ABSTRACT
What qualities, skills and abilities make an effective teacher? Educators know from experience that it is necessary to understand an area of learning in order to teach it well, but that understanding on its own is not enough. There are many other kinds of knowledge a teacher needs in order to be effective in the classroom. Throughout the last century educators such as Dewey (1904), Scheffler (1965) and Shulman (1987) have discussed and attempted to define and categorise the knowledge and understanding that teachers need. Shulman (1987: 8) has suggested the following categorisation:
content knowledge;
general pedagogical knowledge, with special reference to those broad principles and strategies of classroom management and organisation that appear to transcend subject matter;
curriculum knowledge, with particular grasp of the materials and programmes that serve as ‘tools of the trade’ for teachers;
pedagogical content knowledge, that special amalgam of content and pedagogy that is uniquely the province of teachers, their own special form of professional understanding;
knowledge of learners and their characteristics;
knowledge of educational contexts, ranging from the workings of the group or classroom, the governance and financing of school districts, to the character of communities and cultures; and
knowledge of historical ends, purposes and values, and their philosophical and historical grounds.
