Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge – The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice.

For an educator at any grade level to be effective in their teaching, they must fully comprehend not only what it is that they are trying to teach, but the best practices for how to teach in a way that students can learn. Gleaning information about content-area knowledge from reliable sources, and reflecting on evidence-based best practices affords educators the ability to draw on the experiences of other successful educators and theorists in the field. The Illinois Professional Teaching Standard of “Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge” stresses that educators possess insight and understanding regarding any and all content they are to teach as well as a solid foundation of knowledge about teaching methods, learning styles and modalities, and ways to connect multiple disciplines in order to capitalize valuable teaching time.

Throughout my education courses at Trinity University, I have worked with and reflected on content area and pedagogical knowledge through my use of the Illinois Learning Standards as well as the Common Core State Standards. I have incorporated these standards while developing plans for teaching that meet age and grade-level appropriate content for teaching. I have developed thematic units containing multi-disciplinary lesson plans for students in the junior high school to the high school curriculum.

In addition to developing plans based on state standards, I have had the unique opportunity to train under experts in the field of education who have conducted extensive research on the importance of teaching to the whole child. I have taken into consideration what brain research can tell us about how children learn in creative environments that are conducive to active inquiry. Also, I have been exposed to programs throughout my time as a paraprofessional and as a student teacher that utilizes the project approach learning style. This approach to learning utilizes in-depth research that states that high-interest topics and hands-on learning are quite effective when students are constructing their own learning all while meeting content area goals and standards. I have gained this pedagogical knowledge through utilizing a community of practice when I had the opportunity to be a part of lesson planning and execution. I have also learned through hands-on experience using this approach in my classroom throughout student teaching.

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