AN AMERICAN EDUCATIONALIST    (pt1)  1000w

Shulman (2017) suggests that a teacher needs a philosophical understanding of a subject in order to teach it well. With reference to teaching of science in primary schools, critically discuss the extent to which you agree with this suggestion.

In his first paper, Shulman (2017, an American educationalist, wrote about three categories of knowledge: subject matter content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and curricular content knowledge. He introduced the concept of PCK as ‘the distinctive body of knowledge needed for teaching’, (p8) which refers to teachers interpretations of subject matter knowledge for facilitating student learning. The construct of PCK is a special mix of content and pedagogy, and is a special kind of knowledge for teachers. Shulman (1986, 2017 described PCK as the ways content, pedagogy and knowledge of learners are blended into an understanding of how particular topics to be taught are represented and adapted to learner’s characteristics, interests and abilities, including an understanding of what makes the learning of specific concepts easy or difficult. PCK also encompasses an understanding of student’s preconceptions and learning difficulties, and includes understanding the forms of representation to make a subject comprehensible to learners. Thus teacher’s knowledge of representations of subject matter and the teachers understanding of student’s conceptions and misconceptions constitutes Schulman’s conception of PCK, as a teacher interpr