Subject Specific Knowledge

Subject specific Knowledge

     Teaching has never been an easy chore. It requires passion, pedagogy and professionalism. It also requires continual change. Instructional strategies must evolve to help students with varying abilities and learning styles, acquire and apply knowledge.

     Subject knowledge comes in different forms. Shulman's typology identifies three kinds.

1. Content knowledge
2. Curricular knowledge
3. Pedagogic knowledge

• Content Knowledge: It is what most people would perhaps think of simply as 'knowledge', the kind of knowledge that comes from text books and reference books.
  

  

  
  
• Curricular Knowledge: It refers to what you know about the formally defined curriculum for your age range.
• Pedagogic Subject Knowledge: It is the knowledge that practitioners have which help them to teach and provide support as children develop their own personal subject knowledge.

     The demands on teachers' subject knowledge can be particularly great across the primary curriculum, not least in requiring them to understand how pupils learn in different subjects but also to understand what pupils need to know at particular points. The challenge is for professionals to know subjects well and also to understand how pupils learn in different subjects.

     Subject knowledge is significant factor throughout the learning process. Whether checking learning, diagnosing pupils'' weaknesses, designing tasks and resources, presenting information, asking questions or giving formative and summative feedback, good subject knowledge is crucial. A teacher should know and understand the material they are expected to teach in order to support pupil's learning. A depth of understanding of the subjects to be taught as well as general pedagogical skills and understandings are the keys to successful practice.

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