# Question 6: How Can Teachers Improve Their School and Subject Knowledge?

The Key Resources are generic in structure and not so relevant to this particular question. However, there are globally a great many subject associations and organisations with helpful websites. In Science, for example, there is the Association for Science Education at www.ase.org.uk, the Australian Science Teachers Association at www.asta.edu.au, the Science Society of India at www.sciencesociety.in and The Wellcome Foundation at www.wellcome.ac.uk. All provide useful resources for Science teachers. Similar resources exist in all the major secondary school subjects.

# Commentary

In the next two questions you are asked to think about the main subject you teach at secondary school. You will be thinking about your own subject knowledge in Question 6 and the specific ways of teaching that subject in Question 7. But first it is important to show the ways in which these two questions link together.

Over the last decade or more, there has been an increasing interest in what has come to be called pedagogic content knowledge. There are a variety of ways of understanding this. Here you are asked to look at one perspective that is of particular value to teachers involved in school-based development. Look at this diagram:

You see three overlapping circles. The circle on the left is called subject knowledge; this is the knowledge you have after studying at college or university. The circle on the right is school subject knowledge; these are the changes made to syllabus and curriculum to take account of the age of a learner. An 11-year-old might study Science, but the curriculum will have significant differences to the curriculum of a student at university.

There will be differences between subjects in terms of content and process. The Art or Drama teacher will think of subject knowledge in a rather different way than a Science or History teacher. However, whatever subject you teach, you will have ideas or objectives about what students need to know, understand and practise by the end of any teaching sequence.

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