RR 90-8 The construction of new forms of teaching: Subject matter knowledge in inservice teacher education.
Abstract
This paper considers the role that teacher educators accord to subject matter knowledge in helping teachers change their practice. Two inservice programs that aim to effect radical change in teachers' practices are examined, one focused on the teaching of mathematics and the other on the teaching of writing. Drawing on data from interviews and questionnaires, as well as observations of program staff members' work with teachers, the authors analyze how each program construed its subject matter and the role that subject matter knowledge was assigned relative to other kinds of knowledge and skill in helping participating teachers learn to teach mathematics or writing differently. The analysis shows that, for the most part, developing teachers' subject matter knowledge was not a top priority for either program. Two reasons seem to help account for this. First, although both programs were centered on teaching a particular subject, the goals of the program staff encompassed fundamental changes in the roles of teachers and students and in teachers' views of learning and of learners. That participating teachers' knowledge of mathematics or writing tended to be thin underlay a second reason why program staff members in both programs chose to emphasize other kinds of knowledge. The paper concludes with questions about choices faced by those who aim to change elementary teachers' practices in teaching mathematics or writing and the role of subject matter knowledge in learning to teach.