While circulating the room during a classroom activity where preservice teachers are required to teach a mini-lesson to their classmates, Jane Metty's ear was drawn to one particular group where a student asked, "What color is blood?"--and heard the student teacher confidently answer, "Blue." She then began to wonder where…

Teacher educators are supposed to ensure that their preservice candidates and practitioners are equipped with the content knowledge, pedagogical skills, and dispositions that will help to create effective classroom teachers who serve as models of civic engagement for their students. Civic engagement is understood as being the act of making a…

In this article, the author discusses how it is more important than ever for today's students to excel in social studies. This excellence can occur when every student in grades K-12 has equal access to deep, engaging, thoughtful social studies instruction on a daily basis. With social studies excellence, teachers broaden their students' horizons,…

Elementary school children in the United States are not developing acceptable levels of mathematical proficiency (National Center for Education Statistics, 1999), and a major concern of teacher educators is that teachers lack the depth and flexibility of mathematical understanding and the corresponding beliefs they need to teach for proficiency…

Lee S. Shulman is the President of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a foundation whose mission is "to do and perform all things necessary to encourage, uphold and dignify the profession of teaching." Prior to assuming his role at Carnegie, Shulman was the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford…

The relationship between knowledge and pedagogy is an important one and needs further exploration. Does a degree in archaeology provide a basis for teaching contemporary history? Is the high-flying physicist able to teach adequately the biology of a general science course? Can a primary teacher successfully work across the whole of the primary…

Explains pedagogical content knowledge as a narrative way of knowing. Describes how narratives serve as a means of explaining that understanding to others. Discusses two San Francisco (California) high school teachers' use of narrative in teaching. Concludes that, because teaching is like writing a story, understanding teaching is like…

Presents a framework to help direct future research on pedagogical content knowledge in motor skill instruction, providing examples of the types of pedagogical content knowledge collected from experienced teachers and coaches during interviews and teaching observations. The framework comprises two interactive components--information processes and…