Defining Teacher Content Knowledge

Teacher content knowledge plays an integral role in the quality of mathematics and science education experienced by students. Teachers' content knowledge not only impacts what teachers teach, their knowledge also influences how they teach and what students learn. The content knowledge of effective mathematics and science teachers is not limited to their knowledge of the discipline. Teacher content knowledge includes a complex set of understandings that guides their work with students. Numerous theorists have attempted to unravel the various types of content knowledge needed by teachers. The following two sections provide more information about research on whether and how teacher content knowledge matters, and perspectives on teacher content knowledge.

Teacher Content Knowledge Matters

Empirical evidence demonstrates that teachers' mathematics/science content knowledge makes a difference in their instructional practice and their students' achievement. Consistent findings across studies include:

Learn more about research on why teachers' mathematics/science content knowledge matters

Perspectives on Teacher Content Knowledge

A new era of scholarly and practical work on teacher content knowledge emerged in 1986 when Shulman proposed five content-specific domains of teacher knowledge: the content itself (facts and concepts of the discipline), the substantive structures of the discipline (how knowledge is organized), the syntactic structures of the discipline (ways of knowing in the discipline), pedagogical content knowledge, and curriculum content knowledge. Although Shulman described these teacher knowledge domains as content-specific, he proposed them without reference to any particular content area.

Over the past 20 years, scholars have suggested a number of categories and characterizations to further clarify teacher content knowledge in mathematics and science. Theoretical writings and empirical studies have given considerable attention to pedagogical content knowledge in particular. More recently, the field's attention has turned to defining more specifically the disciplinary content knowledge that teachers need for effective practice. The result is a substantial body of work that describes a variety of content-specific knowledge types. To make sense of this diverse body of literature, three primary categories are considered:

Most discussions of teacher content knowledge do not include beliefs as knowledge, but it is important to recognize that beliefs, such as whether and why certain topics are important, and what the goals of instruction should be, mediate how teachers draw on their knowledge in their work. One teacher may see the primary aim of instruction as developing conceptual understanding, and draw on content knowledge to structure lessons that engage students with experiences that challenge their initial ideas. By contrast, a teacher who sees the purpose of instruction as transmitting the facts and algorithms of a discipline is likely to draw on content knowledge to structure lessons very differently. A full consideration of the role that beliefs play in how teachers draw on their content knowledge is beyond the scope of this work.

Rarely, if ever, is one cateogroy of teacher content knowledge proposed as the only one that matters. Few would argue that any one of them is unimportant for teaching. However, in specific instances of research or practice, one or more of these categories, or a particular view within one of them, is often clearly in the forefront. The links below provide a brief description of each of the three primary categories of teacher content knowledge, as well as some distinctions of differing perspectives within each category. Examples of teacher learning opportunities are also provided to illustrate the various perspectives. These examples were drawn from two primary sources: interviews with MSP PIs, and written descriptions provided by MSP project leaders or other experienced practitioners.