. Teachers need to build a
foundation of pedagogical learner knowledge (Grimmet & Mackinnon,
1992).
To help all students learn, teachers need several kinds of knowledge
about learning. They need to think about what it means to learn
different kinds of material for different purposes and how to decide
which kinds of learning are most necessary in different contexts.
Teachers must be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of
different learners and must have the knowledge to work with students
who have specific learning disabilities or needs. Teachers need to know
about curriculum resources and technologies to connect their students
with sources of information and knowledge that allow them to explore
ideas, acquire and synthesize information, and frame and solve
problems. And teachers need to know about collaborationhow to
structure interactions among students so that more powerful shared
learning can occur; how to collaborate with other teachers; and how to
work with parents to learn more about their children and to shape
supportive experiences at school and home (Shulman, 1992).
Acquiring this sophisticated knowledge and developing a practice that
is different from what teachers themselves experienced as students,
requires learning opportunities for teachers that are more powerful
than simply reading and talking about new pedagogical ideas (Ball &
Cohen, 1996). Teachers learn best by studying, by doing and reflecting,
by collaborating with other teachers, by looking closely at students and
their work, and by sharing what they see.
This kind of learning cannot occur in college classrooms divorced from
practice or in school classrooms divorced from knowledge about how to
interpret practice. Good settings for teacher learningin both colleges
and schoolsprovide lots of opportunities for research and inquiry, for
trying and testing, for talking about and evaluating the results of
learning and teaching. The combination of theory and practice (Miller &
Silvernail, 1994) occurs most productively when questions arise in the
context of real students and work in progress and where research and
disciplined inquiry are also at hand.
Darling-Hammond (1994) noted the following:
Better settings for such learning are appearing. More than 300 schools
of education in the United States have created programs that extend
beyond the traditional four-year bachelors degree program, providing
both education and subject-matter course work that is integrated with
clinical training in schools. Some are one or two year graduate
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MODEL SHULMAN (1986)

programs for recent graduates or midcareer recruits. (p. 6)

Others are five-year models for prospective teachers who enter teacher
education as undergraduates. In either case, the fifth year allows
students to focus exclusively on the task of preparing to teach, with
year-long, school-based internships linked to course work on learning
and teaching. Studies have found that graduates of these extended
programs are more satisfied with their preparation, and their
colleagues, principals, and cooperating teachers view them as better
prepared.
Both university and school faculty plan and teach in these programs.
Beginning teachers get a more coherent learning experience when
they are organized in teams with these faculty and with one another.
Senior teachers deepen their knowledge by serving as mentors,
adjunct faculty, co-researchers and teacher leaders. Thus, these
schools can help create the rub between theory and practice, while
creating more professional roles for teachers and constructing
knowledge that is more useful for both practice and ongoing theory
building(Darling-Hammond, 1994).
If teachers investigate the effects of their teaching on students
learning and if they read about what others have learned, they become
sensitive to variation and more aware of what works for what purposes
and in what situations. Training in inquiry also helps teachers learn how
to look at the world from multiple perspectives and to use this
knowledge to reach diverse learners.
References
Ball, D. L., & Cohen, D. K. (1996). Reform by the book: What
is--or might be--the role of curriculum materials in teacher learning and
instructional reform? Educational Researcher, 25(9), 6-8.
Brodkey, J. J. (1986). Learning while teaching. Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, Stanford University.
Darling-Hammond, L. (1994, September). Will 21st-century
schools really be different? The Education Digest, 60, 4-8.
Glatthorn, A. A. (1990). Supervisory leadership. New York:
Harper Collins.
Grimmet, P., & MacKinnon, A. (1992). Craft knowledge and
the education of teachers. In G. Grant (Ed.), Review of research in
education 18, pp. 59-74 Washington, DC: AERA.
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Miller, L., & Silvernail, D. L. (1994). Wells Junior High

School: Evolution of a professional development school. In L. DarlingHammond (Ed.), Professional development schools: Schools for
developing a profession (pp.56-80). New York: Teachers College Press.
Ornstein, A. C., Thomas, J., & Lasley, I. (2000). Strategies
for effective teaching. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Shulman, L. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge
growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15 (2), 4-14.
Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of
the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57 (1), 1-22.
Shulman, L. (1992, September-October). Ways of seeing, ways
of knowing, ways of teaching, ways of learning about teaching. Journal
of Curriculum Studies, 28, 393-396.