Contexts for Teacher
Education: The
significance of
Content and Pedagogic
Knowledge
Asst.Prof.Dr. Bengi Sonyel
August 2008
Eastern Mediterranean University Faculty of Education
Introduction
Aim of the research:
The significance of content and pedagogic
knowledge in teaching English as a second language,
Those raised from the reflecting on the
global agenda in teacher education on my local context, North Cyprus and
Developing researchable questions and
Literature Review
The importance of being collaborative and reflective practitioner
considering the significance of content and pedagogic knowledge in teaching English as a second language:
As (Schulman, 1987) expressed:
“ To teach all students according to today’s 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.”
(Schön, 1983) expressed that:
“Whether this learning is described as the
monitoring and adjustment of good practice or analyzed more completely according to a model of pedagogical reasoning, teachers gain new knowledge and understanding of students, schools, curriculum, and
instructional methods by living the practical experiments that occur as a part of
(Fenstermacher,1986) said that:
“The teacher can transform understanding,
performance skills, or desired attitudes or values
into pedagogical representations and actions. These are ways of talking, showing, enacting, or otherwise representing ideas so that the unknowing can come to know, those without understanding can
comprehend and discern, and the unskilled can become adept. Thus, teaching necessarily begins with a teacher’s understanding of what is to be
How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition”
“Proponents of the new approaches to teaching
engage students in a variety of different activities for constructing a knowledge base in the subject
domain. Such approaches involve both a set of facts and clearly defined principles. The teacher’s goal is to develop students’ understanding of a given topic, as well as to help them develop into independent and thoughtful problem solvers.”
President’s Report Statement of (Arthur E. Wise, 2002) it was stated that:
“Strong teacher education programs tend to
share a common vision of what good
teaching is; well-defined standards of practice and performance; a core curriculum;
extensive use of problem-based methods
such as case studies and strong relationships between teacher education programs and
As a researcher, the examination of these countries education systems was relevant to the issues of pedagogic and content knowledge because to the reader;
it gives a global perspective
shows the significance of pedagogic and content
knowledge in other countries education systems
helps to develop further the structure of the current
education programs, e.g teacher education programs
The researchable questions
To what extent being specialized in your own
subject-matter can contribute to raise the standards of current education system?
Does it mean that being specialized in your
own ‘subject matter’ makes a teacher ‘good/effective’ enough in teaching?
Are there any other core issues like
‘pegagogical knowledge’ which plays an important role in teaching? if so what are these and how they can contribute to raise the current education sytem in secondary schools ?
What are the implications of
Methodology
Informal semi-structured interviews with
teachers from both private and state
secondary and high schools in North Cyprus.
Weekly/monthly observations.
Reflections of different teachers from other
countries on the WebCt (OCCA) program at University of Nottingham.
Who are the participants
125 teachers from state schools and 20
teachers from private schools.
6 teachers from different countries in the
Findings
The significance of the content and
pedagogic knowledge is emphasized by
reflecting upon different countries education systems.
It can be deduced that in my local context,
North Cyprus the importance of content and pedagogic knowledge is also emphasized.
One way to train teachers as suggested
In the area of the significance of pedagogic and
content knowledge, it can be said that in teacher education teachers pedagogic and content
knowledge plays an important role in order to raise the current standards in education and apply new methodologies in teaching.
The significance of content and pedagogic
Recommendations
Successful learning for teachers, requires a
continuum of coordinated efforts that range from pre-service education to early teaching to
opportunities for lifelong developments as professionals.
