Teacher knowledge and professional education : the case of pedagogical content knowledge

Almost 20 years ago, Lee Shulman coined the term pedagogical content knowledge in his presidential address to the American Educational Research Association. In his address, L.ee described pedagogical content knowledge as for the most regularly taught topics in one's subject area, the most useful forms of representations of those ideas, the most powerful analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations, and demonstrations—in a word, ways of representing and formulating the subject that make it comprehensible to others. Pedagogical content knowledge also includes an understanding of what makes the learning of specific topics easy or difficult; the conceptions and preconceptions that students of different ages and backgrounds bring with them to the learning of those most frequently taught topics and lessons. (Shulman, 1986, p. 9-10)