Teachers' Knowledge

In the past two decades several reform movements in many countries call for higher standards for teachers and teacher education. The central dilemma facing teacher educators is how to educate teachers who can and will conduct quality programs in schools. Reformers argued that quality education may occur when changes take place in teacher education curricula (Feiman-Nemser and Remillard, 1996; Kirk, 1986; Macdonald et al., 2002a; O'Sullivan, 2003; Richardson and Placier, 2001; Wilson and Berne, 1999; Zeichner, 1999). Concurrent with this call for quality teacher education programs has been a call for more research on teachers' professional knowledge. Until now, what we know about teachers' knowledge is rather mystifying. The question of how teachers and under what conditions they construct their knowledge is clearly a complex enterprise for teacher educators. It is important, however, to give answers to this question since teachers' knowledge affects teaching and learning (Rovegno, 2003). Carter (1990) explained that “for the most part, attention in teacher education has traditionally been focused on what teachers need to know and how they can be trained, rather on what they actually know or how that knowledge is acquired” (p. 291).

Research on teachers' knowledge and how this knowledge is acquired, constitutes a substantial area of inquiry in explorations on the nature of teaching. As Rovegno (2003) suggested teachers are not born with the knowledge to deal with complex work contexts but they construct this knowledge over time and with experience. The nature and development of teachers' knowledge is just beginning to be understood by the present generation of researchers in teaching and teacher education (Calderhead, 1996; Munby, et al., 2001; Richardson, 1996; Rovegno, 2003; Wilson, and Berne, 1999). Scholars emphasize that greater attention needs to be paid to the acquisition of teachers' knowledge and how it affects teaching and learning since the growth of research in this area can open new ways of thinking about teaching and teacher education. As Calderhead (1996) pointed out:

The purpose of this chapter is to present, summarize, and discuss illustrative issues and findings of the research on teachers' knowledge. It is worthwhile to note that since this chapter provides an overview of this line of research, only selected research studies conducted in physical education that are relative to the concepts considered here were reviewed. The chapter is directed to questions about the forms of knowledge teachers have; what teachers know; how this knowledge is acquired; and under what conditions teachers' knowledge is demonstrated.

The chapter is divided into three sections. In the first section the concept of teachers' knowledge is defined and discussed. Then, a presentation of the epistemological traditions and typologies of teachers' knowledge are provided. In the second section, an account of empirical enquiries and findings on teachers' knowledge are presented under the following categories: (a) pedagogical knowledge, (b) content knowledge, (c) pedagogical content knowledge, and (d) expertise and teachers' knowledge. Finally, the third section provides a summary of the main findings, discusses the major conclusions and future directions for research, and points to gaps in research on teachers' knowledge in physical education.

...