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Subject Content Knowledge (what you teach).
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (how you teach it).
PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge): Understanding how to teach specific subject content effectively, including appropriate methods, explanations, examples, and addressing misconceptions. SCK (Subject Content Knowledge): Having a strong understanding of the subject itself, including its concepts, facts, principles, and how different ideas connect.
Key thinkers in this area:
Lee Shulman
From Pascall, L. (2022). Learning to teach business in the secondary school : a companion to school experience (First edition.). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
"Teachers will need knowledge that is wide-ranging as effective teaching involves utilising a whole range of different types of knowledge and this begins with attempting to develop Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). PCK ‘goes beyond knowledge of the subject matter … to the dimension of subject matter knowledge for teaching … the ways of representing and formulating the subject that makes it comprehensible to others’, alongside an understanding of how pupils learn. This is so that the subject content is taught using methods that result in pupil learning and understanding. It is the job of a teacher to transform the subject content in a way that makes it comprehensible; learners should learn theories, models and concepts and know how to apply these to different contexts and current affairs." (page 8)
Teaching strategies SCK and PCK
Linking SCK to PCK is largely at the centre of good teaching in FES. Some activities can be considered more aligned to SCK, while others may place more emphasis on PCK.
Teaching strategies related to SCK:
Teaching strategies related to SCK:
Explicit instruction – clearly explaining concepts and processes.
Demonstration/modelling – showing how something works or how to solve a problem.
Worked examples – showing step-by-step solutions.
Questioning – using subject-specific questions to check understanding.
Use of subject-specific terminology – accurately introducing and explaining key vocabulary.
Teaching strategies related to PCK
Teaching strategies related to PCK
Using misconceptions – identifying common misunderstandings and addressing them.
Scaffolding – breaking difficult subject concepts into manageable stages.
Representations and analogies – using diagrams, models, examples or analogies to make abstract ideas accessible.
Differentiation – adapting explanations/tasks according to learners' needs.
Diagnostic questioning – asking questions designed to reveal students' understanding or misconceptions.
Multiple explanations – explaining the same concept in different ways when students struggle.
Connecting prior knowledge to new concepts – building on what students already understand.
Read more here:
Gudmundsdottir, S. (1987). Pedagogical content knowledge in social studies. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 31(2), 59–70.
Shulman, L. S. (2009). How and what teachers learn: A shifting perspective. Al-Mudarris., 189(1–2), 1–8.
Kleickmann, T. (2013). Teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge: The role of structural differences in teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education., 64(1), 90–106.
Questions
How much subject knowledge is actually necessary for effective FE teaching, and who gets to decide what counts as “sufficient” SCK?
Whose knowledge is recognised as legitimate within SCK—academic, vocational, professional, practical or experiential knowledge?
Does an emphasis on SCK unintentionally encourage teachers to cover content rather than develop understanding?
How should SCK respond when workplace practice conflicts with formal curriculum knowledge?
Who decides what counts as “good” PCK?
Can PCK be separated from the context, learners and institution in which teaching takes place?
Does good teaching require deep SCK, deep PCK, or a particular relationship between the two?
Do SCK and PCK adequately capture the distinctive knowledge of FE teachers, or are they concepts developed primarily from school and higher-education contexts?
Do SCK and PCK help us understand teaching, or do they risk reducing the complexity of teaching to categories of teacher knowledge?
How much of effective FE teaching depends on knowledge, and how much depends on relationships, judgement, identity, experience and context?
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