School subject knowledge

You have your own subject knowledge, but now — as a teacher — you have to transpose what you know to the curriculum that is appropriate for an 11- or 14-year-old (or someone studying at that age level). How do you do this? Most teachers look at the syllabus. It is true that syllabus designers will have tried to take account of the subject content that is most appropriate for different ages. But the syllabus is often a description of topics and provides little insight into how you form those topics into teaching plans.

Much closer to a teaching plan is a textbook. Not all classes have sufficient textbooks, but most teachers will have a copy. The textbook will take the subject content further into “how to teach.” A good textbook author will think carefully about how learning is sequenced, the best examples to illustrate an idea, and the sorts of diagrams and pictures that will clarify learning around a topic.

The school curriculum represents a transposition between knowledge as it is known today and what we expect young people to be able to learn at different ages. Good teachers think carefully about this. A Geography teacher explaining why volcanoes exist will give a simpler explanation to nine-year-olds that the more extensive knowledge that could be given to a 16-year-old. The decisions about what you explain to the nine- or 16-year-old are important pedagogic or teaching decisions.

In recent years, curriculum planners and teachers have given the organisation and structure of knowledge much more attention. Two ideas have been particularly prominent:

the concept of the spiral curriculum; and
the development of “Big Ideas” in subject teaching.