Shulman 1987

 Pedagogy- LEARNING AS EXPERIENCED - THE TEACHER PERSPECTIVE:

Reflection is what a teacher does when he or she looks back at the teaching

and learning that has occurred, and reconstructs, reenacts, and/or recaptures the events, the emotions, and the accomplishments. It is that set of processes through which a professional learns from experience (Shulman, 1987; p.19)

Pedagogical content knowledge, that special amalgam of content and pedagogy

that is uniquely the province of teachers, their own special form of professional understanding (Shulman, 1987; p.8)

The teacher has special responsibilities in relation to content knowledge, serving as the primary source of student understanding of subject matter. The manner in which that understanding is communicated conveys to students what is essential about a subject and what is peripheral (Shulman, 1987; p.9)

To teach is first to understand. We ask that the teacher comprehend critically a set of ideas to be taught. We expect teachers to understand what

they teach and, when possible, to understand it in several ways. They should understand how a given idea relates to other ideas within the same subject area and to ideas in other subjects as well (Shulman, 1987; p.14).

We expect a math major to understand mathematics or a history specialist to comprehend history. But the key to distinguishing the knowledge base of teaching lies at the intersection of content and pedagogy, in the capacity of a teacher to transform the content knowledge he or she possesses into forms that are pedagogically powerful and yet adaptive to the variations in ability and background presented by the students (Shulman, 1987; p.15).

To reason one's way through an act of teaching is to think one's way from the subject matter as understood by the teacher into the minds and motivations of learners. Transformations, therefore, require some combination or ordering of the following processes, each of which employs a kind of repertoire: (1) preparation (of the given text materials) including the process of critical interpretation, (2) representation of the ideas in the form of new analogies, metaphors, and so forth, (3) instructional selections from among an array of teaching methods and models, and (4) adaptation of these representations to the general characteristics of the children to be taught, as well as (5) tailoring the adaptations to the specific youngsters in the classroom. These forms of transformation, these aspects of

the process wherein one moves from personal comprehension to preparing for the comprehension of others, are the essence of the act of pedagogical reasoning, of teaching as thinking, and of planning — whether explicitly or implicitly — the performance of teaching. Preparation involves examining and critically interpreting the materials of instruction in terms of the teacher's own understanding of the subject matter (BenPeretz, 1975). That is, one scrutinizes the teaching material in light of one's own comprehension and asks whether it is "fit to be taught." This process of preparation will usually include (1) detecting and correcting errors of omission and commission in the text, and (2) the crucial processes of structuring and segmenting the material into forms better adapted to the teacher's understanding and, in prospect, more suitable for teaching (Shulman, 1987; p.16).

Preparation certainly draws upon the availability of a curricular repertoire, a grasp of the full array of extant instructional materials, programs, and conceptions (Shulman, 1987; p.16).

Representation involves thinking through the key ideas in the text or lesson and

identifying the alternative ways of representing them to students. What analogies,

metaphors, examples, demonstrations, simulations, and the like can help to build

a bridge between the teacher's comprehension and that desired for the students?

Multiple forms of representation are desirable (Shulman, 1987; p.16).

Instructional selections occur when the teacher must move from the reformulation of content through representations to the embodiment of representations in instructional forms or methods (Shulman, 1987; p.16).

Adaptation is the process of fitting the represented material to the characteristics of the students. What are the relevant aspects of student ability, gender, language, culture, motivations, or prior knowledge and skills that will affect their responses to different forms of representation and presentation? What student conceptions, misconceptions, expectations, motives, difficulties, or strategies might influence the ways in which they approach, interpret, understand, or misunderstand the material? Related to adaptation is tailoring, which refers to the fitting of the material to the specific students in one's classrooms rather than to students in general (Shulman, 1987; p.17).

Thus, the tailoring of instruction entails fitting representations not only to particular students, but also to a group of a particular size, disposition, receptivity, and interpersonal "chemistry (Shulman, 1987; p.17).

All these processes of transformation result in a plan, or set of strategies, to present a lesson, unit, or course. Up to this point, of course, it is all a rehearsal for the performances of teaching which have not yet occurred (Shulman, 1987; p.17).

Teaching itself becomes a stimulus for thoughtfulness as well as for action (Shulman, 1987; p.17).